'Laffin Kamala' lights up Gen Z & social media

WASHINGTON: Long geared towards attacking Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 prez elections, the Trump campaign is having to retool its ammunition against Kamala Harris. It's proving to be tough, with several duds having to be discarded. The age issue has gone out of the window now that Donald Trump is seen as the doddering old man. They've to be careful with the gender issue lest it upset female voters, who incidentally are greater in number than male voters in US.

East Coast elite doesn't work because she is from California, and Trump himself is one - a Newyorker when he is not in New Jersey or Florida, milking Middle America's discontent. Nor is she a Washington insider or "swamp creature" that Trump pledged to defeat but couldn't in four years in the White House. That leaves personal attacks and racist dog whistles, and even that is not going well.

Trump's efforts to disparage the vibrant laughter of "laffin' Kamala" as he calls her - some of his supporters dubbed her Kackala - has backfired spectacularly after her young supporters made celebratory mash-ups of her hearty laugh and dance moves set to music viral. One of the more popular memes showed a video cut of Harris laughing and dancing to British singer Charli XCX song from the album "Brat", a nightclub favorite that underscores the aspiration of Gen-Z (those in the age group of 12- 27), which sees the term as an embrace of authenticity and self-confidence, not a badly behaved child.

The Harris campaign quickly co-opted the "brat" colour - the very specific shade of chartreuse or lime green - adding it to the coconut emoji that has already become part of the Kamala iconography. Kamala herself is aware of the Trump flock's effort to deride her hearty laughter, explaining in one interview that she has inherited it from her mother Shyamala. "I grew up with a bunch of women who laughed from the belly. I'm never gonna be...tee hee hee" she said, imitating a snicker.

MAGA radicals efforts to stir up Kamala's relationship with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown nearly 30 years ago has misfired, not that it was ever potent given Trump's own peccadilloes. Brown, who is now 90, wrote a short comment when she ran for prez in 2019 under the headline: Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what? "It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker. And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco. I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians," Brown said.

Then came the clincher which elevated Kamala in the eyes of many: "The difference is that Harris is the only one who, after I helped her, sent word that I would be indicted if I "so much as jaywalked" while she was DA" Brown wrote, adding, "That's politics for ya."

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