america isn’t brat—how trump’s “concepts of a plan” won
publicity & the orange felonenomenem’s re-election.
Trump has been re-elected as neoliberalism and “unchecked capitalism” has once again failed America. Unfortunately, the meme “Kamala is brat” did not prevail over the white supremacist noise Trump disseminated through the media. So, what happened, especially as Kamala “won TikTok” but lost the election? How did we get here? Let’s unpack. Since it’s apparent that the American people do, in fact, “eat the cats and dogs.”
Kamala Harris ran a 107-day campaign race (the shortest in U.S history) within this political cycle, largely due to Joe Biden’s reluctance to step down from the running. The Democratic party grew concerned over his cognitive ability to continue for a second term. (Interestingly, president-elect Daddy Trump is the oldest person ever to be elected president and also is an individual who exhibits extreme signs of poor cognitive ability and a volatile temperament). Many left-leaning voters felt isolated since they didn’t get to choose their candidate through the primary and were pigeonholed to support Harris at the eleventh hour.
Biden’s lackluster performance in fulfilling his campaign promises and the sharp increase in grocery prices led to a lack of enthusiasm within the party and the country. It became increasingly difficult for voters to differentiate Kamala as the future when she was sitting in the passenger seat of an administration that has a 62% disapproval rating overall.
Even though Kamala ran on a campaign that promised to codify abortion and secure reproductive freedom within the country federally. Or as twenty-three Nobel Prize-winning economists penned a public letter endorsing Harris since her economic “agenda is vastly better for the economy.” Trump made campaign trail promises to enact a 10-20% tariff on all imports and a 60% tariff on all imports from China (where the U.S gets a majority of “goods”). The Budget Lab at Yale estimates that the tariffs alone could raise consumer prices by as much as 5.1% or, in more simple terms: tank the U.S economy.
“The US economy performs better when the president of the United States is a Democrat rather than a Republican, almost regardless of how one measures performance,” according to the American Economic Review. It has been widely pointed out online since the results were announced that in Economics 101, the economy of a current president is always residual from the last presidential administration.
At the time when Charli XCX tweeted, “Kamala is brat,” the internet—the left’s internet—rejoiced and embraced lime green. News outlets published explainers on what it meant, while girls shared the meme’s meaning to their less chronically online friends and boomer family members. The message seemingly took off, but it could only do so much to make Harris’s campaign reach beyond the liberal masses of those who just “get it,” and those who just don’t.
Not everyone wanted to be “so Julia,” as Charli sings on the song “360,” as most of America doesn’t get post-ironic memes. Instead, they wanted a presidential candidate who spoke to their needs—someone who offered a path to combating inflation and ending the war with Gaza. Trump didn’t necessarily provide any detailed policy solutions either, but it didn’t matter. His messages were vague, and though they lacked substance, they were straightforward. People saw a powerful man who could change shit up—even though it was his fault things got this shitty in the first place.
It also quickly became a talking point in liberal media to label the Republican extremist evangelical agenda known as Project 2025 as categorically “weird” a la Tim Walz (which made him Harris’s VP pick). And as Trump chose JD Vance, the “Hillbilly Elegy” memoirist who fundamentally believes that “childless cat ladies” are a core issue within modern day American life. The difference in decorum between both campaigns vibes couldn’t have been more stark.
With the slow death of journalism, media literacy is in a precarious state. Take it from two freelance journalists: career opportunities in media have plunged in recent years as many newsrooms have cut staff, slashed their budgets, or folded. We are tethered to an attention economy, after all. Sure, people love to scroll online, but reading rates with critical analysis are way down for kids and adults alike.
When there’s a push to defund education, and someone’s media diet goes unchecked, fake news becomes, real. Just ask Jeff Bezos, who denied The Washington Post staffers from endorsing the Democrat candidate of their choosing. Even The New York Times editorial board adamantly denouncing Trump as unfit to lead couldn’t detour how the American people are now operating on the terrain of a severed and discombobulated media landscape. Any motherfucker with a microphone can start a podcast.
Simultaneously, the right has established its own news sources and a network of podcast bros—like Joe Rogan—to do Trump’s dirty work. Reportedly, Barron Trump consulted his father on using social media to win young men’s favor, and need we forget that Trump even created Truth Social, the alt-tech platform that became his sounding board. After all, social media is just another tool of white supremacy and the hyper-optimization of consumption. Trump has conned millions of people into believing his messaging.
Meanwhile, the left grew obsessed with the aesthetics and content posted by tradwives like Ballerina Farm while Nara Smith and Lucky Blue Smith became fashion's latest (Mormon) icons. Elon Musk pushed pro-Trump content on X to an extreme. The right infiltrated the media bubble, while liberals fell for hollow promises on TikTok.
Trump twisted the right into believing falsities about the border, instilling widespread fear. It didn’t matter that Trump only had so-called “concepts of a plan” — the left mocked him while the right took him at face value. He wasn't part of the current administration that was failing people—after all, he’s a businessman who knows how to sell himself to impressionable people. Perhaps, the finger wagging and widespread mockery within the left also known as “the smug style in American liberalism,” is also partially to blame for further disconnecting and even rejecting working class Americans from the leftist policies that are proven to enact a better quality of life.
63% of voters who favored Trump on their ballots never attended college, while 59% of voters who received a higher degree after a bachelor’s (JD, MA, MBA, MD, PhD, etc) favored Harris, according to exit polls. On the whole, 54% percent of American adults read below a sixth-grade level, and nearly one in five adults read below a third-grade level.
Even at the most prestigious ivy league level, students are unable and struggle to read an entire book within a semester according to The Atlantic. So how are we to expect the average American to have an extensive knowledge of what is truth and what is not? It’s not like everyone has an understanding of the intricacies of The Supremacy Clause which determines how the Supreme Court determines precedent through federal law, that takes priority over any state law.
What does this come down to? We all live within personalized echo chambers, and the algorithm caters to either side, creating more division, and memeifying us into psyops of virtual engagement rather than encouraging active, regular, and routine participation within democracy outside of the ballot booth each Presidential election. This even advances the agenda of oppression towards all marginalized groups and furthers right-wing voter suppression. The coconut tree meme, while at heart it was deep and philosophical, was mere internet fodder. Memes failed us.
Post-ironic memes aren’t easily digestive to specific demographics—think old white men who weren’t raised by meme culture—the memes are often too abstract. Sure, Kamala infiltrated pop culture in a way no other candidate had before, but that wasn’t quite enough to make a difference in the election. Liberals were taken by her “brat” approach, not realizing that Trump’s approach had already won. We may be more educated, but we were too naive.
We desperately wanted to believe Kamala could win. Deep down inside, our collective anxiety told another story. Though we thought it couldn’t possibly be true. Another Trump presidency? Y’all must be joking, we thought. Couldn’t everyone see his faults? It's apparent on a baseline moral level that those who voted for him did but opted to disregard that he is a convicted felon, rapist, racist, xenophobe, and a, by definition, fascist.
We watched in horror as a blue wave and a femininomenon didn’t happen. A feloninomenon did with a red mirage.
Now, we’re left with a sham of a president.
It’s unnecessary and unhelpful for us to recap or forecast what we can expect from this presidency. Like others, we feel a lot of things right now. Though the intense rage has slightly lightened, we’ve never felt more emboldened to do our jobs and continue reporting on the politics of aesthetics. After all, Kamala is still brat—it’s America that isn’t.
A lot of words, some I agree with others I don't. Trump sit too quietly by except for his usual rhetoric while hell rained on his head. He did not win this race it was handed to him by outside influence. I am 65 yrs old and never have I seen so many red states. Too many to call it authentic. Vance is a P word waiting for Trump to be killed. Trump is no more a Christian than the devil. He has sold out Ukraine, the US and wants Israel to kill as many Palastines as possible. The problem is Hitler, WWII, the Civil War and the Middle East. Where many women and men fought in the Middle East they didn't know what they were fighting for after Bid Lauden was dead. Our problem is we are too polite. Polite with Israel when what's his name because I won't bother to learn to spell it. He boldly said he would not rest until all of the Palestinians were dead and Gaza belonged to Israel. What the hell. We should have done something. Trump won the Palestinian votes. Trump smoozed to the idiots and said whatever he wanted and they liked it because he was not polite like a politician. She had this, she won at first but nothing was being done to help her. Not the president and not the AG. Trumps ass could be in jail by now. Another thing we need to get rough with a few people on SCOTUS, Congress, and the Senate. I am a veteran and behind the lines needs to step across and take our country back. They are called FBI, CIA Homeland security considering the deals Trump has made behind our backs and we let his son in law walk into Saudia Arabia and walk away with 2 billion. What was he paid 2 Billion for? I am throwing things out there, some to be taken serious and some not. I am not just pissed but I feel like a family member just died way too early. That family member was the United States of America. Damn you Joe Biden for being so damned honest at a time like this but that's all you can be, that's who you are and you did so much for this country and people are wanting to leave it because we were sold out before Trump even got in office. Putin made sure he was in office because of prior arrangements. He is going to turn our country into a third world country. He had 4 yrs to think of all he would do and with the help of a few friends that are suppose to follow the rules of law he has skated. Do we have to step down to his level? If we don't we won't have a country. Funny I heard that early on before he announced himself. Seal Team 6 go for it. Many would be upset but believe me this country would fall in line. It's not been in line since the forefathers. Reagan, Ollie North took the hit for that. Ollie told them the most dangerous man in the world was Osma Bin Lauden but no one would listen when the CIA was selling them and was on their side. Reagan said he had denied complexity, bull**** they were sold guns and other fire power same with Vietnam, guess who started that one, CIA, then begged for help. There has been no honest politician but Biden. His hands was tied by Congress and Harris was hamstringed by Trump and Putin. I say give to them what they ask for, let it get bad and form a coup of our own because he will screw up. Throw out all of SCOTUS, make new rules with new judges no lifetime appointments. Let the American people choose the rules. How many more politicians like Mendez has gold bars in their house. There is only a hand full of Congress and Senate that I would trust and a few anchors. Let's give them enough rope to hang themselves and do it right not like Trump did but a real Seal Team 5-6-7 not to mention Delta and the one you people don't know about. Remember I am a veteran. I know more than the average citizen. Take it as you will. I can't do it alone. We need a coalition ready and waiting just as Trump did. Violence beget Violence or go to the cages in Trump's concentration camps.