Harris's Bold Miscalculation
It is possible that Donald Trump has peaked too soon. The momentum in the race feels like it has moved in his direction and we should never underestimate the Republicans’ ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. However, it does not really seem so much that Trump is increasing in the polls so much as Harris is fading. From the very beginning, Democrats made a bold miscalculation that could cost them everything.
These days, in a fifty-fifty divided nation, both parties want to claim some sort of mandate. Democrats made the calculated decision that they did not have to moderate. Presuming enough people hated Donald Trump that they could have their cake and eat it too, neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris ratcheted down their rhetoric or positions. They gambled they could win without moderation and claim their victory was an endorsement for a hyper-charged progressive agenda.
Both Harris and Biden decided to go for abortion until birth. They never have supported restrictions and refused repeatedly to say if they would support something less than abortion until the child passes out of the womb. Not only that, Harris has even rejected the idea of religious exceptions to providing abortions. Just the other day, she told NBC News that because abortion, which is not in the Constitution, was a “fundamental right,” she would not even consider religious exceptions, which is a fundamental right in the Constitution.
Harris has not walked back providing taxpayer dollars to cover the gender transitions of prisoners. She has not walked back her support for boys in girls’ sports. Even on fracking, Harris has offered a mixed bag of positions while assuring environmentalists they could trust her.
Every opportunity Harris had to moderate a position and calm the nerves of those hesitant to vote for her, she has taken a “you will vote for me and like it” approach. It is arrogant and could be costly.
More baffling are the cheap dates from the GOP who allied with Harris because they hate Trump. They could have pushed Harris to restrain herself and moderate core positions for their votes. But prostitutes have more restraint and hesitancy to get in bed with someone than the Republican Harris supporters. She did not have to offer restrains on abortion, trans issues, economic issues, foreign policy issues, or any other issues. She and her team could go left, stay left, and these Republicans have not just justified voting for her, but have tried to bully and shame others into voting for her. Given the opportunity to use their influence to pull Harris to the center, they gave it all up because Orange Man Bad.
When this election is over and when the GOP moves on from Trump, there will be no place in the party for those who were such cheap dates for Kamala Harris. They will have no voice, no credibility, no seat at the table, and no hearing on what the future of the GOP will be. They could have just declared their antipathy for both candidates and sat it out as others did.1 Instead, they went all in without even a half-hearted effort to get Harris to move to the center.
In the end and of great irony, Harris unburdened by what had been long held centrist Democrat positions, let Donald Trump move to the center. Trump has rejected nationwide abortion restrictions. Trump has signaled opposition to boys in girls’ sports, but also signaled a child who has parental consent should be able to transition. Trump has signaled an embrace of long held Democrat positions on economics, including tariffs and unions.
Kamala Harris abruptly started her campaign when Joe Biden ended his. She had limited time to separate herself. She started with joy and has ended with fear. But for a candidate who claims Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, she never showed Trump weary voters skeptical of her that she was not a threat to them, their values, and their pocketbook. She could have moderated. She decided she did not have to. That may cost her everything.
If the Democrats really, truly believed Trump was the threat they claim he is, they would have compromised and moderated instead of going for broke. Now, Trump is on the verge of breaking them.
Put succinctly — it’s not that I believe or disbelieve John Kelly. It’s that I don’t care. I don’t care for either candidate, but the Democrats are worse in my mind and for all the talk about Trump being a fascist, Joe Biden has placed grandmothers in jail for protesting at abortion clinics and is prosecuting a whistleblower in Texas for exposing gender transition surgeries done in defiance of state law. And Harris, instead of walking towards the center, has dug in her heels with the left. Between the two, Trump is more reasonable.
For all their talk about saving democracy, Democrats are fine delegitimizing any institution that blocks their power. Kamala Harris, even now, is for an end to the filibuster so Democrats can legislate abortion on demand and add seats to the Supreme Court to upend their inability over fifty years to win elections and do what Republicans did by respecting the electoral process.
But because the press agrees with that authoritarianism, they’ll claim Trump is the end of America as they collaborate with Democrats to actually end the republican system set up by our founding fathers that they think is systemically racist.
So spare me your Trump-Hitler outrage. I don’t care about it. Democrats and the press demand you bake the cake, bigot, and they’ll end the filibuster, destroy the significance of the Senate, and pack the Supreme Court with progressives to make you bake it.
Trump won’t.
I have some very good friends in the Conservative Movement who will not be voting for Trump. They do not believe he is a conservative. They do not believe he has the character or fitness to be President. And they have kept their mouths shut. You’d all know them, except they are not public because while they will not vote for Trump, they will not vote for Harris, defend Harris, champion Harris, or suggest to others that Harris is a viable option. They do not believe she is. These people will be able to help shape the post-Trump GOP. Harris’s Republican supporters will have no place in it and do not deserve one.
That is the key point people like Liz and the other never trumpers don’t realize.
Once Trump is out of the way they will not have a political home to call to. Dems definitely won’t. Republicans will ignore them. Sure they can form their own party but it will be kind of like the socialists party of America. Just kind of there. But not really doing anything.
So where will all these TDS never trumpets go? Cheney Romney, many more.
Hopefully in the waist pan of history.
These are the republicans like the Mccains who are the reason we still have Obama care. The reason we don’t have a balanced budget amendment. The reason we have Trump in the first place.
People were exceptionally angry during the Obama years watching the nation get fundamentally transformed. In 2010 they expressed that outrage but then, nothing happened. People got even more angrier. Then we got Romney who lost to Obama. People got more angry. In comes Trump who personifies that anger. Says what they all feel and wanted to say. Gives the middle finger to the left.
With him gone eventually maybe that will purge some of these squishy wishy washy rhinos out. Good riddance and don’t let it hit ya on the way out. And take Mitt with you please.
Harris was/is to continue what Obama started, down with this country’s exceptionalism. It should be more like every other country with a ruling class and a working class. But even now Obama has deserted this ship. Better to take your ball and go home and wait for another opportunity to complete the progressive agenda. Thankfully we the people still believe in the greatness of this country and in the constitution. Please vote.