Republicans Are Being So Goddamn Weird About Kamala Harris

Harris seems to have a preternatural ability to whip the GOP's biggest freaks into a frenzy.

PBS News

Let me start off by saying that I have no idea what’s going to happen in November. Maybe newly anointed Democratic scion Kamala Harris has the juice to stave off Donald Trump, or maybe she’ll crash and burn like she did during the 2020 Democratic primaries. If she does win, will she be a good president? I don’t know the answer to that one either (aside from my overarching belief that there’s no such thing as a “good” president — only more or less tolerable ones).

Anyone who tells you they can predict what direction this Gordian knot of a campaign season is going to twist itself toward next is either selling you some top-tier bullshit, or is high off someone else’s. Like Jack said the other day: “We’re not even in uncharted waters. We’re in uncharted galaxies”—which is true, except for the fact that exploring uncharted galaxies sounds fun and adventurous, whereas whatever it is we’re living through is giving me low-grade mental illness and an ulcer.

What I do know, know with absolute, 100% certainty, is that Harris’ ascension to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket has broken a lot of brains on the right — and now they’re being extremely weird about her.

This is, I suppose, not entirely shocking. Republicans were going to lose their minds no matter what Joe Biden decided, and no matter who he chose to name his heir apparent. That’s what they do: they lose their minds about things. They piss and moan and whine about perfectly ordinary turns of event, and then when they run out of steam they wait for another perfectly ordinary turn of events to set the whole cycle going again. Still, even with that established baseline, the way the GOP has responded to Harris is genuinely notable if only for the sheer waves of weirdness emanating from the MAGA-verse these days.