Charisma and competence are also crucial factors to consider
There are few things Democrats love more than congratulating themselves for “making history.” They have repeatedly elevated political figures based entirely on immutable characteristics such as race or gender, allowing them to celebrate their brave commitment to the cause of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In a remarkable turn of events, more and more Democrats are willing to admit that their DEI obsession has gone too far. They may finally be on the verge of realizing that charisma, competence, and other human qualities are also important factors to consider when choosing their leaders.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), the first person of color to hold the position, has been taking heat for months as Democrats have struggled to assuage their bloodthirsty voters who don’t think the party is doing enough to stop Donald Trump from turning America into Nazi Germany. The party’s left-wing agitators won’t commit to backing him for party leader. In New York, an ally of socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is plotting a primary challenge.
In recent weeks, Jeffries’s critics have zeroed in on his uninspired leadership style, as many long for the days when Nancy Pelosi ruled the House with an iron fist. When it comes to charisma, Jeffries makes Hillary Clinton look like Joan Rivers. The Democratic leader was ruthlessly mocked earlier this month after organizing a 24-hour livestream to get voters excited about the government shutdown. The stunt was so bad even Politico denounced it as “cringe.” Dozens of Americans tuned in to watch Jeffries, a former rapper who performed as “Kid Fresh,” paraphrase the lyrics of a Jay-Z song from 2003. “Y’all, I ain’t scared,” he jived. “I’m from Brooklyn. We get down like Shirley Chisholm—unbought and unbossed at all times.” One Democratic strategist responded by begging the party to stop being so lame.
Jeffries’s office rebuffed critics with a ferociously bland and poorly worded statement. “As Leader Jeffries has consistently said and done, Democrats are in a more-is-more environment,” his female press aide said. “Apparently for some that means more is more snark and that’s their choice as to how they want to spend this pivotal moment.”
Democrats can unload their true feelings about Jeffries after he’s gone, which will be sooner rather than later. That’s exactly what happened earlier this year after Karine Jean-Pierre announced she was leaving the Democratic Party and writing a memoir. Jean-Pierre made history in 2022 when she became the first black lesbian to serve as White House press secretary. Democrats and journalists celebrated her promotion as a triumph for diversity and inclusion.
Most normal Americans could tell Jean-Pierre was bad at her job and not particularly smart. So could most Democrats, apparently. They just didn’t feel comfortable admitting that in public until after Trump took office. Jean-Pierre’s former colleagues lashed out in the press. “[She] was one of the most ineffectual and unprepared people I’ve ever worked with,” a former White House official told Axios. “She didn’t know how to manage a team, didn’t know how to shape or deliver a message, and often created more problems than she solved.”
Another former White House adviser, Tim Wu, posted (then deleted) a tweet suggesting “the real problem with Jean-Pierre was that she was kinda dumb” and had “no interest in understanding harder topics,” which is why she often gave “random incoherent answers on policy.” Axios reporter Alex Thompson observed that Wu “wasn’t alone in this opinion.” A Democratic lawmaker described Jean-Pierre as “the worst press secretary in American history,” apart from Sean Spicer. “There were rumors that the Biden folks were trying to get rid of her because she’s so terrible,” the Democrat said. “I don’t know who wrote her book. We know she couldn’t give a press conference without reading every word from her briefing.”
Democrats are also no longer compelled to pretend that Kamala Harris, the groundbreaking vice president and 2024 candidate, was an inspiring and competent politician. Former Clinton strategist James Carville, who predicted Harris would defeat Trump in the general election, said earlier this year that Democrats would need “a lot better candidate” in 2028. He also slammed Harris’s infamous response to a softball question on The View—about what she would do differently compared to Joe Biden—as the “worst answer ever given.”
In her recently published and poorly received memoir, Harris blasts Republicans for calling her a DEI hire—even though she obviously was. She had no business joining the Democratic ticket on merit after her disastrous primary campaign. But Biden had promised to pick a woman, and then got pressured into picking a black woman. Harris was the only one who had run for national office, however incompetently, so that sealed the deal. She was never supposed to be the party’s nominee. Biden just wanted to congratulate himself for making history. “By the way, I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first Black woman, to serve with a Black president,” he bragged before dropping out of the race in 2024.
Before her inevitable defeat, Harris would demonstrate a level of political ineptitude not seen since Hillary Clinton’s failed “glass ceiling” campaign in 2024. She was a terrible candidate who couldn’t form a coherent sentence.
But she almost made history.
Read more: Kamala Harris Has No Idea Why She Lost
Read the full article here
