Can a Harris-led Democratic Party withstand criticism? 

Last week in Chicago was the fated Democratic National Convention where Vice President Kamala Harris was officially given the nomination to be the Democratic Party’s candidate for the 2024 presidential election. All throughout the four-day event hung an air of anticipation and curiosity, focusing on historical comparisons and judging whether this year would be a repeat of 1968 or 2008. Specifically, would this nomination of a young, moderate candidate divide the party or unite it? Others saw a resemblance to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign, with her focus on co-opting traditional Republican themes throughout the DNC. Still, there is one aspect that all these comparisons are missing that is best summed up with a reference to another political figure and their campaign: the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.  

There is a lot to unpack in such a statement, but the question primarily boils down to the similarities in the cultural phenomena between Harris’ campaign and Trump’s first campaign. In 2016, the American public witnessed an almost unprecedented rise to political power accompanied with the growth of his personality cult that has dominated the American political sphere ever since. There was originally much contestation to his rise at the time, but once Trump took control of the party, there was no looking back and no questioning the direction he wanted to take. Now, Harris has come into power in a much different way, but fundamentally, the focus is still on her personality and there seems to be no room for dissent within the platform she has made.  

This has been because of the incredible campaign tactics and marketing of the Harris campaign. It was no secret that many people weren’t exactly happy with President Joe Biden’s decision to stay in the race during the first half of the year, which led to an extreme outburst of excitement when he finally did and Harris, a younger mixed-race woman, was chosen to take the lead instead. In expert fashion, this was only compounded by the usage of pop culture by the Harris campaign through the strong image ties with Charli XCX’s “Brat” album, Beyonce’s hit song “Freedom” and finally, the Chappell Roan single “Femininomenon”. It is no understatement to say that the overwhelming number of memes and clicks that came from these marketing rollouts genuinely overtook serious policy discussion and caused people to fall in love with Harris without real debate of her merits. Young people especially became extremely excited to see this new candidate in a way that aligned with their tastes and sense of humor. Plus, this movement was only supported by the continual floundering of the Republican Party, which took major hits from Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance’s oddities, an association with Project 2025 and in general by the word “weird.”  

Now, this excitement has reached the point of a fever, one that pushes out all those who are hesitant to get on board. Although it has not yet reached the levels of MAGA obsession, it is stifling how much people, as well as the party structure itself, are willing to silence dissent to the rise of the new leader. In a rally just weeks ago, protesters were calling out Harris for the current administration’s actions supporting the Israeli onslaught of Palestine and after a few minutes, she told them to stop talking unless “you want Donald Trump to win.” The roars of the crowd which followed made clear that the people there unequivocally took her side and did not care what these activists had to say. The DNC carried on in similar fashion as leaders of the pro-Palestinian Uncommitted movement were outright denied an opportunity to speak, and other media personalities, like Hasan Piker, were kicked out for choosing to platform criticisms of the party. Although this is clearly an issue that stands out as important to Americans and especially Democrats, among others which have also seen little policy talk, the fact is that it is not in her vision and that seems to be all that matters right now.  

Now, all of this is not to say that Harris is a horrible person, an unqualified candidate, that I want to see Trump win and that people should not vote for Harris, or any other misconstruction of the point. Those things are simply not the focus right now. A lot of conservatives have also made similar criticisms recently that should not at all be related to my point here, since they too have followed their leader for the past eight years with a religious fervor that most Democrats right now could not dream of.  

Instead, the focus should be on the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party, who at one point lambasted Republicans for the same things they are doing right now. The focus should be on the fact that there are genuine questions about Harris’s past political career that deserve answers, but she has hesitated to speak in front of people and let them see who she actually is. The focus should be on the fact that she has the opportunity to put forth real policy that could help many Americans and prevent the slaughter of thousands of Palestinians, but she has chosen to take conservative positions on several of the most prominent issues in this election cycle and refuses to listen to anybody about it. This is what is simply unacceptable and what is genuinely frightening about the choice in front of Americans this coming November.