Earlier this week as I found myself scrolling through Instagram, I was bombarded by colorful compilations of Vice President Harris’ most absurd remarks. As I watched one of them, I assumed it must have been an attack ad from the GOP. But to my surprise, the clip was from the women’s media company “Betches” and was captioned “A woman in a high powered job laughing?? Groundbreaking really.”
As Democrats have mobilized to support President Joe Biden’s pick for a successor in Kamala Harris following his announcement last weekend that he would not seek reelection, the Internet would seem to show that influencers have decided to embrace Harris’ eclectic and often unserious persona. “Kamala is brat” was tweeted by singer Charli XCX and has been a meme embraced by the campaign. This is likely in a desire to galvanize young people, a coalition that had been decisively unenthused by Joe Biden’s campaign, to come out to vote for Harris. However, the cost may be swing voters.
It’s not news to anyone that Harris has been a deeply unpopular vice president. Throughout the last three and a half years, she has had consistently low approval ratings, averaging around 39%. At her lowest, this number was around 28%, lower than almost any VP in modern history. She has failed to deliver on her promises as “border czar” with illegal immigration at an all-time high, and she has seemed relatively absent on a policy level from the administration. Harris flailed during the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, dropping out at a 3.5% share of the vote even before the first elections took place. The common theme is that Harris just doesn’t have the magic factor that makes politicians successful: likability.
The campaign has reasonable concerns about young voters given the administration’s record on Israel as well as Harris’ own record on policing (who can forget the laughing about marijuana incarcerations that tanked her presidential prospects the first time). Therefore, the obvious solution to them may seem to be pushing clips of Harris repeating “I love Gen Z” to get the youth vote out. Instead, the emphasis on Harris’ “meme-ability” is likely to backfire. It makes her appear just as unfit for the presidency as her critics on the right and left have been claiming her to be. Many voters have expressed concerns about the vice president’s demeanor, responsibility, and inappropriate laughter, and these clips are no doubt just legitimatizing their worries.
Even the College Democrats at Penn, my alma mater, when posting their official statement on recent events, captioned the photo with a palm tree and coconut emoji, referencing the viral clip of Kamala Harris saying “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”
They aren’t the only explicitly political organization highlighting Harris’ comments. Dream for America, a progressive Gen-Z grassroots nonprofit, and countless others have posted similar content. In doing this, Democrats risk hypocrisy on their favorite talking point against Trump – that his rhetoric, demeanor, and lack of professionalism make him unfit for the highest office.
While progressive influencer culture’s support of Harris has been “cringe” at best, Republicans have seemed to effectively employ the Internet to increase the former president’s likability. Following the assassination attempt, the now famous photo of Trump with his fist held high above Secret Service agents and the American flag flying behind him became widely circulated on the Internet. Rather than make light of the situation, conservatives across social media used the opportunity to highlight the former president’s leadership skills and courage. Prominent public figures such as Mark Zuckerberg and Zach Bryan even felt compelled to highlight how impressed they were with Trump. Many have argued that Trump’s response to being shot may even have eliminated the stigma around supporting him – after all, Elon Musk and Bill Ackman quickly followed with endorsements.
To capitalize on a seemingly rightward shift in young people, with Gen Z twice as likely to identify as conservative than millennials were at their age 20 years ago, the to more than 70 influencers. While these guests were certainly helpful in supplying the Internet with supportive posts, the convention’s production and energy spoke for itself. It placed an enormous emphasis on By platforming “everyday Americans” who varied in age, race, and background but who were all negatively affected by Democratic policies, the RNC tailored content to each of their target demographics including black voters and those impacted by the rise in antisemitism.
Employing the Internet in campaign strategy will no doubt be a roll of the dice for both Republicans and Democrats. However, while Kamala Harris has shown she has what it takes to go viral, her ability to win the hearts and minds of the voters she needs is seriously in question. Donald Trump, lifelong businessman and TV personality, on the other hand, seems on his way to doing both.
