The selection of a Bay Area native as presidential nominee of one of the major parties bears watching here in the bear flag state. If successful, she would not only be America’s first female president and the first one of South Asian heritage—she would be the first Northern Californian.
So far, Richard Nixon is the only California-born person to serve in the White House—although Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan migrated to and made homes in our state. And Nixon as well as Reagan ascended from Southern California, which many residents north of the Tehachapi Mountains think should be a different state anyway.
Local roots, gender and ethnicity of course are not the only criteria by which we should choose America’s chief executive. Scrutiny of Harris’ political history on issues on which she’s been associated, such as border security, public safety and incarceration, reproductive freedoms and international relations, are clearly germane. It’s also fair to dig into Harris’ rapid rise from her modest Berkeley and public law school roots to the social milieu of Pacific Heights celebrities and billionaires. And it is appropriate to discuss the mechanics of selecting a nominee without direct voter participation.
What is disturbing, however, is the open racism and misogyny that has greeted her status as the presumptive Democratic nominee. Opening Tik Tok immediately algorithmically streams a series of vulgar tropes about Harris’ alleged sexual history. This has nothing to do with anything and would be out of place in any employment interview, let alone one for one of the most important jobs in the world.
This drumbeat of inappropriate messaging from the servers of a foreign-owned social media company is offensive and harmful to women and girls in general. It is disruptive to the democratic process. One does not have to be a snowflake to be appalled by this open hate speech.
The Tik Tok effect is likely to affect this year’s contests, just as Russian bot manipulation of Facebook posts influenced the 2016 elections.
While Google downgrades California publishers in response to legislative efforts to make it pay for the news content it has exploited to build its dominance, Meta has tightened algorithms so clumsily that even legitimate posts by this news organization get filtered and blocked.
Meanwhile, Tik Tok and X are normalizing antisocial behavior that clearly will have future consequences.
As we too frequently see, it is easy to cross the line from dehumanizing words to violence. Let’s stick to issues, facts and responsible media in the coming months as we decide the country’s future.
Dan Pulcrano is executive editor of the Weeklys media group, with which this newspaper is affiliated.
