MAGA attacks on Kamala Harris' stepdaughter threaten to backfire on Donald Trump
Ella Emhoff has triggered Trump's bitter bro fanbase but his embrace of the incel vote could come back to haunt
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Helena Hudlin, US lawyer and niece of US Vice President Kamala Harris Meena Harris, and stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris Ella Emhoff speak on the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 22, 2024. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
MAGA thought leaders can't stop proving that they are weird, just as Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, have described them.
Last week, Ann Coulter and other Republican bottom-feeders grossed normal people out by mocking Guz Walz for getting emotional during his dad's speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The insults didn't just prove that the self-appointed protectors of "family values" wouldn't know a loving family if they saw one. It was a reminder that the Trump campaign's strategy continues to be appealing to ugly, bitter people with a message of resentment.
They want to win over the worst men in the nation by appealing directly to their controlling, misogynist desires.
But the Walzes aren't the only family whose evident happiness infuriates the extremely online MAGA movement. Harris' family has drawn ire, as well. Especially her stepdaughter, 25-year-old model and designer Ella Emhoff, whose creativity, beauty, and easygoing love for her family has sent many on the right into paroxysms of rage. The daughter of Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, triggers the incel-minded online right by being a Brooklyn hipster who rejects the tiresome conservative rules for how women are allowed to dress or behave. In response, Donald Trump's fanboys are in a total meltdown, unable to accept the existence of a woman who doesn't care what they think of her. And they can't hide that they're furious that she looks great doing so.
Vance's catastrophic poll numbers, however, show there are real risks to the Trump campaign of pandering so heavily to creeps. The majority of Americans find it weird when men have an unhinged loathing of women who diverge from their "tradwife" fantasies. As Sarah Longwell discovered for her "Focus Group" podcast, most voters are repulsed by Vance's constant griping in years past about "cat ladies," suggesting there's something wrong with him that he cares this much about the personal choices of strangers. The attacks on Emhoff only add to the weirdness. The protesting-too-much quality suggests her critics can't admit to themselves that she's cute. Their misogynist ideology cannot allow that it's attractive when a woman has a personality and isn't just a docile helpmeet.
Vance is still scrambling to justify his "miserable cat ladies" comments. On "Meet the Press" Sunday, he insisted his fixation on the uterine activity of strangers makes him "a normal human being." He falsely insisted it was a one-time joke, ignoring that there were at least 14 clips of various public appearances where he complained, at length, about women not making enough babies to suit his tastes. (And that's not even counting the "postmenopausal females" weirdness.) But he continued to insist he was in the right to bash the private childbearing decisions of strangers. As the Emhoff attacks show, it's a trap that the Trump campaign built for themselves. They want to win over the worst men in the nation by appealing directly to their controlling, misogynist desires. In the process, however, they're creeping everyone else out.
Full article https://www.salon.com/2024/08/27/maga-on-kamala-harris-stepdaughter-threaten-to-backfire-on-donald/
LiberalBrooke
(565 posts)to attack loving families?
mgardener
(1,895 posts)With disabilities?
niyad
(119,909 posts)Ray Bruns
(4,601 posts)Coexist
(26,202 posts)so cool and so herself
TBF
(34,297 posts)wolfie001
(3,629 posts)I'm sure she's smart and she'll do well on her own. That's what really upsets the Matt Walsh/Charlie Kirk's of the world.
dlk
(12,366 posts)They truly are the women-haters party, as they continually remind us each, and every day.
BrightKnight
(3,684 posts)Girls are scary and girls with tattoos are very scary. IDK, the Internet is full of this men are hopeless victims crap.
wolfie001
(3,629 posts)"Proud Boys" (incels) marches in Idaho and Philly and I'm sure many other areas. Nazis holding banners across interstates. That is the trump party in a nutshell. Pure, non-stop hatred and envy because they ALL lead miserable, pathetic lives. They need to blame it on something/someone. It's never their own f6cking fault.
FakeNoose
(35,668 posts)Those local Philly guys are tough and they take no shit from outsiders.
CTyankee
(65,021 posts)maxsolomon
(35,048 posts)Who also lives in Brooklyn, also has tats, also wears glasses, and DJs.
My local Alt-Weekly called her "the People's Princess". I liked that she rocked that dress multiple nights, too.