I don’t believe that Kamala Harris lost because American voters are racist and sexist. They voted for Barack Obama twice in huge numbers not that long ago, and there are more women in Congress and more women as governors today than ever before in U.S. history. Americans vote for candidates who are good at politics and share their values, regardless of race or sex.

But if I did believe that American voters were racist and sexist, and I wanted to win the presidential election, I would not have nominated a non-white woman in that election.

I especially would not have replaced the white man who is the incumbent president, in an election against a white man, with a non-white woman less than four months before that election.

Democrats chose, more directly than normal, to run a non-white woman as their candidate, under the theory that they had to change candidates in order to win. If they think such candidates cannot win because Americans are biased against them, that was a terrible choice, on their own terms.

The logical conclusion of believing voters are racist and sexist, assuming you want to win elections, is to only nominate white men for public office — which is pretty racist and sexist.