The Democrats have lost the plot. 

Black men have been leaving the Democrat Party in droves, and it scares Kamala Harris for good reason. The black vote has been the base of the Democrat's election strategy since Lyndon B. Johnson. 

It has always been a bad deal for black voters if you look at how economic and social progress stalled and then reversed since the welfare state was expanded. All the way back to Daniel Moynihan's report on the state of the black family, social scientists have known that liberal policies have harmed black families and individuals. But Democrats were the party making the pitch for black votes, and black voters responded with loyalty. 

Kamala Harris is so worried she's losing support among black men that she's offering $20 BILLION in forgivable loans to only certain Americans if they have the right skin color.

Not only is that illegal, it's called PANIC.https://t.co/gPCYOdgmUc pic.twitter.com/mvAvAZk6h3

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 15, 2024

Not so much anymore. Blacks are still overwhelmingly Democrats, but the hold the party has on them has been loosening. And Donald Trump is the reason. 

So, the Harris campaign has been making a desperate bid to get black men back into the fold in the most condescending way possible. First, Barack Obama insulted black men, calling them misogynists for abandoning the most vapid and policy-free candidate the Democrats have ever put up, and now Kamala Harris is making the pitch by offering money and weed. 

If Kamala Harris is throwing out "free cash and legal weed" to black men -- which seems just a little racist -- three weeks before an election, she's currently losing https://t.co/d9iHwZnADJ

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 15, 2024

Forget the irony of Kamala Harris, of all people, talking up legalizing marijuana--she famously put thousands in jail for smoking the evil weed. People change their policies with new information or upon reflection, so let's give her some grace there. 

Focus instead on what making this pitch to black men in particular means: she thinks that being a druggie is a black thing. Most people I know are white, so I can't say for sure that blacks aren't all stoned on weed without my knowing it, but I sure do know that tons of white people get stoned, too. It's not even a class thing: we have a drug problem in this country, not a black drug problem. Harris is leaning into a stereotype that even I, hardly a race-obsessed person, think is unfair and condescending. 

Similarly, the focus on reparations is more an appeal to an Ibram X. Kendi version of black people than ordinary black men who want economic opportunity. No doubt most sane black people would take free cash if offered--few people wouldn't!--but anybody with an ounce of sense knows that reparations of any size will not happen, and most understand that they rank about 10th on any black person's agenda. It is the race hustler's issue. 

Kamala Harris: I am considering a plan to force US taxpayers to pay reparations to blacks… because I grew up middle class pic.twitter.com/QDkveVCpv6

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 16, 2024

Harris is flailing. The old Obama coalition has been falling apart for years, and even as a blackish woman, she can't find a way to benefit from the longstanding loyalty of blacks. The failure of the Biden administration's economic policies means that few people have the time for luxury beliefs. Bread and butter, not wagyu steaks, are what people are focused on. Only privileged people like academics and other members of the elite spend time thinking about things like reparations. 

Black men don’t need Kamala’s condescending handouts, they need jobs and safer streets. This is why she’s losing support.https://t.co/IyB7N1lfr1 pic.twitter.com/GSoHVmFVLs

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) October 16, 2024

I think there is an additional element to the collapse of the old Obama coalition: the feminization of the Democratic Party. Upper-middle-class men can indulge in feminist cosplay to appeal to their female peers, but working-class men see all that as bulls**t. They don't look at Doug Emhoff and Tim Walz as icons of a new masculinity; they see beta males. 

Black men never really bought into the feminist movement, and they are generally repulsed by the increasing feminization of American culture--especially the Democratic Party. They aren't on the Kamala Harris train because it is decorated in pink, staffed by drag queens, and denigrates people like them. It's a totally natural reaction. 

It's not misogyny that drives this; it's the fact that the women of the Democratic Party are driven by misandry. And nobody likes to be hated.