To win, Harris should talk more about working-class needs and less about Trump
Dustin Guastella
Our polling shows that the best way to defeat Trump is offer a compelling economic platform that puts working families first Tue 22 Oct 2024 06.00 EDT Last modified on Tue 22 Oct 2024 17.13 EDT 252
The 2024 campaign has entered the final stretch and, as polls tighten, it seems Kamala Harris plans to lean into attacking Donald Trump as a threat to democracy.
Over the past week the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the New York Times and even the conservative National Review have all reported or commented on the messaging pivot. In a newly unveiled official campaign ad, a disembodied voice warns gravely that a second Trump term “would be worse. There would be no one to stop his worst instincts. No guard rails.” At a recent rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Harris reminded her supporters of Project 2025, the “detailed and dangerous plan” that she believes an “increasingly unstable and unhinged” Trump will follow to cement “unchecked power”. She sounded the alarm about the dire threat Trump poses to “your fundamental freedoms” and how in his second term he would be “essentially immune” from oversight.
To provide a different view, it’s actually reassuring to know that a lot of people who never voted before or cared to vote in the first place are out voting for her now because their rights were taken away (Women). At my early voting location, it was PACKED. I assume a lot were Trump, but I felt good seeing so many women there, alone. It might be that their rights and autonomy being taken away were good enough reason to get them out there to help bolster her campaign. They could’ve also voted for Trump, but that goes to show they’re either malicious (against women, even if they think they’re not), or they didn’t bother to pay attention to the world around them for the last 8 years now. Those types of people will never be converted or helped, so they’re a lost cause. It’s good to feel hopeful though, and I am hopeful.
As a side note, I got two of my friends to vote for the first time in their lives, and it was good to see them get excited. All of us don’t want another Trump presidency, because unlike most people here in my state around us, they actually remember how fucking terrible it was under his awful “administration”.
I am not reassured that after allowing Trump to assume office, with all the checks and balances inherent in our Democratic institutions, the least of which not being the Electoral College confirming an obviously unqualified and dangerous President Elect, two weeks out, from a Presidential election, it is now a statistical tie between the destruction of Democracy, and salvation in the form of anyone fucking else as President. I don’t know if I will ever trust our elections or form of government again, ever. But I’m glad you’re reassured. You know who doesn’t have that privilege any longer? The over 1 million Americans who died from COVID during the last Trump presidency, due to a purposefully sandbagged and inept global pandemic response. But again, overwhelmed with joy that you’re reassured.
I understand your frustration, but that was due to people becoming complacent, running a candidate that really had no personality and basically came off as “I don’t have to try so hard, look at this fool. I’ve got this in the bag!” which in turn left a lot of potential voters at home, because they may have also felt like she “had it in the bag”, or turned off potential voters because her personality dripped with “I deserve this term!”. Our system is broken, don’t get me wrong. I know this. That’s why I tried my hardest to provide people with information, show them the way that Trump uses language that sounds smart but isn’t anywhere near so, and how that can be used to manipulate emotions to overwhelm logic.
Needless to say, there were a lot of reasons we got Trump in the first place. The best we can do now is educate people, call out traitors who support him and/or his ilk, and try to get others to see logic instead of headlines and fake polls or statistics.
They also said a “red wave” would happen in 2022, and it did not. Don’t lose hope just because the news wants you to think it can’t be anyone but Trump, as that’s what the billionaires that own those stations want you to think so you lose out on hope! Hope is dangerous to authoritarian governments!