You don’t have to fall out of a coconut tree to see that it’s Brat summer for Village Democrats supporting Kamala Harris.
Hundreds of golf carts showed up Saturday afternoon at Lake Sumter Landing to support the newly-named candidate for president. They created a traffic jam around the streets near the Barnes & Noble parking lot.
Harris has energized more than young people. On this scorching July afternoon, instead of Beyonce’, Cardi B or Charli XCX, the air was filled with the music of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
What would you expect in one of the largest over-55 communities in the nation?
“Young people are energized and so are we,” said Villager Joyce Wiegand. “I’m really glad she does appeal to young people, because they’ve been marginalized in voting for years,” added her friend Karen Wink.
“It’s time for young people to get involved in democracy. Kamala isn’t just for young people, she’s for all of us. She supports Social Security, Medicare and health care. That matters to us.”
Diane Ruggiero, a registered Republican, shared that view.
“It’s nice to see her bring such energy to young people, but Kamala is not just for the young. She gives us all hope.”
Why would a Republican vote for Harris?
“She is someone to be positive about,” Ruggiero said. “I’m tired of all the negativity —who we don’t want and who we don’t like.
“Now we have someone to like and be happy and excited about. I’m trying to be less negative and it’s great to be for something instead of against so many things.”
Ruggiero says she “votes across Party lines all the time. I’m fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I consider myself a moderate.”
But is America ready for a woman of color to be president?
“That’s not a problem,” Villager Jim Guy said. “What matters is she is a high-quality, experienced individual, and she cares about working people.”
Villager Tracey Carpenter is an African-American and understands the meaning and symbolism of Harris’ candidacy.
“It means so much to our democracy to have a woman of color running for president,” she said. “Joe Biden believes in democracy and he put his country over himself to support Kamala.
“She was the best choice; she will win, and we will show the world that the United States can be united.”
Luke Carpenter, her husband, agreed.
“This country is ready for a woman president,” he said. “It’s not just about color or gender. She makes us better and she makes the world better. That’s what a president should do.”
Harris has taken stands on such issues as: defending women’s reproductive freedom; rejecting trickle-down economic policies and standing up for democratic norms and values.
“That’s why I’m here today – and I’m here for my children and grand-children,” said Villager Ira Friedman, 81, who came in a cart with his wife, Ellen.
Friedman grew up in a tough section of Brooklyn. Would those neighborhood tough guys vote for a woman president?
“Kamala is eloquent, but she’s also a tough woman,” he said of the former prosecutor and Attorney General of California. “A tough woman is a turn on for me. My wife is a tough woman.”
But a woman of color?
“Don’t matter,” Friedman said “Kamala is smart; look, she married a Jewish man (Doug Emhoff). Anybody who marries a Jewish guy is smart.”
In addition to issues, Harris seems to have made pop culture and humor part of her campaign.
Her “coconut tree” quote went viral on the Internet. While growing up, Harris said in a speech that her mother often told her:
“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
And then there’s “the Brat.”
Carli XCX released one of the hottest albums of the summer called, “Brat.” The singer then tweeted that Harris is “the Brat.” And so we have, “the Brat summer.”
Villagers Marilynn Heinze and Kay Gibson plastered a lime green “Brat” poster on the back of their golf cart.
“I can’t define it, but I’m a Brat,” Gibson said.
When asked what Brat means, Heinze simply replied:
“It’s Kamala.”
