Suchitra, Bhakti and Madhuri declare “We Told You So” in light of the disastrous defeat of Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party in the 2024 US elections. By "we," the hosts refer to the loyal constituency of people who definitely did not want to see Donald Trump in power. These very people have been offering feedback to the Kamala Harris campaign and calling out mainstream media’s uncritical approach to her candidacy. Coverage of the Harris campaign in newspapers and on television has only been uncritically adoring, and it has since become clear that those with influence in the media do not have a pulse of what the people want. Harris alienated the progressives by pivoting to the center and pushing to connect with Republican voters. She alienated the youth by a celebrity-driven campaign that did not appeal to the younger voters who are concerned about the environment and the genocide in Palestine. The Harris campaign chided voters and talked down to them, essentially telling them not to be stupid to vote for Trump rather than connecting with them as a candidate. The war in Gaza loomed over the Harris campaign and it was made worse by Harris' decision to not speak with Palestinians and Arab voters. The episode reminds listeners of many warning signals that were being given by progressive, alternate media including this podcast that Harris would lose. They told you so, and now this failure to listen has put the US and the world in a Trump presidency that is going to be devastating on several fronts.
Key takeaways:
-- The cultural elite such as talk show hosts and news pundits are completely out of touch with the zeitgeist and have no pulse on the people.
-- There should have been a primary so that we could have settled on someone we could get behind rather than the candidate who came in last in the 2020 primaries.
-- Kamala Harris should not have run as a centrist and alienated the progressives.
-- Harris should not underestimate the impact of unfolding genocide in Palestine on the people.
-- Harris should have met with the Palestinian and Arab constituency
-- The Harris campaign’s focus on celebrities and social media could not harness the support of the youth but alienated them.
-- The failures and the callousness of the Democratic party have squarely put the US in a Trump presidency that is going to be devastating for brown, Black and working class communities.
Keywords: elections, journalism, media ethics, reporting, headlines, propaganda, narratives, war, genocide, racism, youth.
References:
Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer and activist. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Polis Project. For her first book, The Midnight's Border: A People's History of India, Suchitra traveled across the 9000-mile Indian border. She is the co-author of How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners (2023).
Bhakti Shringarpure is a writer and editor. She is the co-founder of Warscapes magazine which transitioned into the Radical Books Collective, Bhakti is the author of Cold War Assemblages: Decolonization to Digital (2019) and most recently, Insurgent Feminisms: Writing War (2023).
Madhuri Sastry is a former lawyer, specializing in international and human rights law. She was the publisher of Guernica Magazine. Her political writing, cultural criticism, interviews and essays have appeared in several publications including The Nation, Guernica, Slate, Bitch and New York Magazine. She is on the editorial board at the Polis Project.
