Last Tuesday, Democrats were hit with a wake-up call they never saw coming: Kamala Harris went down in flames to Donald Trump. Heading into Election Day, the Left was convinced that Harris had the presidency in the bag. They thought she was the people’s choice, with the media and celebrity backing to prove it. But the shocker? Trump didn’t just win the Electoral College—he took the popular vote, too.
Now, Democrats are scrambling for someone to blame. They’re pointing fingers left and right, trying to make sense of the defeat. And one name that’s being tossed around? Former First Lady Michelle Obama. Even outspoken ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith has chimed in, suggesting that the A-list celebrity endorsements—Michelle Obama, Oprah, you name it—only served to distance Harris from the voters she needed most.
As Smith put it, “Celebrities, who are worth hundreds of millions, if not billions… are not going to get away and guilt [voters] into doing something different than what their experience says is going on and what they should do about it.” In other words, America’s working class doesn’t want a lecture from Hollywood royalty, and they don’t want billionaires assuming they know what’s best for them.
Smith went on to address the infamous Kalamazoo rally where Michelle Obama delivered a tone-deaf message to Black voters. She told them, point-blank, that if they voted for Trump, they were voting “against us.” The implication was clear: fall in line, or you’re betraying your community. Smith responded, saying, “If we don’t agree with you, we’re against you? You thought that worked? Do y’all know anything about most men? You think that’s going to work?”
This kind of rhetoric left voters, especially Black men, feeling patronized and disrespected. Both Michelle and Barack Obama seemed to believe that they could shame Black men into voting for Harris. When polls started to show that Harris was hemorrhaging support among Black male voters, the Obamas went into a panic. Michelle’s approach? Insult Black voters’ intelligence by assuming they’d follow her lead simply because she told them to.
Not to be outdone, Barack Obama took his turn just days before Michelle’s speech, scolding Black men for not throwing their support behind Harris. “And you are thinking about sitting out?” he asked, adding that maybe they just weren’t “feeling the idea of having a woman as president.” He went so far as to suggest that Black men couldn’t think for themselves and needed a nudge from him and Michelle to do the “right” thing.
But here’s what the Obamas don’t seem to understand: American voters—of all races—aren’t as gullible or as easily swayed as they’d like to believe. People don’t want to be talked down to by celebrities who’ve lost all touch with the realities of everyday Americans. They don’t want Hollywood’s multi-millionaires telling them how to vote, especially when these same figures have little grasp of the struggles ordinary Americans face every day. Americans see through the hypocrisy of celebrities who live in mansions, yet think they understand the average worker’s plight.
For Michelle and Barack, this election cycle should serve as a hard lesson. Americans don’t need celebrities to tell them what to do. Maybe next time, the Obamas should take a step back and recognize that they’re not the moral compass they imagine themselves to be. If the Democratic Party is looking for a way to actually connect with voters, their first step might be asking their Hollywood elite to stay out of it.
Michelle and Barack’s attempt to shame voters into supporting Harris didn’t just fail—it backfired spectacularly. When Americans feel patronized, they push back, and this election was a prime example. If the Obamas want the Democrats to win, maybe it’s time for them to sit out a few election cycles. Right now, it’s clear: the Obamas do more harm than good for their own party.
