I can't put my finger quite on why, though.
The biggest problem our party has is that is obsessed with the performative. Performative outrage, performative empathy, the endless array of signalling that you are right there with The Correct Take. It is forever catering to the chronically online portion of the base who are not necessarily reflective of the average American voter. Hell, sometimes it's wildly out of step with actual Democratic voters. I can name a variety of issues off the top of my head where Democratic voters are not at all in sync with what the Online Left thinks is a good idea. All this performance rarely actually does anything. It just lets you know it's making the correct motions.
Lambert, who is in her early thirties, went viral shortly after the election, when she made a TikTok video urging the “Regina George Liberals” to step up to the plate. (For those too young or too old to remember, Regina George is the main antagonist in the 2004 movie Mean Girls, and a master of petty cruelty.) Lambert has since popularized the “Republican makeup” trend, crafting videos that skewer both MAGA women’s makeup and their political beliefs.
This? Reads like parody. And the fact the article ostensibly thinks this person should be turned to for advice is completely symptomatic of the deep messaging problems our party currently has. "TikTok thinks it's a good idea" is not a political strategy. Harris' campaign should've put that one firmly to bed.
There's also this weird self-delusion I have never understood. That we're just not mean enough. We're plenty mean. Do people not read themselves? The problem isn't that we're not mean. It's that we're mean to everyone who is not us - meaning a very narrow band of terminally online, culturally psuedo-hip, ideological through the lens of an eternal college freshman, and obsessed with identity.
Everyone else gets ripped apart. Often.
So, I don't see what this article really helps. It doesn't seem to possess the self-awareness the current moment requires. It feels very facile.
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