Mention Vice President Kamala Harris these days, and Republican politicians and conservative pundits will almost leap out of their chairs with excitement. It has become a common component of their claim that President Joe Biden is too old to be given a second term: If he were to become incapacitated or step down, a Harris presidency, they say, would be a self-evidently horrific outcome. As former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley likes to say, “We have to make sure we win this, because the thought of Kamala Harris being president should send a chill up every American spine.”
This supposedly terrifying thought has become a centerpiece of Haley’s campaign — and the right’s talking points. The closest thing to a reason conservatives offer to support the idea that a Harris presidency would be such a disaster is that she is uniquely incompetent. Such an argument might carry more force but for the fact that, sooner or later, conservatives accuse every prominent nonwhite official of being dumb and unqualified.
Conservatives want the electorate to fear that a Harris presidency would be worse than another Biden term. But exactly what do they want us to be afraid of?
It’s certainly possible that if Biden is re-elected she’d have to step into the White House. That’s why we have a vice president in the first place, and it’s always a good idea to ask whether they’re up to the job. Clearly, conservatives want the electorate to fear that a Harris presidency would be worse than another Biden term. But exactly what do they want us to be afraid of? What is it that a President Harris would do that would be so awful? Dissolve Congress and declare herself emperor? Invade Liechtenstein? Outlaw square dancing?
I’m not here to argue Harris’ merits versus other would-be Democratic presidents. But what ought to be obvious is that Harris is just an ordinary Democrat.
If Harris becomes president, she’ll do pretty much what Biden has done. She’d try to expand access to health care, and preserve abortion rights, and address climate change, and shore up labor unions. She’d appoint liberal judges and seek to strengthen America’s alliances overseas. If Democrats are fortunate enough to control Congress, she might try to pass some big legislation on those priorities, but would probably have to settle for compromise and half-measures. Progressives would wind up feeling disappointed with what she failed to accomplish, just as they do with every Democratic president.
Conservatives may disagree with that agenda, but there isn’t anything unusual about it. So to repeat, what are they afraid of?
And please, don’t say that “Democrats make dire warnings about Donald Trump, too!” Let me know when Vice President Harris foments a violent coup while trying to steal an election she lost, suggests that military officials she doesn’t like should be executed, and promises that if she becomes president she will make news organizations “pay a price” for criticizing her.
There are two things going on here. The first is that it has become almost reflexive for conservatives to argue that their political opponents are not merely wrong but are carrying out a secret plan to destroy America. Biden says he’s running to “finish the job,” and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson responds, “Finish what job, destroying America?” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott decries Biden and the left’s “blueprint to ruin America” — not an accident, but a carefully designed plan. Should Biden be re-elected, says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, “The left is gonna absolutely destroy this country.”
The second reason Republicans are shouting that a Harris presidency is uniquely terrifying is simple and straightforward: race-baiting and misogyny.
The next Democratic presidency is always supposed to destroy the nation, despite the fact that after repeated Democratic administrations, America remains oddly undestroyed.
No one faced that charge from the GOP more than Barack Obama, whom Republicans claimed countless times was determined to bring America to its knees. Yet despite their deranged fantasies, he turned out to be an ordinary center-left president — more liberal in some ways, less so in others, but hardly committed to the imposition of any nefarious ideology or radical program. And there is literally zero evidence to suggest that were she to become president, Harris would be anything different.
The second reason Republicans are shouting that a Harris presidency is uniquely terrifying is simple and straightforward: race-baiting and misogyny. They’re not actually frightened of a Harris presidency, but they believe that just as they ginned up rage and fear against Obama and Hillary Clinton that burned with the fire of a thousand suns, they can do the same with Harris. In both cases, the idea that one of them would have power was posited as a unique and terrifying threat to us. Obama, conservatives said, was a radical Black nationalist intent on taking revenge on white people, eager to destroy them and everything they valued. It was just a few months into his presidency that Glenn Beck, at the time the brightest star in the right-wing media, said that Obama “has a deep-seated hatred for white people,” and that drumbeat never let up. Every new policy initiative, no matter how mundane, was characterized as Obama exacting “reparations” to steal from white people and give to undeserving Blacks. Likewise, Clinton was characterized as a dire threat to manhood itself; as Tucker Carlson said, “when she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs.” He was not the only one whose masculinity was so fragile that he feared the mere sight of a woman with power could castrate him. The depressing truth is that if Harris succeeds Biden, whether as Democratic nominee or president, the effort to whip up venomous loathing and terror will probably succeed, at least to a degree. We’ll endure yet another period in which Americans are encouraged to wallow in their most odious feelings and cultivate their hate. It will be miserable to live through. To quote something Republicans would say when claiming Obama was carrying out a secret plan to destroy America, they know exactly what they’re doing. They’re hoping to use racism and misogyny for political gain, just as they have so many times before, turning a rather ordinary politician into a figure meant to inspire terror and panic. And it might work. But whatever its effectiveness, we shouldn’t be afraid to call it what it is.
Paul Waldman is a journalist and author focused on politics and culture. 
