The recriminations that follow a Kamala defeat will be delicious

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is in trouble, which means we may be in for one hell of a post-election fireworks show.  

If she loses the presidential election, there will be intra-Democratic Party in-fighting unlike anything we’ve seen before. The recriminations will be extraordinary. There will be finger-pointing, backstabbing, excuse-making and an air of panic that will make even the sleazy, widespread gossip-peddling that followed the late Senator John McCain’s defeat in 2008 look tame.  

How do we know this will happen? Because it has happened before, albeit on a smaller scale.  

In December 2019, when Harris dropped out of the 2020 Democratic primary before the Iowa caucuses, there was a windfall of terrific gossip regarding her leadership style, or lack thereof, staffer dysfunction, inexcusable mismanagement, even the meddling of her control-freak sister, Maya. Earlier, in 2016, we saw much of the same when Hillary Clinton somehow managed to lose a winnable election to a game show host despite enjoying every conceivable advantage. The only real difference between the two events is that the recriminations in 2016 were far more muted than what Harris’s inner circle allowed for in 2019. Say what you will about Clintonland, but they’re nothing if not loyal.  

Now imagine Harris’s post-primary implosion, but on a national scale, one in which Democrats again lose the White House to Donald Trump. If Harris loses this November, no miracle will contain the intra-party in-fighting. It’ll spill into the papers and the streets, and we’ll all have a front seat to the gloriously bitter denunciations and accusations.  

Sure, there will be the usual pablum about the ignorance and supposed bigotry of the American voter, but that’s a lot of nonsense for the base’s benefit. It makes the rubes feel better about their team and its decisions. Democratic leaders are practically obligated to blame voters rather than admit fault. But you can’t kid a kidder. In public, there will be the usual nonsense about how the voters failed the Democratic Party’s progressive and inclusive vision. Yet in private, campaign bosses and party leaders will be out for blood. They’ll be selling each other out not just to ensure the party avoids similar losses in the future but also to ensure that someone else takes the blame for handing Trump a second term. It’ll be every man for himself, dozens of whisper campaigns playing out publicly on the front pages of the country’s most influential newspapers. 

Picture the moment when Democrats are forced to post-mortem, for instance, the bizarre “white dudes for Harris” campaign gimmick. Whose idea was this, anyway? Who is going to take the blame for the production and dissemination of painfully inauthentic videos featuring equally painfully inauthentic pro-Harris “macho” men? Who will cop the blame for its mockery at the Al Smith dinner this year, which even drew laughs from former president Trump’s most animated critics?  

Then imagine the attempt by campaign operatives to disown the “brat” branding, a far-too-niche bit of election-year marketing if ever there was any.   

Who will be held responsible for recommending Harris go on Fox News for her contentious interview with Bret Baier? More importantly, who will be held accountable for prepping Harris (or not prepping her, as it appeared)?  

Who will take the fall for Harris’s refusal to prepare for interviews up until the final month or her refusal to prepare for predictable (and repeated) questions? 

Who will be blamed for recommending Harris hold an emergency daytime presser in front of the vice president’s residence twelve days before the election to discuss a gossipy Atlantic article that was not yet forty-eight hours old? Was this the October surprise? Was this the best they could conjure against their Republican opponent, an article alleging he voiced admiration for Hitler’s generals? As far as political narrative arcs go, the “joy” campaign ending with “that guy is Hitler” as its final message to voters is an all-timer. Whose idea was that?   

Who will shoulder the genius decision to weigh in on a short-lived “scandal” involving Trump’s visit to Arlington Cemetery and his supposed violation of obscure, little-enforced laws? Harris’s attempt to cash in on that news cycle ended with Gold Star families telling her in no uncertain terms to go to hell, all while reminding voters that they became Gold Star families on Harris and Biden’s watch.  

Who will have to answer for the Harris campaign’s bear hug of the Cheney family? Democrats were dining out on Michael Moore-style anti-Bush agitprop not even seven years ago. Barack Obama was swept into the White House in 2008 on a wave of anti-Bush sentiment. Who thought in 2024 that voters would simply forget everything that was said about the Bush/Cheney White House and back the Democratic nominee simply because the Cheneys said so? 

Someone will have to pay for these boneheaded campaign decisions — and it’ll most likely be Harris and her team exclusively, their best attempts to see it otherwise notwithstanding. It won’t be “we lost,” it’ll be “she lost.” 

Unlike Hillary Clinton, whose 2016 loss broke the Democratic psyche, the vice president won’t have an entrenched, decades-old network of loyalists to rely on for support. Kamala and her campaign aides will be alone, forced to defend their decisions and strategies without the support of longtime allies and party functionaries looking for career advancement. A post-defeat Harris has nothing to offer her party, not even a reserve of goodwill. (As for America’s favorite dotard, President Joe Biden, he’ll likely catch flack, but he still has a couple of favors he can call in to soften the blow.)

This isn’t to say Harris and her few remaining loyalists won’t attempt to pin her failure on party leaders. 

Team Harris will disclose information regarding Biden’s infirmities, including when they became debilitating, what everyone knew and the lengths to which his loyal inner circle went to keep it a secret from the public. Team Biden, meanwhile, in its own fit of petty vengeance, will dish all about Harris’s incompetence and the ineptitude of her inner circle.  

And the party powerbrokers who wish to remain so (see: the Obamas) will quietly leak to the press that they never really thought Harris was ready and that her failure, hers alone, came despite their best effort to carry her across the finish line.  There will also be input from outspoken Democratic operatives, including James Carville, who will launch one-man “I TOLD YOU SO” tours.  

Harris is presently trailing in every swing state, including Michigan, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages. She is also behind nationally, according to the same source. Her campaign appears panicked (attacking Jill Stein?) and is scrambling her media appearance schedule. Three months in, it seems neither “joyful” nor confident.  

For the MAGA faithful, a Harris loss would be ideal. America would be rescued from the clutches of a hardcore left-wing ideologue who is also, weirdly, an empty vessel. For the Democrats, a second Trump administration will usher in the coming of the Fourth Reich and the end of the American experiment in self-governance.  

However, there is another group, one that sees both candidates as unfit. For this cohort, either outcome is less than ideal. And for those in this weird third category, the only real upshot to this election is the recriminations that will follow if Harris is defeated. Sure, Republicans will play the blame game if Trump loses, but he and his lieutenants already air that stuff in the open. You don’t need a juicy tell-all or a crushing blow to know what Trump and his allies think about, well, anything. He’ll tell you himself, on live television, regardless of whether he is winning or losing. The Democrats, on the other hand, are usually tight-lipped — that is, until they suffer a major loss, when party operatives are left scrambling to absolve themselves of the failure. Message discipline and party loyalty go out the window when it comes to crowning the next scapegoat.  

Do you want to know what really happened during those six weeks Democratic Party leaders agonized over who should replace Biden? A Harris loss will get you closer to an answer than a Trump defeat.  

Is it petty to look forward to a Harris loss for no other reason than it will be entertaining? Yes. But when we’re already deep into the “loot the treasury” stage of the American empire, creature comforts are all we have left. To pretend the future of this country genuinely depends on either of these parties taking the White House is to argue over the seating assignments on the Titanic. If we’re ocean floor-bound, we may as well get a decent dinner show first.