To a cynic, there are many things to forget about America. The insincerity, perhaps, or the casual racism. Some might say the thuggish imperialism, or the metropolitan parochialism. Naysayers might also opt for the transactional nature of its relationships, its corporate insecurity, or the desperate way that urbanites can’t rest until they’ve eaten at the best table in the best new restaurant in their zip code.
But what one should never forget is the country’s obsession with fame. After all, they invented fame, and they did it very well. This is one of the many things I love about America, as the meritocratic way in which they measure success is fundamentally empowering. Fame in America has nothing to do with embarrassing Faustian bargains or liberal guilt, but it has a lot to do with taking great pleasure in being able to buy a bigger house and a bigger car than your neighbour. Fame in America is rightly celebrated, and no matter why, or how, someone becomes famous, they are lauded for it. Fawned over. Worshipped. Turned into breakfast cereals, TV specials and quite possibly monuments. If America has contributed anything to the world it’s fame; because, let’s face it, they do fame better than anyone else.
Which is why so many Americans think Kamala Harris is going to win the election.
It also helps that Donald Trump, her ageing opponent, looks like a petulant grandpa
Last week I was on holiday, sitting at uncurated tables, talking to people I’d never met before and listening intently to what they felt about the world. Many of them were Americans (the nice ones, the kind that tend to eschew thuggish imperialism and metropolitan parochialism) and all of them think Kamala Harris is going to be the next President of the United States. Why? Because she’s a star, that’s why. Because she currently has the wow factor. While many of the people I sat next to were Democrats, only a few were genuinely partisan. But they all agreed: Harris is going to win because she is currently covered in stardust. And if there’s one thing Americans enjoy it’s stardust.
Ken — like one hundred per cent his real name — was from New York, runs the East Coast office of a big Hollywood talent agency and might be forgiven for casually lobbying for a Democrat, but agents like winners, regardless of their political stripe. And while the Hollywood fraternity is unrelentingly blue, those in power have always followed the money. And while much of the positive media Harris has attracted since replacing Joe Biden has focused on her authenticity, that’s not the real reason she’s generating so much positivity. No, like Jenna Ortega, Charli XCX or Taylor Swift, she’s hot. And when you’re hot, well, we know the rest. For a while at least, her orbit has been filled with the golden clamour of admiration.
It helps, obviously, that Harris is running a short campaign, as it’s much easier to sustain momentum for three and a half months than a full campaign. If she can stay away from giving rogue sound bites and control her media appearances using the same strategies employed by Biden (i.e. as few as possible), it might be possible for her to keep her allure. After all, as a wise man once said, a fish only gets caught if it opens its mouth.
It also helps that Donald Trump, her rapidly ageing opponent, increasingly looks like a petulant grandpa, frantically trying to think up random insults to hurl at her. She’s a Communist. She’s nasty. She’s not black. She has the laugh of a crazy person, “the laugh of a lunatic,” as he said last week in Pennsylvania, perhaps thinking this was going to trump any of her policy weaknesses. At some of his rallies recently you half expected him to end one of his mad anti-Kamala rants by sticking his tongue out and blowing a raspberry, before pulling his ears forward and puffing his cheeks out. “Ya boo sucks Kamala whoever you are!”
Yes, Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee without even giving a press conference or interview. And no, her campaign has progressed without appearing to contain any actual policies. Yet for now she has star power. And in America that is often all you need. Even to become President.
