The Right Resistance: Republicans must fight complacency as much as Kamala and the Democrats

Now that Americans have had about a week to digest the latest earth-rumbling news morsel in the 2024 presidential race – namely, that president senile Joe Biden up and allegedly quit his reelection bid and anointed vice president cackling Kamala Harris in his stead – a few

political trends have emerged to clarify the picture of what could/would happen in November when the pundits’ shouting dies down and the nation’s voters are heard.

First and foremost, it seems evident that the horserace, defying common sense once again, will be even closer than it would’ve been had the incumbent chief executive stuck to his rhetorical guns and remained the Democrat standard bearer as he promised to do all along. Early polls show Trump maintaining a modest lead over Harris, as he’d enjoyed with Biden, but there are also a number of factors that could conceivably shift momentum to the cackling side.

In other words, Trump supporters shouldn’t get big heads and surmise that they’ve got this cat in the proverbial bag and simply embark on a mental vacation for the next hundred days or so, leaving the hard work to the Republican campaign’s paid staff and the most ardent of concerned citizens who believe this election is for all the marbles and intend to treat it accordingly.

As I suggested last week, it took something big to wrangle the news focus away from the highly successful Republican National Convention and Trump’s recovery from a failed assassination plot. Democrats managed it, however, and they’re currently basking in the light created by ditching one old used-up hulk of a leftist lying candidate for a relatively fresher yet still used-up hulk of a female leftist lying candidate.

As would be expected after such a jolt, Kamala Harris is getting lots of attention these days, and thanks to an adoring (and relieved) establishment media, most of the news has been positive. At least the coverage I’ve seen has been. Gone are the nonstop gossips of a “deathwatch” on senile Joe’s political candidacy, only to be replaced by fawning reports of Kamala hitting the campaign trail and promising to keep Trump out of the White House.

Conservatives look on in semi-incredulity at the rapid turn in fortunes. Trump was riding on Cloud Nine after the GOP powwow in Milwaukee two weeks ago, and now the fickle American public craves four years (or more?) of an air-brain like Kamala Harris?

Say it isn’t so! Or is the hype all fake news?

Nevertheless, it appears likely that there’ll be a real fight for the votes in the fall. In an analysis titled, “Republicans Should Expect Harris To Make It a Closer Race”, Real Clear Politics’ poll analyzer Sean Trende wrote late last week:

“Since President Biden dropped his reelection bid and passed the baton to Kamala Harris, Republicans have been loudly optimistic about their chances against the vice president. Harris, they argue, is too liberal to win, was a lousy candidate in 2020, and will be again. In their view, Donald Trump remains a solid favorite.

“Democrats will dispute negative characterizations of Harris, but irrespective of her abilities as a politician, the 2024 presidential race has probably returned to a toss-up. Perhaps Trump has an edge, but it is not an overwhelming one.

“Consider the following: This isn’t a marathon campaign. It’s a sprint... There are roughly 100 days until Election Day, and about five weeks until early voting starts. Her public appearances are likely limited until the convention, which will be well-scripted… From there, she heads into a post-convention tour, basking in what both sides assume will be with doting media coverage. And then, before you know it, voting starts. This matters because there will be fewer opportunities to catch the candidate off-balance or for her to wander off message. The goal is simply to be ruthlessly disciplined for 100 days.”

Trende concluded his piece, which I recommend you read in its entirety, by admitting that none of his arguments mean that Harris is destined to win, just that he believes this will be another election that comes down to the end as an either/or proposition. For what it’s worth, Trende’s other subject headlines were:

Kamala will have a bounce. Maybe a big one.

Some of the Democrats’ problems were Biden-specific.

Some of the Republicans’ own arguments now work against them.

Changing the conversation.

Republicans can't help themselves.

On the last headline, Trende relayed a tidbit about how Republicans are already branding Harris as a “liberal”, with one Tennessee Representative quipping she’s a “DEI pick”. All well and good to point this out, but it’s not exactly as though telling folks that cackling Kamala is a leftist – or that she’s a “woke” gender/minority substitute for senile Joe’s cherry-picked by Democrat elites – is stating anything that isn’t true.

Trump and Republicans should take an “all the above” strategy to pinning labels on the current vice president and presumed Democrat nominee, a woman who arguably hasn’t earned any of the positions that she’s been gifted in politics.

And wasn’t Trump correct when he said last week that cackling Kamala was “Meaner to him (senile Joe) than anybody else” in 2020?

Think about it. Senile Joe Biden chose cackling Kamala four years ago because he’d pigeonholed himself into picking a black woman for his running mate. Going back to that time, Harris was the only one who made sense for him to go with, since she was a senator from a large blue state, met the requisite “woke” qualifications and could be counted on to not make too many waves in the “Joe’s a moderate” line of persuasion.

Now, Kamala’s been handed the Democrat presidential nomination without ever having sought it (the 2024 version). It’s a fact that Kamala Harris has never won a single Democrat delegate. None. Zilch. Nada. Zero. Yet she’s already been on one ticket and will head up her second. And those Democrats – they LOVE democracy, don’t they?

If Harris isn’t a “DEI pick”, then what is she? Cackling Kamala has “earned” every position she’s ever fallen into by being some pol’s girlfriend/mistress or by simply being in the right place at the right time. Remember how former Senator Barbara Boxer retired at the end of 2016? Who could Democrats choose other than California’s minority female Attorney General to succeed such a tireless, abortion-loving liberal?

At any rate, Trende makes a number of good points in his piece. The relative brevity of the fall campaign this year – with the Democrats not concluding their nominating convention until the end of August – gives them an extended period of time to virtually hide Kamala from scrutiny, similar to the way they did senile Joe in 2020. The next few weeks will concentrate on the lead-up to the Chicago convention, and all we’ll hear from Democrats is how “united” they are now – and how awful Trump is.

Then they’ll devote four-plus days and nights to dodging projectiles thrown at them from pro-Hamas protesters in the Windy City and fill evening primetime with the biggest, celebrity-fueled lying lovefest with broom-riding slimes spinning spells about how much they’ve always loved Kamala – and that hubby kissin’ bandit Doug Emhoff will be the First Husband everyone’s been waiting for!

For his part, Trump, at his North Carolina rally on Wednesday night of last week, hinted that he’s quite ready to go back to the old “mean” Trump where he’s more than prepared to say plenty of not-nice things about Harris. This was supposedly a departure from the post-assassination Trump who’d noticeably toned down his rhetoric in a “cool down the temperature” effort to make American politics more civil and gracious.

I gathered that Trump consciously switched tone tactics again because, with cackling Kamala (who he’s now labeled “Lyin’ Kamala”) in senile Joe’s position, Trump needs to get the word out on Harris’s background and record. Everyone knows the establishment media won’t do it… and someone has to. Trump was in prime position to be the next president just prior to Harris’s ascension, and he must contest every vote. And leave nothing on the proverbial table.

Harris’s atrocious record on illegal immigration needs to be brought to light. Even FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted that the Feds are worried about a Russian-style concert terrorist attack since so many potential threats have gained entry into our country because of the Biden/Harris open borders fiasco. Who’s to blame?

Trende is correct that Democrats will attempt to pin the “too old” issue to Trump now that senile Joe Biden won’t be the top dog for the Democrats, which apparently will help Democrats appeal to their low-information/ignorant voter base that will resonate with the youthful and uninformed. Sorry to say, this is probably true, since today’s youth are hopelessly lacking in civics and history knowledge. And the rest of us could be stuck with Kamala Harris as a result.

But when in doubt, there’s always the Biden/Harris record to fall back upon. Prominent Republicans believe that Trump doesn’t need to alter his message now that Kamala Harris is standing in for senile Joe. While it’s true that Kamala is younger and more active, so to speak, the government certainly doesn’t look any more credible with her being in charge.

Even congressional Democrats joined in the dump-the-Secret Service-director (Kim Cheatle) last week, a true bipartisan measure of accountability that is all too rare these days. The fact is, government credibility at virtually every level is at an all-time low, and merely offering a new face on the regime in charge won’t guarantee that common-sense Americans will be in a hurry to dismiss Trump.

I think Trende is right – Trump and Republicans are in for a stern fight this fall, and will need to alter their approach, somewhat, to address the Democrats’ new vigor and enthusiasm. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that Democrats won’t be able to make 2024 all about Trump no matter how earnestly they want it to be. Kamala Harris is awful. (Some) Voters are yet to rediscover it.

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