Canada’s National Observer reporter Caroline Orr pointed out Thursday night, as the second Democratic debate played out, that, along with the normal online commentary for and against the many Democratic candidates appearing, an interesting burst of anti-Kamala Harris messaging had started appearing on Twitter. The attacks on Harris were racial.
That is a coincidence. The reference here is the well-received moment in the debate at which Sen. Harris called out Joe Biden’s record on race, specifically his documented past opposition to public school busing programs. It was followed up on Harris’ social media accounts with this image.
The attacks on Harris continued online—some probably real, like maybe this one?
But so many others seemed to be of a robotic disposition.
It’s not a surprise that this tactic, which reared its ugly head over a decade ago when a young senator from Illinois ran for president, is showing up again now. In fact, when you consider that most of Donald Trump’s success comes because he’s a white supremacist able to engage the racists that are his most loyal supporters, it makes sense that muddying the national discourse on race would begin the same way that it did when Barack Obama stepped onto the national stage 15 years ago.