After the brat girl summer, the chill of the fall.
Whatever your take on Kamala’s policies and vision, it was hard to fault the superficial slickness of her campaign.
When she rather unexpectedly assumed the mantle of presumed Democratic nominee from the aged and beleaguered Joe Biden, there was an immediate sense of relief and euphoria. And the party’s well-orchestrated ‘coronation’ of the incumbent Vice-President was, I feel, something they actually judged very well. After the octogenarian occupant of the White House belatedly gave way, a contested convention – with competing candidates slugging it out – would have been a disaster.
So they did the right thing. They thrust Harris into the limelight and then summer really began in earnest.
Charli XCX, the British singer-songwriter, declared “kamala IS brat” and suddenly the 59-year-old former prosecutor was lime-green cool.
And here’s the thing, as Harris herself might say. Everything about her campaign was cooler than Trump’s.
Compare the merch, for instance.
Kamala’s cache contained posters by illustrator Tracie Ching and throwback t-shirts of the VP and her hubby when they were young. There were Pride flag collages of Harris wearing multi-coloured suits, as well as bespoke aprons from the LA brand Hedley & Bennett. The aesthetic of the Trumpstore, by contrast, is brash, loud and blingy.
These are two different cultures. Both obviously American, but two very different Americas, living largely in parallel and in suspicion of each other.
The simplicity of the staging of Trump events is quite noticeable. The flags, the MAGA hats, the old red, white and blue. The Democratic events, by contrast, were super slick and perfectly polished. High production values and major choreography. And the campaign invoked celebrity endorsement after celebrity endorsement.
Cardi B. Taylor Swift. Beyoncé.
The glitterati of the musical world were joined in their endorsements of Harris by A-list movie stars, such as Harrison Ford and Julia Roberts.
In short, Harris was Hollywood. Her opponent, on the other hand, welcomed former wrestler Hulk Hogan, who ripped off his shirt while introducing the former president.
It got me thinking that we now live in a world turned upside down. Learning my trade years ago in the advertising and marketing sector, it was taken as read that everything needed to be crafted to perfection. Art directors, photographers and film-makers would labour long and hard to iron out every imperfection and to create a finished product that oozed class and sophistication.
Nowadays, imperfect is the new perfect. Look at the memes that circulate online, for instance. They are often aesthetically naive and produced on the back of an envelope. Brands that want to create a stir on TikTok might shoot content on an iPhone rather than commission a production company and director. It seems that gonzo-style reportage on a shoestring carries more weight than a 30-second TV spot costing megabucks.
Trump eschewed the big TV interviews on networks dining out on faded glories. He went instead for long, rambling chats with podcasters with large online followings.
There are sadly a plethora of very serious divisions in American society that can be documented by sociologists and political scientists. Some of them are historic and some more recent.
Male and Female.
White and Black.
Urban and Rural.
College and High School.
But cutting across all of these issues is a cultural gulf. There is a world in which Queen Latifah holds court on behalf of Kamala and another where Trump is King. One world is cool and progressive and packaged like Macy’s in New York. The other is basic and functional, like a Walmart in Phoenix, Arizona.
Ne’er the twain shall meet.
