Kamala ran as, basically, Hillary but younger and darker-skinned and without the Clinton administration baggage. She stood for all the things Hillary stood for and failed for the same reason Hillary failed: because she was the candidate of the status quo. She represented a future that is supposedly less racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic, but is more divided along class lines every year.
Team D ran a replacement candidate, but not really.
Because Harris had been Biden's VP, she could not pretend to have been in the dark about Biden's roaringly obvious senility (or having known and done nothing about it), and she could not offer any new policy other than the historically unpopular Biden maladministration policies without being accused of disloyalty or raising the question of why she hadn't raised this earlier?
Not to mention, Biden's senility meant that nobody was really in charge (in the sense that "here is where the buck finally stops!") for months on end and everyone had to pretend that the Emperor was not stark naked but wearing a Zegna suit of a conservative stripe.
late to the game, excellent summation. I can't help adding mid-level Dem mgmt's confirmation bias (nobody could be stupid enough to vote for trump) and maybe going into a Prevent Defense / running out the clock all game long cause nobody wanted to be the one who cost team D the election.
Kamala ran as, basically, Hillary but younger and darker-skinned and without the Clinton administration baggage. She stood for all the things Hillary stood for and failed for the same reason Hillary failed: because she was the candidate of the status quo. She represented a future that is supposedly less racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic, but is more divided along class lines every year.
Team D ran a replacement candidate, but not really.
Because Harris had been Biden's VP, she could not pretend to have been in the dark about Biden's roaringly obvious senility (or having known and done nothing about it), and she could not offer any new policy other than the historically unpopular Biden maladministration policies without being accused of disloyalty or raising the question of why she hadn't raised this earlier?
Not to mention, Biden's senility meant that nobody was really in charge (in the sense that "here is where the buck finally stops!") for months on end and everyone had to pretend that the Emperor was not stark naked but wearing a Zegna suit of a conservative stripe.
late to the game, excellent summation. I can't help adding mid-level Dem mgmt's confirmation bias (nobody could be stupid enough to vote for trump) and maybe going into a Prevent Defense / running out the clock all game long cause nobody wanted to be the one who cost team D the election.