Comedy Hour
2024-11-03 05:22:13 UTC
Reply
PermalinkMarathon. Then, in a blink, Election Day. The classic quadrennial
late-fall cycle in America.
Now it’s the final stretch, the final sprint. The race currently seems
so tight, it is impossible to predict with confidence who will win, or
what ultimately will be the deciding factors for the voters. Yet in a
few short days, we will likely know the answer. Then Veterans Day,
Thanksgiving, Hanukkah , Christmas, New Year’s, and at last,
Inauguration Day. On January 20, 2025, the next POTUS will take office.
Former President Donald Trump may return to the West Wing, or we may
greet President Kamala Harris as Number 47.
Harris, in her brief race to the White House, has achieved many
impressive feats. In a blast of summer joy, she energized the Democratic
Party. She held court over thousands of citizens in jam-packed rallies
around the country. She looked both confident and glam at the debate
against Trump. She raised over a billion dollars in support, grandly
outpacing Trump’s own imposing fundraising effort. Millions of Americans
will enthusiastically cast their ballot for the vice president.
NOVEMBER SURPRISE: DISMAL JOBS REPORT GIVES TRUMP LAST-MINUTE POLITICAL
AMMUNITION TO FIRE AT HARRIS
If Harris wins, there would be celebration in the blue streets,
excitement about the historic first female American president, and hope
that Harris would bring to the Oval Office a refreshing mix of energy,
leadership, unity and smart new ideas.
There would, of course, be those who would worry about her habit of
creating toxic workplaces for notoriously discontented staffers; her
long-running failure to stem the influx of migrants at the southern
border; her largely unpopular stance on transgender issues, and the
uncertainty still surrounding many of her key positions and
international steel. Others would be more generous and encourage their
fellow Americans to give Harris a chance to acclimate to the top job and
take her shot at becoming one of the greats.
Meanwhile, there would be complicated feelings on the other side. Trump
voters would be disappointed, crushed, angry, stoic, resigned,
disruptive, or, perhaps, sanguine. Some might blame a blatantly biased
press, electoral mischief, Trump derangement syndrome, or the candidate
himself for being too chaotic, too volatile, too rhetorically
undisciplined, too past his prime.
Most red voters, however, would get on with the business of their lives,
even as they proudly wear their MAGA hats and buy Trump buttons and
other vintage merch to pass down to their grandchildren. They would
continue to vote Republican and keep a close eye on the likely party
majority in the Senate, along with JD Vance, Nikki Haley, and any MAGA
candidates Trump chooses to support.
But for the blue voters, if Harris loses the election and Trump returns
to the White House, there would be a seismic, convulsive uproar of angst
and censure within the Democratic Party that would resonate from coast
to coast. There would be much to blame, and many to blame, and the
accusations would be flung far and wide, with fury and fervor.
The first person to be placed in the dunking machine would be … not
Kamala Harris, but President Joe Biden. For staying in the race too
long, only leaving when it was indefensible for him to continue after
his disastrous June debate. For running for president back in 2020, when
it was clear to some that his mental acuity was already in decline, and
that the prospect of a long-term presidential career was untenable. For
blocking other viable Democrats from running, curbing the growth and
potential of his party’s future leadership. For picking Harris as his
running mate for crass demographic reasons, and for covering up unsavory
truths about his family, especially his son, Hunter. For choosing
self-interest and vanity over country, putting an egotistical desire to
remain in power over the needs of the party and the nation.
Even those who might dispute these claims, and argue that Biden was
acting with integrity and fortitude when he ran in 2020 and 2024,
convinced he was the only person who could beat Trump (which may be
proven correct this go-round, despite his deterioration), would lay some
of the debris at Biden’s feet.
Second in line for blame would be Harris. For taking that summer burst
of joy and hope and mangling it with word salads and a refusal to answer
basic questions or properly prepare for and perform at important
interviews.
For declining to clarify her most fundamental policy positions; for not
sending sufficient signals to the center of the electorate that she
understands where her party has gone too far; for not mastering the
politics of appeal to Hispanics, young Black men, or Arab-, Muslim-, and
Jewish-Americans; and for inexplicably maintaining an unusually light
schedule for a young, hale candidate unfettered by funding issues or a
pandemic. And, if she loses Pennsylvania, for not having the fortitude
and clarity to choose the Keystone State’s popular Governor Josh Shapiro
as her running mate.
Next, blame would be placed on a liberal agenda, one that wandered off
the smooth, paved road of enlightenment, stumbled through the weeds, and
then tangled itself in the brambles of extreme, almost irrational,
thought, causing even yellow dog Democrats to get a little orange.
Some Democratic voters, astonished and bewildered, say they no longer
recognize the party they grew up with, while many loyal donors are on
full alert that their funds would someday be responsible for allowing
young children to unwittingly have their genders reassigned or the
Middle East to be fully controlled by terrorist groups.
Alternatively, and contradictorily, blame also would be cast by the AOC
wing of the party, who would charge that their fellow Democrats have in
fact been too meek, lacking the conviction to push boldly and decisively
into a new era of full-blown progressive change and populist economics.
In addition to blame, there would be a profound reckoning about how the
Democratic Party lost its mainstream appeal. Once it offered a home to a
wide spectrum of voters (fiscal conservatives, progressives, bipartisan
moderates, lefties) while embracing classic American tenets such as
tolerance, free speech, patriotism and a global helping hand. There was
a tangible pride in its representation of the old and the young, the
well-heeled and the up-and-coming, the patriarchs and the new arrivals.
Now it is fragmented and disordered, plagued by infighting, resentment
and second-guessing, resembling a dog with a flea on its tail, chasing
itself, circling, biting, without calm or cohesion, or a fresh
mainstream policy agenda. And, of course, as much as Democrats are
loath to admit it, or even think about it, Trump has taken advantage of
their move to the far left to take more of the ground in the political
center than they could have ever imagined.
In the past, when faced with setbacks, the Democratic Party has found
ways to right itself, correct course and learn from its mistakes,
unquestionably with assists from generational political talents such as
Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who were able to synthesize
the critiques, move the party back into a zone of health and inspire
confidence from leaders and civilians on both sides of the aisle after a
White House loss.
Clinton, in particular, along with other party thinkers at the
Democratic Leadership Council, made an effort to appeal to all Americans
after a string of presidential campaign losses culminating in
Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis’ defeat at the hands of President
George H.W. Bush.
Clinton took stances both bold and nuanced on policies such as right to
work, welfare reform, the death penalty and free trade, positions that
were a shock to many on the far left, but that reflected an effort to
understand the other side and speak to all citizens as a united entity.
He gave his party a new, winning direction, a path they largely stayed
on until the rise of Biden and Harris.
But for the blue voters, if Harris loses the election and Trump returns
to the White House, there would be a seismic, convulsive uproar of angst
and censure within the Democratic Party that would resonate from coast
to coast. There would be much to blame, and many to blame, and the
accusations would be flung far and wide, with fury and fervor.
But in 2024, the Democrats are in far deeper denial about their party’s
identity than they have been in the modern era. How far left it has
gone, how unstable and unreliable many perceive it to be, How and why
Trump has dominated American politics for a decade and counting.
If Kamala Harris wins, she would step into the role as president for all
Americans, a responsibility she undoubtedly is qualified to undertake.
The Democratic Party, then, would have some breathing space to figure
out how to create its own comprehensive appeal, and determine a viable
path for the future of the brand.
But if Harris loses, Democrats in Washington and around the country
would have an enormous task: they would have to find a way to salvage
the party and come to terms with its fractured identity and significant
disillusionment from its base, all while dealing with fallout from the
election, preparing for political combat against Donald Trump, and
managing a collective mental health crisis from its disillusioned cohorts.
And if Harris loses, this would be the Democrats’ biggest problem: there
would be zero consensus in the party about what went wrong – and thus
zero consensus about what the proper solutions should be, and,
therefore, zero consensus about which leaders should be empowered to
bring the party back to power.
All we do know is that, under those circumstances, it almost certainly
won’t be Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/democrats-have-enormous-dilemma-kamala-harris-loses