Kamala Harris’ Travails: A Two Act Play

Kamala Harris’s travails can be seen as a two act play. The first act is like a scene from Macbeth, where the future is grimly foretold. Joe Biden here, begins his stage role by refusing to step down from the race and thus cripples the Democratic campaign from the start. His will to fight a second term glints through his clouded eyes like a lighthouse in a storm. Then the shipwreck happens in the very first debate with Donald Trump, but Biden hangs on to every plank in sight.

This gives the Democratic Party practically no time to go through proper primaries, or a selection process, to field a contender against Trump. The Democrats have a fairly good bench strength and a few star hitters could have plausibly come forward. This process is stymied because Biden refuses to let go and when he does, the only person at hand is Kamala Harris. She is a political lightweight who had earlier been easily dismissed in the 2020 Democratic Primaries.

Now the chorus comes up with the back story of her time as Vice President. During those years, she backtracked on her earlier, very vehement, opposition to fracking. Also, as Biden’s deputy, she had to take some responsibility for the disgraceful retreat from Afghanistan. Unfortunately, during the Biden regime, Covid struck and the economy tanked sending inflation up to record levels. It was not Biden’s fault but he was caught in the headlights like a trapped animal.

Kamala Harris was unable then to start afresh. She had a whole load of baggage that she could only discard on pain of appearing a traitor to her one time boss. If a proper Democratic Primary were held, the chosen person would not have had this incubus and would not need to answer to every fault of the previous administration. Kamala had no choice but to wade into this muddy swamp and the grime stuck. The backstory is over and the chorus stops.

The second act also begins supernaturally. Like an omen from afar, the bullet that literally clipped Donald Trump’s ear went on to metaphorically hit the Democratic Party between the eyes. When Trump rose after he was struck, blood streaming down his face, and his fist pumping to the rhythmic chant, “fight, fight, fight,” the game, from his point of view, is almost won. Even his detractors stand awed by his determination and it is Kamala, instead, who now looks winged.

From that time on, Kamala must play catchup. Though she scores well in the Presidential debate, however, it soon becomes apparent that she had fired all her shots in that event with little ammunition left over for the long battle ahead. This forces her to repeatedly go on about women’s abortion rights till it becomes a predictable drone. Surprisingly, nobody on her side even stage whispers to her that this issue really does not bother women that much anymore.

The chorus returns. The sages, in monotone, feel that with Kamala, a woman, in the fray, abortion would look like a natural cause. Also, female voters, half the electoral list, would all line up behind her regardless of their prior political loyalties. An add on to this scenario is the innuendo that many male voters too would join in because it is the right thing to do. Then there are some men who actually experience the couvade syndrome, or sympathetic pregnancy, quite acutely.

The truth is that the couvade syndrome is far from being an epidemic, nor are women looking out to abort in large numbers. In fact, medical termination of pregnancy is down 60% from the 1980s when the right to abort was a potent political cause. Since then, sophisticated contraceptive methods, ranging from IUD and the morning after pill have made abortions rare. Further, women no longer feel emotionally fulfilled by motherhood alone; they now have careers in mind too.

In contrast, Trump’s fear mongering about illegal aliens coming across USA’s southern border is still a fresh issue and is also gender neutral. Surprisingly, and even Trump didn’t expect this, it is race neutral too. Many coloured migrants don’t want more of their kind to come for that might hurt their paycheck. The plot thickens in the final stages around these lines, and Donald Trump will probably be the only one to take the bow when the play ends.

About The Author

Dipankar Gupta

Dipankar Gupta is a sociologist. He is the author of, among other titles, Q.E.D.: India Tests Social Theory and Checkpoint Sociology: A Cultural Reading of Policies and Politics