Are you anxious about the election?
If you’re like me, you’ve been concerned when scanning the news lately and noticed that cackling Kamala Harris has, for no readily explicable reason, pulled even (in some national polls) with Republican nominee Donald J. Trump and, in some cases, even gone ahead of the recent frontrunner in the 2024 presidential horserace.
Observer after politics observer has written on the lack of substance in Harris’s issue portfolio and mentioned that she’s rarely seen in public, and when she is, Kamala doesn’t take questions. Miles of video tape (electronic storage?) exists showing Harris as way-below-average on speaking extemporaneously and proves that if the voters were given a fair shot at getting to know her, they wouldn’t like what they see and hear.
So why is the presidential race so tight and the margins so narrow? In a very cerebral opinion piece titled, “Tight polls suggest presidential race is more about Trump’s flaws than Trump’s policies”, Michael McKenna wrote for The Washington Times:
“Oddly enough, most of the surveys seem indifferent regarding why the race is close. With respect to what voters have identified as the two dominant issues — the economy and immigration — former President Donald Trump has a commanding advantage over anyone else. There is no doubt that his presidency was manifestly better than President Biden’s, whether your preferred metric is economic growth, international peace, the southern border or whatever. That suggests that the closeness of the race is not just about policies or campaign mechanics…
“The election remains close because Mr. Trump (like all of us) has flaws, but (unlike most of us) makes little effort to hide them. Americans prefer their presidents — who are, of course, the head of state as well as the chief executive of the federal government — to do a more thorough job of hiding the line that separates the good and evil in themselves.
“Mr. Trump won’t change. Billionaires, especially those past middle age, see little reason to alter the formula that got them to where they are. Who can blame them? That leaves it to the voters to decide whether the harvest is worth the weeds, whether the line between good and evil is in the right place. A significant number of voters are obviously struggling with those questions.”
Yes, they are. I’ve been astounded how, faced with a barrage of advice stemming from just about every corner of America – except for the Democrat one, which couldn’t care less about what Trump says or does, they just hate him – Donald J. Trump refuses to change his approach or behavior or strategy… or issue positions.
If it were anyone else, most objective politics observers would suggest that Trump’s intractability on principles, mannerisms or personal approach would merit praise and applause. Kamala Harris, for example, has changed a number of her prior positions since being injected into the 2024 race a few weeks ago. Sean Hannity devoted an entire opening segment to the positions she’s flip-flopped last week.
The fill-in Democrat candidate hasn’t made herself available to answer queries from concerned establishment media members (if indeed there are any) regarding the flips, but Democrats know from experience in 2020 that they can – and should – hide their selected one away from microphones and interviewers so as to maintain the running joke, I mean ruse, that he or she (or “it” or them or they or whatever “nonbinary” means) is a thinking moderate who only considers the middle class in everything they do.
How else would sleazebag lifelong swamp dwelling politician Joe Biden get to be president? Not talking about the cheating here.
But Trump hasn’t altered his political philosophies, and what you see these days doesn’t differ a whole lot from the man who rode down the escalator in June, 2015, and who was first introduced to the national audience a little over nine years ago this week on August 6, 2015, with a debate question about sexism from Fox News’s Megyn Kelly. (Remember Rosie O’Donnell?)
Recall how people marveled at how Trump was leading in the polls despite being depicted as a flash-in-the-pan flavor-of-the-moment candidate who drew comparisons to Herman “Pizza Man” Cain (from 2012) and wasn’t taken seriously by the Republican elders or the ruling elites in his own party, most of whom believed that Jeb(!) Bush was destined to reign and continue the Bush family dynasty.
The grassroots loved it, and many of those early Trump fans are still in his corner and would be severely disappointed if the 45th president suddenly morphed into a politician he’s not in his quest to beat cackling Kamala Harris on the way to becoming the 47th president. I myself have, from time to time thrown-in with the crowd of unofficial advisors by counseling Trump to forego the name calling and stick to issues, which should be enough to help him prevail.
I still think Trump should cut out the low blows and that it would be sufficient for him to simply brand Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats with the awful policies that they are responsible for, and that he detracts from his overall winning message by venturing into unfavorable territory by calling that idiot from California names. Yes, she’s an idiot. But an awful lot of decent Americans aren’t fond of Trump, either, and some of them waver between not voting and forcing themselves to pull the proverbial lever for him.
The ones with a brain don’t actually consider Kamala Harris. Why cut off your nose to spite your face?
One would think Trump is aware of this breakdown in voters, and while the nominee doesn’t seem to care whether anyone likes him, he also loves being admired and listened to. How many times has he mentioned that he tends to favor musicians or entertainers who like him? How many times has leftist-to-the-core celebrities like Bruce Springsteen been invited to appear at a Trump rally?
At the same time, Trump definitely has fixed ideas on what would make America great again, and those constitute the basis of his issue platform. Even when he was a fledgling candidate in 2015 and ‘16, Trump had answers for all the debate questions, including those esoteric subjects that must’ve alluded non-politicians when they’re not forced to sit through endless committee meetings or deal with regional constituent concerns that elude average people.
So how could Trump reduce the harm from those voters who like his policies but just don’t like his presentation?
Concentrate hard on the conditions everyone can see
It's been a theory of mine for a long time that a good portion of the American voting public -- perhaps a solid majority -- don't follow politics closely, but they do understand what they see and encounter every day.
Trump needs to focus on the visible. To be fair, this has been the cornerstone of his campaign, and the key to his populist appeals is to connect with everyone regardless of where they live or how they live. For example, most people can’t see an abortion (and don’t want to see one), but they notice inflated prices whenever they go to purchase something.
They see high gas prices. They sometimes see innocent people being victimized. They see subway trains where they must conduct personal threat assessments of fellow passengers to determine who might assault them. They see grocery prices that defy explanation and force everyone but the uber rich to pause.
A little can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup costs $2? (This one I noticed myself.)
There’s a tent city going up where? Remember the days when freeway overpasses didn’t have vagabonds living under them?
Thankfully, Republicans and Trump have a ready-made answer for how they intend to bring down prices. It's simple and concise, and Trump has mastered it. Energy is everything. Without it we can't keep food preserved; we cannot wake up on time (unless you're relying on a particularly obnoxious bird call to wake you or rely on a hungry pet to nudge you when it starts getting light), and they can’t get to work without gas for their car. The number of people who bike to work… well, it’s not many.
The price of fuel impacts everything in the economy, so it only makes sense that the best way to start bringing down prices is to cut the cost of oil, which influences everything else. It’s been widely reported that most “renewable” energy sources still use oil in their operation. Ever tried to lubricate windmill turbines without petroleum? Most electricity depends on carbon-based fuels. Lower costs and more energy will mean lower prices.
So it’s wise that Trump always starts his discussion on lowering inflation with cutting world oil prices – by producing more domestically, not by artificial price fixing or beefing up supply through draining the national petroleum reserve (like senile Joe Biden and cackling Kamala have done).
Trump’s flaws aren’t fatal; limit cheating and trust the grassroots
Each time there’s an “expert” – such as Karl Rove – making recommendations for Trump to change the way he does things, usually the points are reasonable and would seem to be beneficial if the candidate himself would agree to slightly modify the way he does things.
But it also should be remembered that Trump has excellent political instincts and his best asset is himself. This isn’t to say that Trump couldn’t do things better at times (why was he spending rally time tearing into Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp last week?), and he certainly appears to have taken others’ advice to stop interrupting during the June 27th debate. It led to his best performance in that arena.
There are also those who advocate to “Let Trump be Trump”. Allowing him leeway to choose a correct course has usually resulted in victory for his/our side. But he should at least listen to other points-of-view.
Conservatives can’t be blamed if they’re worried about the race being so close between Trump and Kamala Harris. And it’s also assumed that Trump has the best issue positions – because he does. But telling Trump to change the way he does things doesn’t seem like it would improve his poll standing. For now, letting “Trump be Trump” might just be the best way forward.
Joe Biden economy
inflation
Biden cognitive decline
gas prices,
Nancy Pelosi
Biden senile
Kamala Harris candidacy
Donald Trump campaign
Harris Trump debates
J.D. Vance
Kamala vice president
Speaker Mike Johnson
Donald Trump assassination
2022 elections
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Tim Walz
When my friends complain about Trump's "behavior flaws" I tell them I vote on record and performance, not personality, style, appearance, color, … and ask them to do the same. I push them to confess whether they like the results of the last four years better than the previous four. They never can.