Treat Kamala Harris like a human being

I’ve been all over the place with Kamala Harris. Before Joe Biden picked her as his running mate, I was convinced that of all the possible choices, she was the most palatable. She wasn’t an inexperienced malcontent, like Stacey Abrams. She wasn’t the woman who will forever be branded as the Benghazi Bungler, Susan Rice. She wasn’t Gretchen “Keep Your Damn Masks On Or I’ll Throw A Hissyfit” Witmer. I actually liked Val Demmings, the congresswoman from Florida who looks like the adult in any room she finds herself in.

But if it had to be a woman, Kamala was the best choice. She has a lot of experience, is highly educated, is a P.R. genius and has fielded almost as much hate from the Left as she has from the Right. Her years as a prosecutor have put her on the wrong side of the law for BLM activists and allies, so to say that the extremists on the far left aren’t happy is to say that Alyssa Milano is only mildly annoying.

And then, he picked her, and all I could see was the woman who bared her fangs at Brett Kavanaugh, essentially accepting Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations that 100 years ago the future Supreme Court justice tried to rape her.

That version of Kamala prompted me to write on my Facebook page: “I suggest that we treat Senator Harris with the same respect, dignity and fairness that she treated Justice (not thanks to her) Kavanaugh.”

However, anticipating that the sort of people who were as angry as I was about Harris’ performance during the Kavanaugh hearings might engage in the same sort of misogyny that has taken down lesser women, I also posted that I would block anyone who made jokes or references to that “thing” people suggest about a successful woman who has had high profile romances with high profile men. You know exactly the thing I’m referring to, you smart folk.

That didn’t make me many friends among the hard-core Kamala haters, of which I am not one, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the majority of my social media posse agreed. Making cruel comments about someone who has herself made cruel comments about others might feel good, but it doesn’t help us keep that moral high ground when it comes to women.

My point is simply this: We cannot treat Kamala Harris with brutality and then complain about how Palin was virtually destroyed by both the Democrats and the GOP operatives who hated her as much, if not more, than the political enemy.

Palin ushered in an era of what I call “justified misogyny,” where men and women felt entitled to ridicule her every move. She was stupid. She was a Jesus freak, a religious zealot who wanted to force women to have babies. She was a vengeful hack. She raised white trash kids. She was a nepotist (but likely couldn’t spell the word). Her Downs child didn’t emerge from her vagina. And it continues to this day. I cannot tell you the people I have blocked who think they curry favor with me by saying, “Oh you look like her but you’re much smarter.” The visceral hatred is real. And how has Palin reacted? Most recently, with profound grace, by issuing advice and good wishes to Harris. Which has angered her critics even more.

Before Kamala Harris was confirmed as Biden’s pick, a bunch of nervous ladies took a pre-emptive strike and issued a statement announcing their intention to combat the misogyny that the pick would likely trigger. This absolute lack of self-awareness on the part of these women made me laugh. They and their older sisters (and brothers) were part of the braying pack of political hyenas that came for Sarah. And they really thought we wouldn’t notice?

The thing about hypocrites is that they rarely look in the mirror. But I’m looking straight at them. And this is what I have to say:

I won’t be coming for Kamala’s smarts.

I won’t trash her educational pedigree.

I won’t examine her romances. I won’t criticize those pearls or that hair.

I won’t harrass her stepkids. I won’t attack her faith, or lack thereof.

I won’t make fun of her cadence.

I won’t ridicule her reading habits.

I won’t snicker at her hobbies. I won’t stalk her neighbors for intel.

I won’t research her husband’s associations.

I will go after her politics, which are generally anathema. I will ignore her ovaries and skin color and ethnicity. I will do her the favor the hypocrites on the left refused to extend to Sarah Palin:

I will treat her like a human being. That’s all anyone of us deserves and these days, rarely gets.