Among the various presidents that the United States has seen, William Henry Harrison, the ninth in line, stands out for specific reasons. He was the last leader of the nation who bore the title of a British subject at birth, and was the groundbreaking figure of the Whig Party to claim victory at the White House. His inauguration speech was extraordinarily time-consuming, lasting close to two hours, a record unbroken till date. However, his presidency was ironically the shortest, with death claiming him within a month into his term.
Harrison was the final political character to experience the unfavorable odds of losing a presidential election on the first try, and then turning the tables in the proceeding one. Before him, these successful tactics were executed by Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. If you look at Richard Nixon’s story, he redeemed his lost presidency not immediately but in the course of time. The unique cases of Grover Cleveland and Donald Trump are worth noting; they managed to secure a victory, face a defeat and then grab the win again.
Post Harrison’s time, the ones who didn’t taste victory in their initial run and gathered the courage to participate in the following elections faced defeat again. Adlai Stevenson from the Democratic Party, and Thomas Dewey belonging to the Republican side saw their attempts go in vain in consecutive terms. Even the tenacity of Henry Clay and William Jennings Bryan to withstand three sequential losses speaks loudly of the voters distaste for those who’ve lost previously.
The implications of these historical outcomes do not bode well for Kamala Harris. Last week she made a clear decision not to run for the governor position in California, which led to whispers about her eyeing the bigger prize – the White House. But these dreams seem to be a steep hill to climb for Harris with her party’s approval ratings dipping to unflattering levels.
Favorability for the Democratic Party currently rests at a hard-to-stomach negative 30 points, nearly three times worse than the GOP’s negative 11. This marks the lowest point for the Democrats in terms of popularity on the scale of the last 35 years. The root of this unfortunate status lies in the party’s own actions, or perhaps the lack thereof.
Democrats seem to be distraught at their own core, spurred by dual failures of conceding defeat to Trump in the past election and demonstrating inadequacy in putting hurdles in his path now that he occupies the highest office. The finger of blame can’t be pointed completely at Harris, but her representation of the dissatisfaction within the Democratic party raises more questions than solutions.
This dissent within the party isn’t painted with a broad stroke. For the progressives lurking in the party, the common complaint is in the party’s reluctance to fight tooth and nail. The more centrist members, on the other hand, argue that the fight is misdirected due to the shift far left on cultural and identity politics. But what irrefutably unites these two different sides is the burning need to clinch a victory.
Perhaps the singular reason that put Kamala Harris in the contender’s seat for the 2024 nomination was her ticking of the diversity checkboxes. Biden had explicitly stated that his partner in this battle would be a woman, and later, an African American. Harris seems to have his qualifications, but her main issue is not about her race or gender. Rather, it’s her struggle to attract voters that could broaden the Democratic base.
For any victory to grace the Democrats, they need a personality who carries the capability to attract Trump voters. Harris failed in this aspect, not because there were fewer Democrats who showed up, but because her offerings didn’t resonate well with the fluctuating electorate. The way she voiced her thoughts resembled more of a liberal arts college dean than a future president, which further widened the gap.
Exacerbating her situation, Harris appeared to agree with Biden’s request of not holding a separate stance. Her decision to use Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Late Show’ as the platform for her first interview since her resignation is quite revealing. Colbert’s audience might enjoy the ideological commitments, but they are not the set of voters the Democrats need to win the race.
Hence, if the Democrats decide to throw their weight behind Harris again, she might cement her place not in the presidential office, but as the answer to a trivia question. The question certainly won’t be, ‘Who was the 48th President of the United States?’
The post Kamala Harris Chasing Impossible Dreams of the White House appeared first on Real News Now.
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