It looks like Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., may have learned from the 2016 election that bathing yourself in identity politics and gender victimhood may not be what the national electorate wants after all.

At CNN’s town hall-style forum Monday in Iowa, a Democratic voter took pains to show how "woke" he is by asking Harris to prove to naysayers that a woman can be the party’s nominee in 2020.

“Would you please respond to this,” the voter said, “so that this man has a response ready the next time a man tries to 'mansplain' why a man would make a better nominee?”

To be clear, this was an earnest question from a voter posed to a presidential candidate and not a reading from some perverse Dr. Seuss book.

The Democrats in the audience whooped and Harris stood up to applaud. The questioner beamed with pride, creating a scene more cringe-worthy than any of Charles Blow’s attempts at writing.

But even though Harris opened the event saying, “Racism is real in America” (the kind of positive campaign message Democrats are known for), she was quick to slither away from the gender handicap that Hillary Clinton so ineffectively played up in 2016.

“The person who presented that point really is not giving the American voters enough credit, they’re smarter than that,” Harris said. “The people who vote, the people who live in this country, they’re smarter than that. They’re going to make decisions based on who they believe is the best leader. They’re going to make decisions based on who they believe is speaking truth, who’s doing it in a way that gives people dignity, doing it in a way that elevates public discourse as opposed to bringing us to the lowest common denominator and base instincts. “

That, of course, was a direct stab at President Trump, who liberals imagine is an infliction on the country and not a nationally elected leader. But at least Harris was smart enough to to have recognized that putting yourself up front as a suffering woman isn’t the inspirational campaign story that the country is yearning for.

