I’ll try to be nice. Shouldn’t be that hard. I don’t think I’ve had any persistently negative thoughts about her. She’s beautiful. She is. I hadn’t fully decided to abstain from voting for president until very late that year she became the Democratic nominee, and I’ll just admit that I never minded seeing her on the TV. I’m just girl crazy, and that’s never going to change. I have been completely in love with three women in my life (possibly four) whilst having those feelings returned in some respect. Two out of the three were Black, or from the Indian subcontinent. Harris is both at once. I imagine that twenty years ago, she had most men tripping all over themselves. Mr. Emhoff has learned some grace for these guys (and probably some women) because unless Michelle Obama walks in, he’s the envy of the room.
She seemed nervous on a national stage to me. I do think that potentially becoming the second Black president and the first woman president adds a special pressure that we could see. I have no time for the idea that her winning was impossible because of her sex or background; I think we’re as ready as we’ll ever be. But she didn’t come across well. (If Usha Vance and I ever met, I would probably blush, giggle, and roll away. That would then become the most awkward conversation that Vice President Vance ever had: “I’m sorry, Mr. Vice President! But I mean, obviously, you get it, right?”)
Probably the biggest problem for Harris was turning her Twitter account into a Planned Parenthood commercial for the last month of the campaign. People who are sane don’t like abortion. The debate about the harms of outlawing it in every state is actually a completely different discussion. “Reproductive choice” is a deflection, and it’s a rhetorical sledgehammer that prevents the wielder from cooperating with anyone who might want to tackle poverty, rape, and a lack of educational and economic opportunity. If it’s not regrettable, don’t say we need less of it. Plenty of people are willing to help you get less abortion. But Democrats elected haven’t wanted less. Planned Parenthood has more than enough money to change minds on the issue. And Emily’s List. And whatever NARAL is now. Al Gore. Jesse Jackson. And quite a few others saw the money, and literally abandoned their own convictions.
I won’t even say that everyone who says they’re pro-life is consistent. The children who die with Downs before they breathe on their own were probably conceived in some numbers by people who claim to be pro-life. It’s just math; we might soon not have anyone living with Downs, and it’s not because the world got any easier.
Sometimes, moral certitude can only be sustained by youthful ignorance. Everyone violates their principles at some point. But sins become tragedies only at the highest stakes.
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