The Atlantic suggests Kamala Harris’ shallowness and cringey speeches are assets — at least on TikTok
Some voters might find themselves rethinking Vice President Kamala Harris’ competence after watching her mistakenly claim that the U.S. and the “Republic of North Korea” have a “strong and enduring” alliance; philosophize about the “significance of time”; talk down to rocket scientists; cluelessly clap along to a song protesting her presence; lecture about geopolitics; or struggle when going off-script.
Rather than write off Harris’ cringey speeches, viral gaffes, and sudden onset accent changes as “cheap fakes,” the liberal media appears keen to try a different strategy: reframe Harris’ weaknesses as strengths.
The Democrat auditioning to become leader of the free world is not an airy kakistocrat prone to word salads but rather a fun candidate whose “oddball charm satisfies the content demands of the moment” — at least according to the Atlantic’s Spencer Kornhaber.
Kornhaber suggested Monday that the Democratic nominee’s “viral moments are fun to watch because they show a serious person having, well, fun.”
‘The point was not what she was saying, but how she was saying it.’
“They don’t come off as overly canned either,” said the Atlantic staff writer. “They’re too idiosyncratic for that. Harris’s laugh has already been much dissected — with sexist overtones — but that giggle is just a small part of her larger performance of authenticity. Being in proximity to the nuclear football has not stopped her from finding life amusing, quite clearly.”
Although Harris is aiming for the White House, the Atlantic indicated the moments Republicans might otherwise mock along with her levity — be it real or feigned — makes her “perfect for TikTok.”
With Harris in the race, Trump’s communication style is striking a different contrast. The rambling campaign-rally format that he pioneered was, after all, a pre-TikTok invention, one that helped cable news fill hours of airtime. Against an opponent whose social-media appeal derives from everyday breeziness — who will, for example, riff with you about recipes — Trump’s insult-comic bluster could come to seem stilted or even, yes, weird.
Harris’ TikTok appeal also has ABC News wondering whether she can “ride memes all the way to the White House.”
“The demographics of the people who tend to vote for the Democratic Party tend to skew younger, so they need to attract, in particular, the younger audiences, which are much harder to reach through traditional media,” Pinar Yildirim, a marketing and economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told the liberal outlet.
Ted Rall recently suggested in the Wall Street Journal that “Democrats are evidently true believers in Ms. Harris, though she’s given them little to believe in”; that the “Kamala Harris cult needs a personality.”
Kornhaber alternatively appears to believe that the breezy variety of TikTok candidate does not necessarily have to present Democrats with something to believe in but rather with something entertaining to watch.
He noted, for instance, that at Harris’ campaign rally in Atlanta last week, the vice president — who still has yet to post any platform details on her campaign website — was “coy on policy details” but delivered a rhetoric-heavy speech “with a kind of light, smiling swagger that felt unusual for a presidential campaign.”
“Clips were everywhere the next day. The point was not what she was saying, but how she was saying it: a hallmark, perhaps now more than ever, of what people want from politics,” added Kornhaber.
Harris’ supposed TikTok stardom may, however, be a double-edged sword if even relevant to begin with.
“Harris’s online appeal could curdle if her team tries to flagrantly force viral moments to happen, rather than stand back and allow the public to react to her persona,” said Kornhaber. “In any case, it’s certainly not clear that an amused electorate is one that’s more likely to vote. But so far, at least, the ease — and yes, silliness — with which Harris carries herself is earning a precious commodity: positive attention.”
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