What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been

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Part of a series on Kamala Harris. [View Related Entries]

Check out our explainer on this Kamala saying, What Did Kamala Harris Mean By 'What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been'? The Context Of Her Famous Quote, Explained

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About

What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been is a catchphrase of Vice President Kamala Harris that she has used in speeches throughout her career. In late June 2024, a supercut of Harris using the phrase went viral online, leading to its ironic and sincere embrace by meme makers. The phrase circulated in a manner similar to You Think You Just Fell Out Of A Coconut Tree? — another Harris catchphrase that was referenced in numerous memes.

Origin

Kamala Harris has used the phrase since at least her time as a Senator. A 2020 tweet posted about her Presidential campaign made prominent use of it, receiving over 20,000 likes in four years (seen below).^[3]

The popularization of the catchphrase dates back to a four-minute supercut posted on April 30th, 2023, by the Republican National Committee (seen below), which received over 1,700 likes over the course of 14 months.^[1] The RNC reposted the same video that December as well, which received around 2,000 likes in a similar timeframe.

The RNC video and the catchphrase were seized upon by many conservative commentators, who used it to mock Harris for what they took to be a canned and cryptic way of speaking. For example, Jordan Peterson referenced the catchphrase on February 12th, 2024, in a post (seen below) replying to Ian Miles Cheong, receiving over 3,400 likes in five months.^[4]

Spread

On June 28th, 2024, a viral repost by X / Twitter user @thejcoop, which received over 46,000 likes in the course of two days (seen below), brought the quote into the mainstream where it received viral attention outside of conservative commentators.

Some used the quote as a catchphrase, commenting on the highly philosophical outlook it suggested. For example, X user @jdcmedlock posted a Distracted Boyfriend meme (seen below) illustrating the quote, receiving over 16,000 likes across one day on June 30th.^[5]

Others probed the possible contradiction between "what can be, unburdened by what has been" and the Vice President's viral 2023 remark, "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." For example, on June 30th, 2024, X user @Sturgeons_Law earned over 36,000 likes over the course of one day for raising this point (seen below).^[6]