Potemkin Prep: Kamala Harris does an Elizabeth Warren in the kitchen
By Monica Showalter
Kamala Harris has always had a problem with authenticity - dating from her political start at Willie Brown's knee, so to speak, to her claim that she went to a racism-infested Berkeley high school in the 1980s, to her claims to smoking pot as a 'Jamaican' thang, something her real Jamaican father publicly corrected her on.
Now she's stepped in it again, posing in an apron and pearls and perfect makeup to whip up some of her famous jerk chicken marinade in her kitchen for her husband's Twitter feed.
View image on Twitter
Douglas Emhoff@douglasemhoff
My wonderful wife @KamalaHarris rushing home between LA events to prepare Jerk Chicken marinade for our Mothers Day feast Tmw.
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6:05 PM - May 11, 2019
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Twitchy has some choice tweets questioning the matter.
How many things are wrong with this picture?
Well, start with the fact that it's a duplicate of what fellow campaign rival Elizabeth Warren tried to do, drinking beer for the cameras to prove she was just a regular joe for those poor deplorable voters who supposedly want this sort of thing.
We all know how well that worked out for Warren.
And Harris is trying to duplicate it?
I've heard of politicians imitating each other but not imitating each other's mistakes. This is a new one. Rimshot, Kamala.
Because against this homey picture (and yes, she does look pretty cute), everyone has another one of her: That of the 1980s-style ambitious yuppie career politician in fierce heels and pearls with a taste for expensive clothing, who slept her way to the top to burnish her resume, and who has an impressive meanness in questioning and slanting a case against President Trump's Supreme Court nominees as an impersonal part of the job. Let's face it, there's nothing she won't do to get to the top. Not exactly someone you'd want to have a beer with.
Hence, the picture.
The Twitchy denizens jump onto her for authenticity issues in the picture - the whiteness of the apron, suggesting it's brand new, meaning, a theatrical prop, something a stylist or political campaign operative looking at internals might come up with, particularly with what the Twitchy denizens identify as its supposed factory folds, which might or might not be accurate. There are folds alright but it's notable that the fold is slanted, which usually isn't the case in something packaged new unless it's cheap. Just as likely it might have been pressed by an expensive laundry service or else stored at the bottom of a heap of things in the closet (read: little used) to give it that slanted fold, but even with those possibilities, it doesn't make her look authentic. She's got a tiny spot of jerk sauce on her blouse, O.K. But given the crispness of the apron, one wonders if it was put there for the picture. Whatever the case, the viewers are suspicious because first thing that comes to mind with Harris is how inauthentic she is.
I find it even more suspicious that she's makin' jerk chicken, just like dad used to make, presumably. Really? Given her bio, it would seem far more likely she would be making dosas or Mulligatawny soup, or something presented on a banana leaf, which would match the cuisine of her Tamil mom who raised her. Those dishes, of course, would scare some Democrats in the flyover, but most everyone in the states knows what jerk chicken is. But did she really make jerk chicken just like dad used to make? Her parents divorced when she was seven and she had virtually no contact with her dad growing up. If she knows how to cook jerk chicken, it's likely she taught herself or learned about it in a cooking school. Those expensive appliances down the long kitchen corridor suggest the latter.
I'm gonna give her a pass on the dainty bracelets on both wrists - that is a Tamil thang, and they aren't dripping into her food, so it's probably something she really did pick up from her mother.
Then there's the pearls, oh those June Cleaver pearls. Doesn't everyone like to cook, do the dishes, and vaccuum the floor in pearls like June Cleaver did? Not to mention, perfect makeup - note that fine brow job that looks like something she got at Anastasia's near Rodeo Drive. Harris's husband says she was rushing between campaign appointments in Los Angeles, presumably where she lives (the entire Sacramento establishment loves to jet-commute between Sacramento and Los Angeles, and to heck with going green. Just off the job as state attorney general, Harris fits that profile, too). Maybe everyone cooks in pearls (and an apron, which some Twitchyite question, though that's arguable given that apron sales seem to be strong given their presence at Target) and who knows, heels, too, but that might work best for the Martha Stewart crowd, not the average joes the ad was targeting.
Bottom line, hard to think Kamala Harris really rushes home to make poppa's famous jerk chicken marinade in her pearls for the young 'uns in the zillion-dollar kitchen.
Maybe it's authentic, sure. But given what we know of Harris, it's natural to think it's not.
https://mmshowalter.com/about/
The writer just spent all this time writing a whole piece on a kitchen photo...I’m so surprised to learn that we can hire her for “freelance work.” Imagine the job she’ll do on your next party invitation.
