Vice President Kamala Harris made history July 21st, as she became the Democrats’ presumptive 2024 presidential nominee without having received any primary votes. To this, Republicans have had mixed reactions, with some pessimistic about Trump’s chances, and others jumping for joy, citing Harris’ abysmal performance in the polls. However, both extremes are highly capable of incapacitating both Trump’s party and the voter base. Polls, notorious for displaying the opposite of what happens, “guaranteed” the Democrats’ a landslide victory in 2016, leading to their overconfidence and slacking off. And pessimism, in threatening the unity Republicans worked so hard to build up in the past months, by stirring a loss of faith in the man they’ve agreed to rally around. In this case, moderation is key. Healthy amounts of caution coupled with reasonable optimism would keep the party on track to a victory for America. Here are two things the Trump campaign should zero in on about Kamala Harris in their messaging that would influence voters and assist in Kamala Harris’ defeat.
The archetype of a politician only in it for the glory, Kamala Harris also happens to be the furthest a politician gets from ideological consistency. Of course, people change their minds, and therefore their policy positions, but it’s impossible to defend Harris this way seeing as she never had a long term political vision in the first place.
Take, for example, the 2014 re-election campaign for California Attorney General. Harris had a somewhat less direct stance than her pro-marijuana legalization opponent, laughing…or rather cackling off a reporter's question about her opinion on her opponent’s stance, remarking “he is entitled to his opinion”.
Most people know that a vague answer from a politician usually means “I have an opinion, but it would alienate potential voters, so I’m going to avoid making my position clear.”
Fast forward six years later, when asked about her history of enforcing anti-marijuana policies on the show The Breakfast Club, Harris denied ever being against legalization. It was the convenient stance, contradicting the idea of an evolution of her thought. After all, why did she seem so easy on other crimes, supporting bills in favor of decreasing, or eliminating sentences for convicted felons while A.G.?
Kamala Harris is the epitome of the convenient politician.
Speaking of support, another aspect of Harris’ peculiar presidential bid is that she rose to this position with practically none. As Democrat elites spout their favorite line, “a threat to OUR DEMOCRACY!”, they ignore the same principles they accuse Donald Trump of being an affront to. Having stepped out of the race before any state primaries were held in 2020, Harris became the frontrunner for this year’s Democrat ticket without having ever received any votes while running for the office. Not that Harris’ bid symbolizes the end of the American voting system, but that ten times the amount of Trump’s mean Tweets come nowhere near the level of a threat to democracy that her bid is on.
Thanks to prominent Democrats, this inherent weakness has become quite apparent. Two days after Biden’s team dropped him out of the race, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made a joint statement fully supporting Harris, but it was the language that made this endorsement particularly strange. Schumer assured viewers that Kamala won support “from the grassroots up, not top down,” a statement which directly contradicts reality, as it was party elites that decided to kill Biden’s bid and push Harris into the spotlight.
This does not mean that Republicans should officially adopt the “OUR DEMOCRACY” line and try to label the Dems as “the TRUE threats”, as many do with the “racist” accusation, and it won’t convince many Democrat loyalists, or deep blue voters. However, the fact that so many former-Democrat Independents’ stories center around the idea that they didn’t leave the Democrats, but the Democrats left them, points to the possibility that there are many Democrats nearing their breaking point.
Light-blue, lowercase “d” Democrats are increasingly ostracized by their party, with the Left’s Overton window rapidly moving left, the people approaching the right side of the sill have nowhere to go. If the Trump campaign is able to effectively advertise this, it could at least bring potential Kamala voters to vote for Kennedy, another figure claiming the Democrats left him.
As opposed to focusing in on things like Vice President Harris’ “friends” in high places and other stories that people probably won’t pay attention to or care about, if Trump’s supporters reject complacent pessimism and laid-back optimism, remember to work hard until election season (because it's not just a day anymore) is over, Trump has a real chance of winning over the country, and Making America Great Again.
Add comment
Comments