What I Said about Kamala Harris Was an Understatement

BY ROGER L. SIMON
https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/what-i-said-about-kamala-harris-was-an-understatement/
February 2, 2019

In the future, Andy Warhol predicted, everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes.  In this era of the Social Media Cultural Revolution, we can add everyone will also be denounced -- have a figurative dunce cap on his or her head -- for at least those fifteen minutes, probably a good deal longer, and possibly for life.

I've had my share of brushes with this state of affairs, but my most recent -- not much, as these things go, but illustrative of the times in which we live-- occurred a couple of days ago.  I had written an article for this site ("Howard Schultz Could Actually Win the Presidency") that was linked by Drudge and got a certain amount of play, enough so Schultz himself must have read it.  He tweeted as follows.

I was impressed, especially since I had criticized Schultz's actions over the bathroom issue, and thanked him.

But don't look for the Starbucks founder's tweet online because the presidential candidate-in-waiting deleted it within hours.  The ever-present Twitter posse had already decided that I--and by extension Schultz for acknowledging me--had committed a cardinal sin.  In modern parlance, I threw shade on two women in the most sexist manner in my column,  calling Kamala Harris "shrill" (also a "quasi-socialist," but that didn't seem to stick in as many craws) and disparaging Sen Elizabeth Warren  as "Fauxcohontas." (I am about the twelfth millionth to have done that.)

Schultz, clearly panicked for his nascent campaign, hit the delete button. I was, in the potential candidate's view, playing "revenge politics" -- at least that's what he implied when interviewed about my article by CNN's Anderson Cooper. (I was frankly astonished this exceptionally minor kerfuffle merited such attention, but, as they say, all publicity is good publicity. On the other hand, the Dems want Schultz out -- now! -- by any means necessary.)  The businessman also asserted--Cooper appeared to be helping him out here-- that he had not noticed the aspersions in my "thoughtful analysis."  I'm skeptical about that, but I'll leave it to the reader to decide.

Okay, so am I really a sexist pig á la Harvey Weinstein and will I be excommunicated by Hollywood for that? Well, I was already excommunicated by them on political grounds.  Can you be excommunicated twice?

But more seriously, my evaluation of Harris was, to me, an understatement.  Calling her "shrill" wasn't sexist in my view.  It could almost be called chivalrous (I know -- that's sexist now) or euphemistic compared to what I really think of her.  And it has nothing to do with her sex and everything to do with her behavior and politics.  The Kavanaugh hearings revealed who she is -- a vindictive, hypocritical opportunist and past master of the politics of personal destruction. This is a woman who, despite her having been district attorney of San Francisco, would have indeed sunk Judge Kavanaugh "by any means necessary" without the slightest need for evidence or the rule of law.  Even more, she did her best to destroy him for unproven allegations while his daughters were sitting there --how feminist!  This behavior came from a woman whose ambitious affair with the married Willie Brown (and Brown's subsequent avowal he was used politically) is known to anyone paying attention. "Shrill"?  Yes, it was euphemism.  And how. If you want to call me a sexist, go ahead.  Just don't get me started on Senator Blumenthal. He's worse (though less dangerous at the moment). Then I'll be a misandrist too.

Regarding my comments about Warren, she's done enough to destroy herself and poses no threat to the presidency or much else.

After all all this--although, as most readers know, I favor Trump--I still very much want Schultz to run, and not just for the benefit of Donald. Call me an old timer who is sentimental about the two-party system, but I don't want to see the Democrats turn into an American version of the Labor Party of Albania with a soupçon of anti-Semitism thrown in, as they now seem hellbent on doing.  Even if they careen off a cliff from their left-wing lurch, it's bad for all of us. And if they don't, it's worse.

The one thing we don't need (nobody does) is socialism--quasi or otherwise.  How many more lessons do we have to have?  Weren't the tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of deaths ascribed to that system in China, the Soviet Union and Cambodia enough? There's nothing remotely like it in human history.  But no.  Students--indoctrinated in socialism by their professors who pay no attention to what's happening in front of their noses in Venezuela--are being turned out of our schools by the millions. What that's going to do to our society in the future, no one knows.  But it doesn't look good.

Our country cannot afford the pseudo-idealistic nonsense being proffered by Harris, Warren, et al.  Keep plugging, Schultzie.  I'm still behind you, in my way, even if you delete me.  You can even unfriend me on Facebook.  I'm still with you.  Keep on truckin'.

Roger L. Simon-- co-founder and CEO Emeritus of PJ Media--is an award-winning author and and an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter.