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The One Video that Explains Why Harris Lost
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The One Video that Explains Why Harris Lost

A TikTok Tocqueville inadvertently captured the fall of the Democratic elite at New York Fashion Week.

Here at The Free Press, we’ve published a lot of smart takes about how and why Kamala Harris lost the election. You should read them all.

But if you don’t have time, just watch this video:

It was shot at an official “Kamala HQ” event at New York Fashion week in September.

There is a “Hall of Hotties,” featuring framed photos of Democratic politicians and celebrities, including Megan Thee Stallion and Tim Walz. Next to it, a “Wall of Weirdos” features pictures of Republicans. At the bar, a menu with two drinks: American ’47 and Madam President’s Spicy ’Rita. 

There is a sparse bookshelf featuring titles by various minority writers. Hidden away in a corner, something for another minority, at least at this event: “Bros for Choice,” reads a small vinyl sticker. “For zhe straights,” our nelly Tocqueville informs us. 

Amid all this, there is also a couch for J.D. Vance, a callback to a (false) internet meme about the VP-elect having relations with a sofa. The couch has its own room, complete with hastily installed, cheap wood paneling, drab brown carpet and a plain, round coffee table. Built to mock Vance, who wrote a best-selling book about growing up as the son of a working-class, drug-addicted mother, this is a re-creation of a poor person’s house from the vantage point of a yuppie who suspects he has seen enough episodes of Shameless to imagine what one might look like. 

The film ends with a bespectacled male model pretending to read bell hooks, the author who pioneered the concept of intersectionality and refused to capitalize her own name, purportedly to “highlight the substance of her ideas” but actually for attention.  

Decadent, bizarre, mean-spirited, and set in an environment that no blue- collar, heterosexual man would ever be caught dead in, this party is a decadent display of hubris. And it’s what happened when they gave an events budget to the people who thought “Kamala Is Brat” was a winning message for the men who leave their Amazon packages at their front doors. Nothing better encapsulates the reasons for Harris’s defeat. 

River Page is a staff writer for The Free Press. Read his latest piece, a Who’s Who of the new MAGA elite: “Meet the People of Trump World 2.0.” 

For more coverage of the 2024 election, click here.

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