For a long time in American politics, the primary question voters asked themselves about the choice of presidential candidate was, “Can I have a beer with them?” But in the age of social media, a new gut check has emerged to test a president’s ability to command the Internet’s attention: Does this person make a good meme?
After four years of a president whose answer was “not really” (with a small caveat for “Dirk Brandon,” which was hilarious for exactly one second), Democrats now have a candidate who can actually court Trump in Internet opinion. On social media timelines around the world, Vice President Kamala Harris is currently in the making Crazy Supercut In which he dances, laughs and evokes his now-iconic metaphor about coconut trees as he explains about being “unburdened of what has happened”. he is being Performed in pop songs and remixed Queen to “Brat”. The charli xcx album that became this summer’s biggest cultural breakout and digital shorthand for unabashed, messy hedonism.
Memorability is an inexhaustible quality with incredible electoral response: Obama’s grabby slogans and punchy graphic designs made him infinite. more memorable More than standard-issue Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney, Trump’s exaggerated facial expressions and off-the-cuff comments can be admittedly funny (who can forget). His response Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death played “little dancer”?) when they are not overtly cruel. In both cases, the candidates’ ubiquitous Internet presence speaks to their greater ability to capture the attention and energy of young people, even when the memes themselves were hardly obvious to the average voter.
Now, Democrats are blessed with a whole host of organic orange memes. The vice president’s out-of-context clips and creative edits, usually steeped in at least some level of irony, gained steam after Biden’s disastrous performance in June’s presidential debate, when many voters were calling for a change of candidate and turn around. In the next possible option.
Suddenly, references to “Khive” were everywhere during Harris’ 2020 campaign, referring to Harris’ supporters, as were viral clips of Harris singing. “Bus Wheel,” Sharing dramatically Thanksgiving turkey recipe Seconds before grabbing attention for an interview, and talking about his favorite subject, Venn diagram. Harris is particularly prone to memes: many people on the Internet have Describe her kooky personality As for “your jaunted out auntie,” thanks to a tendency to burst into a high-pitched cackle at any given moment.
Harris himself recently accepted the joke, now that he’s officially running for president with Biden’s endorsement. You should visit the campaign account On X, you’ll notice a lime green banner with “Kamal HQ” written in “Brat” font, a tribute to the album cover. After Charlie xcx Tweet “Orange IS brat,” Harris followed her on both X and Instagram
Fellow Democratic politicians followed suit with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker asks, “You think I just fell out of a coconut tree?” Harris (or perhaps a gunner for the VP nomination), while Hawaii Sen. Posted by Brian Schatz A photo of myself climbing a literal coconut tree
This is, ultimately, the power of memorability, or the talent of a candidate to transcend politics and become a recognizable cultural brand.
Is this the start of a campaign in which, for the first time since 2008, Democrats actually … have fun? In 2016, the MAGA crowd reveled in memes circulating on red-pill forums that portrayed Trump as a cartoonish strongman who was just as hateful and authoritarian as the left feared. Everything that made him so endearing to his fans — an unlikely nominee who captured a certain kind of ironic-poisoned nihilistic passion on the Internet — now seems to be working in favor of progressives.
Until recently, 2024 promised to be one of the most uninteresting elections in history. After a series of highly unexpected events (a poor debate performance, an assassination attempt, a In case of covidand a historic dropout), Harris now plays the most unlikely role: a Democratic presidential nominee who’s fun to watch, even if you don’t agree with everything he stands for.
This is, ultimately, the power of memorability, or the talent of a candidate to transcend politics and become a recognizable cultural brand. It has played an important role in elections since before anyone used the word: Memorability is Bill Clinton playing the saxophone. Arsenio Hall, And it was Howard Dean’s awkward rant that cost him the 2004 Democratic nomination.
Candidates have always tried to stage this kind of virality — Hillary Clinton’s “I’m just chilling in Cedar Rapids” Vine, For one person – But the moments that truly lock in the irrational, chaotic forces of the Internet are almost impossible to predict. Clinton never cracked that particular formula, whereas Harris rarely did when she tried.
As for Ryan Long, the 22-year-old senior at the University of Delaware who made the most Viral Orange “Brat” video edit, it puts, “He is the perfect candidate for the TikTok generation. I’ve gone deep into the Kamala Harris YouTube archive, and there are so many moments of her laughing and dancing.” The clips stand in stark contrast to the color of the stagnant mood in the Biden camp over the past year, he added. “Kamala just brings new energy and the possibility of change,” he tells me. “She does a good job of embodying ‘brat’ summer.”
It wasn’t that long ago that Harris was being called a “pearl” by liberals and leftists frustrated by his “tough on crime” criminal justice record. The online vibe has changed significantly since then and the left seems ready Embrace the absurdity And make peace They are handed over with the candidate. Although Some are online While Harris cautions campaigns against leaning too much on jokes and memes or risking trying too hard, it’s just as easy to imagine that a large segment of the electorate is excited about the prospect of a candidate who — credibly! – Laugh with them.
Perhaps progressives have finally learned from Trump, who realized that memes, even when they were theoretically ill-advised, could help create the persona that won him the presidency. There’s an inconsistency with being associated with jokes, and now that Harris has joined the campaign, attacks from the right may not stick with another candidate.
It was the RNC who created it A four-minute video Harris was split together whenever he used the phrase “unverified” back in December. Now, his most popular quotes are tweets Read the post, “the RNC operative who posted this is being executed as we speak,” noted how Harris’ criticisms of Dunn have, so far, backfired. That’s Trump Her nickname is “Smiling Orange”. Comparisons with “Sleepy Joe” and “Crooked Hillary” feel particularly inspired – after all, laughter is a famously fun and feel-good activity. Harris campaign Even happily reposted One tweet advised Republicans to drop the “meaningless” jokes because “[t]Haye is going to turn it into marketing for his campaign.”
What it all amounts to is a viral marketing stunt that would cost any presidential candidate millions, but one that no strategist or ad agency could pull off. It’s completely organic, created from the fire of truly eccentric and unpredictable times, and the sense that a little chaos might be just what American politics needs. For once, it really feels like we can be unburdened of what happened. And maybe Kamala Harris will smile all the way to the Oval Office.
