A few thoughts about Kamala Harris as she exits the scene.

First, she did the most important thing and conceded the race, agreeing to abide by the result of the election. It’s a sign of the dysfunction of our times — driven by Donald Trump — that we can no longer take that for granted. She passed the most important test, and we should all be grateful.

Second, she conducted herself honorably during the abbreviated campaign, and thereby represented something important to many people. As a Black and Asian woman, she stood tall in a race for the most powerful office in the world. Perhaps she’ll get another shot in four years, and perhaps she’ll win. Regardless, the way she conducted herself here was significant in and of itself.

But third, if she is to ever win, she’ll need to make at least one major change: She’ll need to open up and come clean. To explain what I mean, I need to back up a bit.

The Democrats ended up with Harris as their candidate because of three giant mistakes that opened the door to the return of Trump. I’ve said these things before in this space, but let me stitch them together. One: They hid President Biden from the news media and from the public in an attempt to keep him from embarrassing himself as he grew less competent. Two: They handed him the nomination at age 81 without any competition. Three: When it became clear his incompetence had made him unelectable, they swapped him out for Harris without making her compete for the gig.

Harris mostly rose to the occasion, to her credit. But she refused to answer questions about some of the more liberal positions she had taken in her failed 2020 campaign — and so voters had a hard time knowing her true positions. Hard to trust a person like that.

As a brief aside, it’s preposterous that Trump can get away with anything, and Harris got zapped for waffling on a few policy questions. But that’s reality, and everybody knew that’s been reality since 2016.

Had she said she changed her mind, she evolved, she got more information, and then explained what information made a difference and why, she would have had a better shot. I don’t know that she could have won, anyway — I’m not sure she would’ve been the best candidate, had the Dems held a real contest.

Which brings us back to the first mistakes. By hiding Biden, they guaranteed he’d be the nominee, and that left the door wide open.

I say all this with some regret, not to celebrate the fact that I was right. We’ve got Trump again, four more years with a president who will say and do anything to get what he wants. Last time he created a violent insurrection to try to hold on to power. This time he’s promising to toss political opponents in jail.

The 250-year-old pillars of our democracy were durable enough last time to withstand the assault; if we stand by them, they can be again. And meanwhile I’d imagine Trump will accomplish some good things, as he did in his first term. He’s our president-elect now; he won fair and square. Maybe the best thing, ironically, is that his election will undermine the false claim that he lost the last one, that the system is rigged, that our elections themselves are illegitimate. Hey, we can hope.

Meanwhile, we should thank Vice President Harris, who did the best she could under the circumstances. It’s just that the circumstances — created by the giant tactical blunders of the past four years — were too much to overcome.

Ned Seaton is the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Manhattan Mercury.