It is unquestionable that Donald Trump’s political success was largely due to taking his superstar image from television to Twitter and keeping a direct social-media relationship with his audience.
But the times, they are a-changin’. And fast.
Enter Kamala Harris. Enter the new Instagram, today’s hottest mass volume social media platform, dubbed the most important tool in existence. Enter the election.
The post of the short video on Instagram showing Harris, her running interrupted, still in her sweats, telling Biden “We did it, Joe,” quickly ran up more than 20 million views and 2 million shares. On election night, a good 2.5 million new people began following her account. That’s a quarter more followers than she had before.
Global brands did not miss the chance to jump on the bandwagon with posts of her image. “Kamala is literally the definition of the American dream,” said Sharon Chuter, Uoma Beauty CEO at the Glossy Beauty Summit this week.
That kind of movement of the needle was only the beginning, and it shows only one dimension.
But Harris is a woman of substance, a multi-dimensional force of impact everywhere, representing and inspiring young girls in America and around the world, a light to women, black women, Indians, and immigrants regardless of country.
That is more than a cliche. More than two decades younger than her running mate, Harris, 56, is a bridge to younger Americans. Her image alone is serving to intensify the experience for people and imbue meaning far beyond the events to things like her mid-running phone call and victory speech.
On victory night, Kamala Harris looked every inch the successful woman and triumphant politician. It is that image that spoke volumes. Dressed entirely in suffragette white, she was connecting a line to the past, to women who began the long struggle for equality in the US and the UK more than a hundred years ago.
Sometimes a historic event will inspire people to rally around an iconic image or a leader. Harris provided both, becoming emblematic of the America that wants to rise after the Trump years.
To those she inspires, she is the mythological American hero — strong, upright, self-reliant, inspiring. “Even though I could be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last, because every little girl tonight sees that this is a land of opportunity.”
Kamala Harris is becoming an icon of change. Despite not making a strong appearance during the general election, she has managed to step in the shoes that cause the kind of patriotic inspiration fever that sweeps the souls of people carried away by the emotion of victory.
“For us, Harris is now symbolic of the hope of our generation. We have been made political pawns, put down under Trump — immigrants, blacks, and especially women,” said a bi-racial Caribbean immigrant student at the University of California Berkeley, still afraid to identify herself as she waits to clarify her immigration status. “She intensifies the feeling,” she said of Harris.
Now at the head of a line of white males that have held the title, Kamala Harris as vice president is well on her way to changing expectations and challenging the perception of what presidential leaders should look like and where they come from.
Harris is the star of a new era. Her surprise appearance in the R&B stars Brandy and Monica’s ‘Verzuz’ Battle exploded the network with viewers. At Black Lives Matter and rhythm-and-blues events, Harris is the new superstar, the icon for change.
Like the Obamas 12 years ago, she is becoming a superstar among Democrats across the spectrum, and their hope is that her lawyerly skills will shine in the delicate task of reconciling the rapprochement of a divided nation.
The symbolism is powerful. Hillary Clinton was one of the first powerful figures to congratulate her. Imagine, the moment, the woman who did so much to pave the road for women, in general, to reach for higher office only to be crushingly defeated by Trump, congratulating the woman who actually reached the presidential title, the 'vice' modifier less important than the significance of the accomplishment.
For women, Harris is the first to succeed where all others — from Geraldine Ferraro 34 years ago, to Sarah Palin a dozen years ago, to Hillary herself — have failed.
Today, Harris has exploded like a supernova, she is already shining brightly along the entire spectrum of women political stars, and will show so forever in history books.
But it is her reach into the fabric of the culture and community and her appeal in America and the world that is making an American superstar of the woman whose family ancestry reaches deep in India.
The response and high engagement that brands get when they tag themselves to the Harris image — whether it is by posting the video of her first minutes as vice president-elect, out in that field clearly protected by the Secret Service, or salutations to the new “madam vice president” — is in itself an economic and marketing machine that will continue to propel Harris to omnipresence in social media and buoy her popularity among the younger generations.
In a world where 99.999999 of us never achieve popularity or adulation of the masses in any sort, Harris’s rising superstar makes her the most promising long-term Democrat in the American political mine-field. Unquestionably, the headliner is Joe Biden, but the understudy may yet grow brighter than a thousand suns and rise where no woman has risen before.
“Come gather ‘round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
And you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.”
— Bob Dylan
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK
