Even presidential candidates can have a Brat summertime .
You’ve probably heard that yesterday, President Joe Biden announced he’s dropping out of the 2024 presidential campaign and won’t be seeking reelection. HeendorsedVice President Kamala Harris to run as the Democratic party nominee. And just like that, the vibe shifted.
My fellow Democrats , I have decided not to accept the nomination and to center all my Department of Energy on my duties as President for the residue of my term . My very first decision as the political party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President . And it ’s been the best…pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV
Though Harris hasn’t officially gotten the nomination, her supporters have been meme-ing this very situation into being ever since last month’spainful presidential debate. If your algorithms are anything like mine, you’ve been seeing endless posts about coconut trees and “taking the coconut pill” (a reference toThe Matrixand a twist on conservativered pill memes).
we ’ve come US senator doing coconut tree memeshttps://t.co/YZ9UkKEcJX
But first, some context: The memessprungfrom a story Harris told at an event in 2023. She said, “My mother…would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?'” She paused for a signature giggle before continuing: “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
Coconut-pilled supporters also often describe themselves as “unburdened,” in reference to a phrase Harris has used in many speeches, “I can imagine what can be, unburdened by what has been.”
I ’m feeling sooo unburdened by what has been
And because it’s still Charli XCX’s lime green dance partyBrat summer, there’s been a proliferation of fan edits of the Vice President laughing, dancing, andloving Venn diagramsset to songs from the album.
pic.twitter.com/eddaAKJ8s6
Soon after the Biden news hit, Charli herself chimed in, tweeting, “kamala IS brat.” As of this writing, the tweet has been viewed over 24 million times.
kamala IS brat
It’s the kind of pop culture moment that most politicians can only dream about.
this tweet will attain more untried mass than a million dollar cable ad.https://t.co/DXaBfaC63c
And there’s more. The Harris campaign took over the Biden HQ Twitter handle last night, and the new branding clearly draws on the memes surrounding the current Vice President. From theBrat-cover-inspired header image to “Providing context” in the bio, this is a campaign that’s clearly ready to go, very online, and not afraid to be in on the joke.
Memes obviously shouldn’t be the most important thing in a presidential election, but they can tell us a lot about how the public sees a candidate. And the memes of the moment position Harris as a “fun aunt” figure, someone you could have a good chuckle with before getting down to the business of government. For many young voters, she represents a breath of fresh air in a campaign season that was somehow both stale and chaotic.
the bow of the coconut tree diagram is long , but it bends towards justice
In 2016, meme culturebenefitedformer president Donald Trump. But that was before Americans saw the chaos of an actual Trump term. Before he mused aboutnuking a hurricaneorinjecting bleachto cure COVID. Before heaskedabout shooting protesters following the murder of George Floyd. Before herefusedto accept the outcome of the 2020 election and arguably incited his followers to violence on Jan. 6.
Now, in the context of all in which we live in 2024, coconut-pilled Harris supporters hope to meme her into the White House. It’s too early to tell how it’ll go, but her campaign seems to be dialed in and ready to join in the fight.
