The Crucial Context for Kamala Harris’s ‘Context’

I can’t say what Vice President Kamala Harris’s favorite word is — the one time I met with her, I didn’t ask — but I’d put a big stack of chips on “context.” She said it not once, not twice, but three times in her signature May 2023 “coconut tree” riff, and I’ve heard it tumble from her lips on other occasions as well. It’s like some oratorical caftan, warming and comforting her.

That turns out to be apt. Her bid for the presidency is all about context.

Any realistic response to it hinges not on the policy details that she has or hasn’t provided, not on the fine points of her record over time, not on her interview with Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC on Wednesday, not on her previous sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash. It hinges on context. She cannot be sized up outside of or apart from the alternative, a man of such reprehensible character, limitless rage, disregard for truth, contempt for democracy, monumental selfishness and incoherent thinking that even discussing Harris’s virtues and vices feels ever so slightly beside the point. She’s not Donald Trump.

How might Harris govern? The question needs to be asked — every candidate for president owes voters a reasonably clear map of where she’s headed — but it can also smack of superfluousness in the context of how Trump did govern from 2017 to 2021: by dividing the country at every opportunity, burning through aides, torching norms, blowing kisses at dictators, blowing up at the slightest irritation, promoting “alternative” facts and — the rotten cherry on the rancid sundae — trying to overturn an election.

What are her quirks and blind spots? Microscopic in the context of his pathologies. I know it’s painful, but have you listened to him (or, even worse, skimmed his social media posts) over recent months? Hannibal Lecter, Pomeranian au poivre, pouting about how much prettier than Harris he is, perseverating on the size of her crowds, obsessing over her race, fixating on her sexual history — he’s going downhill fast, and he started out below sea level. If he descends any more, MAGA will meet magma.

Is Harris offering a significant improvement on Bidenomics? Um, Trump is pledging tariffs and trade wars on a spectacularly reckless scale, along with random goodies that have the air of improvisations — of on-the-spot promises to on-the-fence voters, woo-woo meant to woo certain demographic groups.

A cap on credit-card interest! Tax-free overtime pay! Maybe his strategy is to put enough money in Americans’ pockets that everyone can buy two copies of the Trump-branded Bible ($59.99) and three of “Save America,” his alternative history of the Trump administration ($91.47 — and that’s on Amazon), with enough left over for a $499 special-edition pair of gold Never Surrender sneakers. The proper cable-television point of reference for Trump isn’t Fox News. It’s QVC. He’s not planning a presidency. He’s hawking merch.