Kamala Harris: The Meme Candidate in a New Light

The internet critic Amanda Hess highlights the phenomenon of Kamala Harris, a presidential candidate who stands out due to her unique internet presence. Harris dances casually and enthusiastically and speaks in her own manner. She often laughs, even at herself. These traits have not always been received positively. When she said during a speech in May 2023, “Do you think you fell out of a coconut tree?”, a clip was taken out of context by a Republican YouTube channel and commented on sarcastically. Videos of Harris dancing have garnered the label “cringe.” A particularly persistent anti-Kamala meme from the 2020 election stamped Harris as “a cop,” which united leftists, Black Twitter, and Republican trolls. This internet-wide project presented her either as a reactionary or as a hypocrite. However, the perspective has since shifted. Since President Biden dropped out of the race and Harris gained his support, old Kamala memes have experienced a renaissance. However, they now come with a new interpretation: Harris’s confusing mannerisms are now seen as hypnotic internet talk. Her bizarre coconut tree quote is being circulated as a synonym for her breathtaking rise in a destabilized campaign. Her dance moves, set to songs by Charli XCX and filtered through her “Brat” era branding, give Harris a pop star-like flair. Even the “Kamala Harris is a cop” meme is now ironically used by her supporters as part of a successful campaign strategy. The question of a candidate's charisma has shifted. It was once, "Would you have a beer with her?", but now it’s more like, “Are you ready to spend your evenings creating a fancam-like video that sets her quirks so skillfully to pop music that it has an enjoyable narcotic effect?” All of this comes across as a distorted reflection of the online energy surrounding Trump. Trump supporters are ready to turn any weakness, even a conviction, into a triumphant meme. For a long time, it seemed as though the Democratic Party would never produce a candidate who could trigger a similarly powerful and bizarre internet reaction. Now, surprisingly, it has succeeded.