Comparison:
When someone joins the vice president’s staff, Harris often asks them to think of a wedding album. Imagine you’ve been to somebody’s wedding, she says, and you go to their home and see their photo album. When you start flipping through it, what are you looking for? The question is rhetorical; you’re looking for yourself. ‘Because you want to see if you’re in their vision of what their day was,‘ recalls Rohini Kosoglu, Harris’ former domestic-policy advisor. ‘That’s how the American people feel when they’re listening to us talk. Are they in our vision when we see the future of our country?’
We may not typically think of a wedding album as rich territory for creating a metaphor concerning a voting population and an elected official trying to connect with them. Kamala Harris did so. The constituent parts of the metaphor--memory, ritual, enjoyment, sense of participation, and connection—work well to encourage a political campaign or a federal administration to put themselves in the shoes of others—even fancy wedding-day shoes.
Context:
When someone joins the vice president’s staff, Harris often asks them to think of a wedding album. Imagine you’ve been to somebody’s wedding, she says, and you go to their home and see their photo album. When you start flipping through it, what are you looking for? The question is rhetorical; you’re looking for yourself. ‘Because you want to see if you’re in their vision of what their day was,‘ recalls Rohini Kosoglu, Harris’ former domestic-policy advisor. ‘That’s how the American people feel when they’re listening to us talk. Are they in our vision when we see the future of our country?’
Citation:
Alter, Charlotte. “The Harris Plan.” Time, 28 Oct. 2024, p. 32.
(Illustration by Lee Aigue, base image courtesy of Bing, Oct. 2024)
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