Hidin’ Harris 2024 is a terrible strategy and a danger for our democracy
According to the Kamala Harris Democratic presidential campaign and her lapdogs in the liberal media, to the extent those entities are any different, the candidate’s refusal to take questions is fully justified by her small lead in some polling. The argument is cynical, insulting, and dangerous.
The cynicism is familiar, win by any means, nobody needs to hear about actual policies, just cook up some Russian collusion or call a laptop fake. All that matters is winning.
This idea is insulting because it suggests that as long as Harris can squeak by with 52% of the vote, then the other 48% of Americans can be completely ignored. It appears that, for the Harris campaign, these voters just don’t matter or even exist.
And that leads to what is dangerous here, because if the Hidin’ Harris 2024 model is successful, if it becomes the new norm, we will no longer have presidential elections about ideas, but rather, simple, tribal, political party exercises in winning over small margins.
There will be no more grand visions that can unify the country, no more great presidents who we can all admire, no more historic experiment in self-governance, but in its stead we’ll engage in a trench warfare of animosity and despair, leading nowhere.
When you talk to Democratic-leaning voters across the country, it becomes clear why this strange strategy of silence is being employed. After ousting President Joe Biden in favor of Harris, Democrats feel that right now, today, they have a coalition that can win. Not will win but can.
Here’s the rub. They need all of it, every single group in their diverse ideological diaspora.
That means holding on to voters who are pro-Israel, and those who support Hamas, coal miners and climate activists, those who want a stronger border and those who want amnesty for illegals. Thus far, the only way Harris can win over all of these people, all of the time, is by keeping her mouth firmly shut.
Here are some of the responses I’ve gotten from Democrats when I ask if they know who Harris is and what she stands for: ‘Not really, but I guess we’ll learn more in time,’ ‘She was an invisible vice president,’ and the rather blunt, ‘I have no idea.’
And this is exactly how the Harris campaign wants it, they want voters on the left of all stripes to simply graft their positions onto Kamala, without ever hearing her say them.
The good news for Americans of all political affiliations who prefer when candidates actually, you know, answer questions, is that Kamala’s say no evil approach is fast running out of steam.
Let’s face it, a bowling ball with a D after its name would have gotten a bounce after Joe Biden ended his death march of the Bataan campaign into oblivion, but today, the polls have steadied, and we are in a dead heat.
The Democrats’ panicked, unhinged and personal attacks on former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr clearly show that his endorsement is a boon for former President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, having already copied the former president’s ‘no taxes on tips’ policy, her campaign is now floating the idea that she suddenly supports a border wall.
Maybe the sitting vice president has had sincere changes of heart in the past 38 days over the border wall she once called ‘medieval,’ and fracking, which she promised to ban, and Medicare for all, which she called for, and whether Bidenomics was a great success, but none of it counts until it passes through her lips.
Once she does say these things, if she does, once she mimics Trump policies like Shooter McGavin trying to copy Happy Gilmore’s run-up golf swing, we will be back to a normal American election of questions and answers that puts voters first.
The bad news for Harris is that had she done a sit down two weeks ago, even if she flubbed it, it would have been a minor one or two day story. Now her first interview is the Super Bowl of politics, and I don’t care how friendly the outlet is, she will have to set some policies in stone instead of mumbling about opportunity economies.
It is finally time for Hidin’ Harris to have her closeup, and she better be ready.