The Harris concession

Kamala Harris knew she had lost her race against President Trump on the evening of the election, but she chose to turn out the lights and go home without conceding. It must have been difficult for her to face the prospect of treating her opponent as something other than the fascist she proclaimed him to be during the course of her abbreviated campaign. She finally got around to the concession yesterday afternoon at Howard University, her alma mater. Time has posted the text of her speech here. Below is the C-SPAN video posted on YouTube.

In a key paragraph the veep articulates the limits of her concession:

A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny. And anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it. At the same time, in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and loyalty to our conscience and to our God. My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign—the fight: the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.

What’s it all about? In the following paragraph she puts it this way:

I will never give up the fight for a future where Americans can pursue their dreams, ambitions, and aspirations. Where the women of America have the freedom to make decisions about their own body and not have their government telling them what to do. We will never give up the fight to protect our schools and our streets from gun violence. And America we will never give up the fight for our democracy, for the rule of law, for equal justice, and for the sacred idea that every one of us, no matter who we are or where we start out, has certain fundamental rights and freedoms that must be respected and upheld.

As always, some translation is required. Harris is still keeping her program mostly under wraps. At this point, given her Senate service and 2020 presidential campaign, I think we all have a handle on it. She had a handle on it sufficient to leave it behind once she emerged as the Dems’ 2024 presidential candidate. Alex Thompson turned her non-comments on her previously stated positions into an Axios series. In his concluding installment Thompson called her “The ‘no comment’ candidate.”

Harris will quickly become yesterday’s discarded goods. In the retail sense, it seems to me, the Harris concession isn’t worth much. She vows to carry on the fight, but who will be buying from her stand?

Harris herself is the tribute that Joe Biden paid to Jim Clyburn for his endorsement in the South Carolina primary that saved Biden from oblivion in the 2020 campaign. We know for a fact that Clyburn urged Biden to pick a black woman as his running mate before Biden chose Harris. Harris fit the bill. She had the necessaries — the necessary qualifications of sex and race. She was the candidate from DEI.

In her service as vice president, Harris was respected by approximately no one. She was historically unpopular. Her vacuity and the related word salads became a national joke. We all believe in limits, but the scope of her emptiness appeared to be infinite.

Harris’s fall ought to discredit the racist DEI regime all by itself, but the judgment is turned on us. We believe to the core of our being in equal rights, but we are deemed guilty of the proscribed prejudices by our rejection of her. The merits have nothing to do with it, which is of course the problem.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses