“It’s a witch hunt!”
That’s Donald Trump’s response to every loss, every bad beat, every accusation, every conviction, every documented, heavily-evidenced, caught-red-handed (often even on tape!) moment. He is always blameless; it’s his accusers who are wrong, grasping at straws, desperate to take him down.
Most of us know that Trump is pretty obviously guilty of most of the things he denies and probably of most of the things he accuses others of doing (it’s called projection, sweetie). No one needs to fabricate malfeasance to target this man, it’s his entire resume. In fact, he barely bothers to deny most accusations; he merely attacks anyone who poses a threat and gaslights everyone else.
No, we don’t need a witch hunt; the witch is right there, covered in orange paint, cackling at the podium, shouting out curses and inciting angry mobs, including at his own party’s convention—and the Capitol.
What Trump experiences isn’t a witch hunt. It’s a hunt for accountability, and a hunt for justice, both of which he has somehow managed to dodge all his life. (Maybe he really is a witch!)
Do you know who actually is undergoing a true witch hunt? Kamala Harris.
Let’s discuss what a witch hunt is.
The modern idea of the witch hunt originated in the 15th century in Europe, during medieval times (the tail end of the dark ages), a period when the population was notoriously stupid and superstitious. People believed in magic, including magic wielded by evil women who’d made a pact with the devil.
The most famous American example is the Salem Witch Trials, one of the most infuriating episodes in American history. A crazed, frightened mob of absolute morons targeted and murdered a bunch of women (and a few men) they believed to be witches (the reasons for the mass hysteria vary, but historians pin it to disease outbreaks, PTSD from ongoing violence, political conflict, etc.). Maybe the angry mob gets a little slack because it’s not their fault there was no science and thus they were heavily influenced and blinded by superstition and ignorance, but maybe not.
As we now know, magic isn’t real, but misogyny definitely is, and in many cases those women were being hunted for not adhering closely enough to typical Puritan behavior, i.e., being unmarried or childless. Sound familiar?
Kamala Harris has been the presumed Democratic nominee for president for less than a week and already she’s being attacked. Which is the way it goes—it’s nothing new; it’s worse than ever but it’s nothing new!—and it’s not (only) because she’s a woman. She’s being attacked for legitimate things, like her record as a prosecutor, her record in her role as California’s Attorney General, her viewpoints on healthcare and abortion, on immigration, crime, foreign policy, climate change, etc. Legitimate issues that voters should be made aware of so they can make an informed decision in the voting booth. All fair game.
Unfortunately, more often than not she’s being attacked for irrelevant reasons: because she’s a woman, because she’s Black/South Asian (aka DEI, and we all know what that means). Because she’s had sex (as if a serial cheater, lifelong sex abuser, friend of Jeffrey Epstein, and subject of multiple rape accusations has a leg to stand on).
Or for nonsensical reasons: because she laughs weird or she laughs too often or she laughs at all. Because she dances sometimes? Because she likes Venn diagrams and electric buses.
Or for demonstrably wrong reasons: because she’s inexperienced, despite very obvious experience as a successful prosecutor, California’s Attorney General, and Vice President (as if a lifelong grifter with an inherited fortune and a reality TV show had any qualifications). Because she’s dumb, despite very obviously not being dumb (as if the nepo baby who bombed college and doesn’t know the difference between “granting asylum” and a “mental asylum” is a Mensa member).
Perhaps the most absurd—and blatantly misogynistic—attack of all is Republican VP nominee JD Vance’s contention that Harris’s lack of biological children makes her a “cat lady” without “a direct stake in America.” Newsflash: George Washington didn’t have kids, bro! Call me crazy but I feel like he had a stake in America. Besides, Harris has two stepchildren; no, she didn’t birth them, but neither did any of our previous presidents, but by all accounts she cares for and helped raise them. (Besides, being a stepmom might be even harder! Have you seen a single Disney movie? It’s a tough job.)
That argument is meaningless, of course, and we all see through the façade. The so-called party of family values (so long as your family is white and straight) doesn’t give a shit if Harris has kids or not, they are merely doing whatever they can to mock, disparage, discredit, and demonize her. (And in the process are subsequently alienating a huge block of childless voters, both men and women, who care very much about the country and its future.)
There’s your witch hunt.
The reality is that Vance and Trump and far too many other Republicans and conservatives are simply incapable of respecting women, of treating women as equals, or of seeing women and their bodies as anything more than vessels for babies they demand must be born (but don’t care much about after they are). Which is why they have such an easy time taking ownership of those vessels with their invasive policies and retrograde beliefs. It’s also why they’re scared of Kamala and Hillary and AOC and Lynn Cheney and Gretchen Whitmer and Taylor Swift (perhaps the most powerful childless cat lady of them all!) and any of the other countless women willing and able to fight back against their bigotry and hatred and lies.
The rest of us aren’t scared of women. I want my two sons to see an intelligent, accomplished, powerful woman—besides their mother, and their grandmothers, their friends’ moms, and their teachers, and their doctors and nurses, and the infinite number of intelligent, powerful, and accomplished women they encounter—we all encounter—every single day—reach the top. It’s high time one did! I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the men haven’t exactly been crushing it lately, unless by “it” you mean women’s rights. Future generations will surely have increasingly less hesitance around the idea of a woman president—my kids don’t see the fuss at all—but there’s no better way to guarantee that than by them witnessing one.
As you can probably tell, I would vote for an actual witch before I vote for Donald Trump, and there’s still much to learn about Kamala Harris as the election progresses. But we are long past the dark ages, even if half the country is still very much in the throes of the kind of mass hysteria that led to actual witch hunts (and assaults on pizza restaurants).
The attacks Harris is facing on the grounds of gender, race, motherhood—lately spearheaded by a guy who has the integrity and ideals of the couch he may or may not have violated—and will continue to face as long as she stays in the spotlight (hopefully for at least four more years) are appalling. They should be an affront to every educated, progressive—and I literally mean people who are pro-progress, and why the hell wouldn’t you be?—person in the country. (Almost as much of an affront as the policies they’re peddling.)
We know she’s Black and South Asian. We know she’s a woman. We know she’s a stepmom. Let’s move on to actual issues.
Sadly, it’s naïve to call for decency in this day and age, not to mention utterly futile. In a perfect world, political campaigns would stick to those policy issues I mentioned above, but the world has never been perfect, and our political landscape hasn’t seen much decency since Trump took centerstage. He and the Republican party don’t focus on the facts because they know they can’t win that way, so instead they focus on fear, they lie, they get mean, and they cry about non-existent witch hunts—while perpetually brewing up new ones of their own (about post-birth abortions, lizard people, demonic blood cults, and underage sex parties—no wait, that’s an actual thing Donald Trump attended).
Witches may not be real, but the corruption and delusion and fear and hate that drive witch hunts sure are, and the playbook for stirring those emotions up is as powerful as ever. Watch five minutes of cable news or scroll Facebook or Twitter and the fear and ignorance and misinformation assaults you immediately, no matter which side you’re on. Both sides are guilty of playing by these rules, or lack thereof, but only one side has an actual playbook for dismantling democracy, reducing civil rights, and installing Christian fascism. (Or check out Trump’s Agenda 47 if it will make you feel better. But it won’t.)
Woman, man, Black, White, childless or child-full, Venn diagram lover or pie chart enthusiast, those of us paying attention know who truly has a direct stake in America, and we have some news for you: it ain’t the people trying to drive one through its heart.
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