Jerry Shenk: Democrats’ déjà vu

Democrats are planning to nominate a woman who makes even Hillary Clinton appear authentic and likable. Clearly, they learned nothing in 2016.

Whether out of introspection (doubtful), or, more likely, insecurity and/or sloth, Vice President, now putative nominee Kamala Harris, has kept a fairly low profile for three-plus years.

Lowered visibility worked in her favor because regular Americans – people Harris doesn’t know and will never understand – don’t like phonies. The more Harris speaks spontaneously, the more obvious her inauthenticity is, and the less likable she becomes, which may explain why Harris hasn’t held any press conferences since her coup/coronation.

Harris reached California city and state offices and the U.S. Senate only because influential Golden State “mentors,” primarily one powerful married paramour 30 years her senior, sponsored and saw to it that Harris never faced serious opposition. Kamala’s lack of any real abilities only became apparent in 2019 when she ran for president and proved so unpopular nationally that she withdrew before the first primary vote was cast.

Then, few Democrats wanted her as president, but, since then, Harris has been an obviously infirm man’s single heartbeat or mental meltdown away from the office.

Kamala was only there because candidate(ish) Joe Biden promised his party’s “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)” wing a running mate who checked their “female” and “POC” boxes.

Then, after assuming office, Biden appointed Harris “border czar” to “solve” the southern border crisis they created. Instead, conditions deteriorated.

Biden also tasked Harris with “protecting” voting rights. Kamala claimed voting rights were “under assault across our nation,” but was ignored, because, constitutionally, states set their own voting laws.

Then Harris was assigned developmental oversight for “Artificial Intelligence,” until “artificial intelligence” and Kamala’s “natural ignorance” were proven fundamentally incompatible.

Apparently determined to convince audiences that she is “on top of things” even when she’s clueless – and Harris is frequently clueless – Kamala is incapable of saying, “I don’t know.” Instead, Harris tosses cringe-worthy word salads and cackles inappropriately. Nonetheless, she always appears smugly impressed with her own gibberish.

Some favorites:

The New York Post described her reaction to a reporter’s question following Biden’s disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan: “‘Hold on, hold on — slow down, everybody!’ Harris said, before letting out her now-notorious laugh, shaking her shoulders as she chuckled. … The VP finally controlled herself to insist that the Biden administration ‘couldn’t have a higher priority right now’ than Afghanistan.”

In 2022, Harris proclaimed, “When we talk about the children of the community, they are a children of the community.”

During a climate summit, Harris assured attendees that “We will work together, and will continue to work together, to address these issues, to tackle these challenges, and to work together as we continue to work…”

Kamala on culture: “Culture is – it is a reflection of our moment in our time, right? And in present culture is the way we express how we’re feeling about the moment.”

Harris, responding to a question about Pell Grants (You don’t know what Pell Grants are? Neither did Kamala): “Um, we have definitely extended the… – and I, it’s something that I think we need to keep doing, awareness about what we have to do on Pell grants, and I can follow up…on specifically what we’ve been doing.”

Later, Kamala declaimed on the subject of…who the heck knows what?…: “That’s why we’re here today – because we have the ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been, and then to make the possible actually happen.”

And, finally…

“We must work together. Work together. To see where we are. Where we are headed, where we are going and our vision for where we should be.”

It has been clear, even among certain prominent Democrats and Democrat-allied media, that Kamala’s chronic bewilderment, lousy public speaking skills, pretentious insincerity, and her inappropriate ear- and nerve-shattering cackling are all political liabilities. Combined, they are – or should be – disqualifying, but since Biden withdrew, or had he resigned, making Harris the incumbent, Democrats are stuck with her – DEI, you know…

Exposing Kamala’s past policy statements and dismal record will be damning enough, but the public will also be inundated with ads, humorous memes and videos ridiculing her, often in her own words.

Meanwhile, Kamala will spend “time doing what we have been doing. And that time is every day.”

Jeez…

Contact columnist Jerry Shenk at jshenk 2010@gmail.com