I Wear My Kamala Harris Gear For the People Who Don't Feel Safe

It's been 10 years of vulgar flags and in-your-face messaging, let's proudly display our joy

Hello Friends,

Over the last few months I've been burning off my anxiety by going to the gym. I've always had the body type that can put on muscle. At my best I could run a marathon around 4 hours and bench press 225 pounds. Putting those things together is an unusual combination.

225 pounds isn't a huge amount of weight, but it's kind of a baseline. A quick internet search revealed that only 0.4% of the population can do it, but I'm skeptical about that number. For the record, I made that category by the slimmest of margins. I've done one repetition on a couple of occasions. I'm not like the guys at the NFL combine who pump out 30 or 40 reps. I'm not trying to say that I am.

I'm a hair under 6 feet tall, and I carry around too much belly. But I also take up a lot of space, and dudes in MAGA hats don't try their physicality BS with me.

The MAGA crowd is a pack of bullies. They look for smaller people to pick on. In fact, many of them assume by my size alone that I must be on their side. That they would think that irritates me on a fundamental level.

So, lately when I go to the gym, I make sure that I'm covered head to toe in my Kamala gear.

“White dudes for Kamala.”

“Kamala, Obviously.”

“Harris 2024.”

You get the idea.

The gym has always been a desolate wasteland of misdirected testosterone. It's filled with annoying guys who grunt and scream things like “LET'S GO!” and then don't bother to put the weights away when they're done. I don't like being around those guys.

It's comical to walk into the gym with my Kamala gear and watch all the air get sucked out of the room.

Sometimes I wear a baseball cap that has an image of a comma followed by 'la.' Yesterday, as I walked past the pickleball court, a man came trotting out after his ball. I smiled and said, “Hi.” He smiled, then I tracked his eyes as they went to my baseball cap and I saw him get all embarrassed and ashamed as he realized what the slogan meant.

Do you know what he reminded me of?

He reminded me of the adjudicated rapist when Kamala went up to introduce herself at the debate.

“Hi, Kamala Harris.”

“Er... mumble mumble, good to see... ungh...”

What's comical about this is that these guys are totally primed for conflict. They're ready if you tell them to go screw themselves. However, if you are kind and you offer a polite “Hello,” they have absolutely no idea what to do.

They implode. They deflate. Their eyes go every direction as they suddenly realize they're standing out in the light and they don't like it.

Every time I've seen a guy in a MAGA hat, he's been standing around with a smirk. They keep coming to local football and soccer games, though there are fewer of them lately. The smirk is always the same. It's as if they know they've done something wrong, and they're delighted that nobody can do anything about it.

But when you show up wearing a Kamala hat, they look completely befuddled.

They're like the people who say, “Don't let our political differences get in the way of our friendship,” and then they burn your house down when you put out a Harris yard sign.

The way they understand the rule is that it applies to you, but never to them.

Every single time I am out in public with my Harris gear, somebody, usually a woman, says, “Thank you for wearing that.” I imagine that they want to show their own support, but they don't like having jerks in coal rolling pickup trucks howling and throwing half-empty beer cans at them.

Yesterday I saw a video of Jason Kelce dancing at a concert. That video is both joyous and also a little scary if I'm being honest (are you going to tell him to stop?). Jason Kelce is Travis Kelce's older brother, and everybody knows that Travis Kelce is dating Taylor Swift. Jason Kelce is a recently retired former all-pro football player. He's listed as 6 foot 3 inches with a weight of 295 (though I think he's down from that weight since retiring).

This is an intimidating human being. Watching the video, it occurred to me how much of an impact it would make if giant men like that started wearing their Kamala Harris gear around town.

You don't have to be 6 foot 3, but if you're tall and powerfully built, public support of Harris can make a HUGE impact on the weak MAGA mind.

What's bothered me through the last few election cycles is the way Ivy league democrats have completely overlooked the “strongman” nonsense that's the backbone of the adjudicated rapist's campaign. He's a one-trick pony, all he does is try to project strength. That's why he insisted on getting the last word on every point at the debate.

What I've seen from my own experience is that when large men go out into public wearing their Kamala gear, it does a lot to dissipate MAGA self-esteem. Almost every MAGA jerk I see is smaller than me. But I don't have to try and intimidate them. That's silly. I'm not into all this ridiculous “alpha male” bullshit.

Besides, intimidation suggests I see them as a threat. I see them as pathetic little worms. I wouldn't pay any attention to them at all but for the fact that they're displaying white supremacist propaganda and I don't trust them around my wife and kids.

But I don't say any of that.

Instead, I smile at them, show them my Kamala gear, and wish them well. They walk off with their heads down, and they're so distraught, they don't even bully or harass the women in their path (for the first few steps anyway).

Get out there in your Kamala gear. The right doesn't like it, so it must be good.

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