Thu Sep 12 12:32:51 UTC 2024: ## Kamala Harris’s Contempt for Trump: A “Post-Trump” Ethos Emerges in the Debate
Kamala Harris’s performance in the debate against Donald Trump has been widely praised for its effectiveness in undermining the former president. Her facial expressions, particularly a mixture of incredulity and amusement, conveyed a clear sense of disdain for Trump’s claims and rhetoric.
Harris’s strategy, unlike that of her predecessor Joe Biden, did not focus solely on Trump’s threats to democracy. Instead, she presented a “post-Trump” ethos, treating him as a relic of a bygone era, a figure who had overstayed his welcome. By consistently challenging Trump’s claims and exposing his lies, Harris succeeded in diminishing his stature and portraying him as a figure of absurdity.
This “weird critique” strategy, which paints the MAGA movement as out of touch and deeply entrenched in an online universe of alternative facts, effectively deconstructed Trump’s rhetoric and exposed its weakness. Harris’s facial expressions, which became the subject of memes and screenshots, visually embodied this critique, effectively communicating to the audience that Trump’s claims were not worthy of serious consideration.
This approach succeeded in baiting Trump into lengthy tangents that were only relevant to a specific online community of right-wing supporters. By doing so, Harris inadvertently exposed the absurdity of Trump’s positions to a wider audience.
While the impact of debates on election outcomes is debated, Harris’s performance demonstrated a powerful strategy for countering Trump’s brand of politics. By portraying him as a figure of ridicule and irrelevance, Harris offered a vision of a “post-Trump” America where his tactics and ideology are no longer seen as a threat but as a relic of the past.
First Piper 