The new Kamala Harris is a grand illusion. It looks more like an Oscar campaign for Best Actress than an election for President of the United States. But that happens when your political party is in bed with Hollywood. They have all the best writers and executives in the business to sell a more palatable version to the people.
The real Kamala Harris has proven to be not quite ready for prime time, or as she might see it, America is not quite ready for her.
We’re getting the kinder, gentler Kamala instead of the firebrand she’s been throughout her career. We’re getting the JOY™ campaign to trick us all into feeling good in a time of great anxiety and malaise.
We have a media selling this falsehood to the public every day, doing the work of the Harris campaign by depicting the Trump side as “dark.”
She can’t hide herself for much longer. Sooner or later, the firebrand will have to emerge. Harris probably hates how they keep telling her to talk less nasally, smile more, and soften herself for the cameras. The more they try to control her, the more likely she is to rebel against it - you know, maybe a little like Sarah Palin?
The real Harris is someone who had no problem calling Joe Biden a racist in an emotional tirade on the debate stage, then turning around and cackling about it as “just a debate.” She is that competitive. But hey, no one gets into politics to lose. To quote Jack Nicholson in Terms of Endearment, “Everybody uses everything they have.”
Some might have been shocked when Harris casually snatched Trump’s big platform of No Tax on Tips. I certainly was. How could she do it so brazenly and without shame? That is the real Kamala Harris. And it’s only the beginning.
Back in 2003, Harris had been working for Terence Hallinan, the DA of San Francisco, a very left-leaning progressive under whose leadership crime had skyrocketed. But he was Harris’ boss and likely one of her early mentors. When it came time to run against him, she adopted a strategy she would carry throughout her career, one she’s employing in her run against Trump.
In a Los Angeles Times column from 2003, her strategy of “embracing” the positions of her rival is laid bare:
She “embraced many of his positions” while denouncing him as incompetent. She deflected charges by Hallinan that Mayor Willie Brown was guiding her campaign, and thus, Harris was part of a potential corruption scandal. She turned right around and threw that back in his face.
The battle between the two was vicious, though Harris sold herself as the one who could be tough on crime, get a higher conviction rate, and clean up San Francisco. It is now a city in desperate need of the 2003 Kamala Harris. It’s just that she isn’t that person anymore because no one on the Left is.
Harris was slightly misleading about the numbers, which led the SF Weekly to report the inconsistencies in her record prosecuting crime. She made her name on a cop killing case where she refused to seek the death penalty. That story landed her in the New York Times, with the mother of the slain cop saying Harris was putting politics over justice.
These are contradictions - which is it? Was she tough on crime or soft on criminals? She is both, depending on what helps her win elections. She has a record of keeping innocent men in prison and a record of being very eager to prosecute and jail men like Trump, anyone who works for him, and probably his supporters.
She won’t come right out and admit it now. Like most of her policies, she will try to hide them as long as possible but don’t kid yourselves. If you think that Biden had a weaponized justice system, that would be nothing compared to Harris, who has shown very little remorse for anything throughout her career and, in fact, rarely admits that she even made a mistake.
The only other election that was anything other than a cakewalk for Harris was for Attorney General of California with Steve Cooley. He gave her a run for her money because, as he tells it, “no one liked her,” especially not law enforcement. He says even Jerry Brown didn’t want to vote for her.
Harris has never lost an election. She dropped out of the 2020 race before it could tarnish her record, and now she is running in the first election she might lose. That’s probably why her firebrand has disappeared.
The Generic Democrat
The plan has been to run what most Americans see as a “generic Democrat.” By today’s standards, you can see that Kamala Harris fits the bill almost perfectly. That is, as long as the real Kamala Harris can stay hidden.
The pollsters knew that the “generic Democrat” beat Donald Trump in a landslide. So why not run one? Why not eliminate the usual obstacles like competitive primaries, interviews, press conferences, background vetting, hand-pick someone, and let marketing people do the rest? It worked like a charm.
The perfect Stepford Wife version of the “generic Democrat,” per Tim Dillon:
The problem is that Harris is not a “generic Democrat.” She is an activist following in the footsteps of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. She’s a hybrid of both, with a little Bernie Sanders thrown in for good measure.
If you want to see the real Kamala Harris, watch this video of her meeting and greeting a crowd in small-town Iowa. Her guard is down, and she is speaking freely. And as you can see, there is no word salad or awkwardness. That’s because she isn’t pretending. She is just being herself.
She was still confident back then. She hadn’t dropped out of the primary yet. Her approvals hadn’t dipped. She hadn’t screwed up the border. She became the awkward, repetitive “word salad” Kamala once she realized Americans didn’t like her that much, not in the primary of 2020 and not as Vice-President.
So she tried not to offend America and the result was even worse than who she really is, the firebrand. The Trump team should realize who they are really up against. Otherwise, they’ll be caught with their pants down.
Why would they plan to trick voters into picking someone they do not know, only for them to be shocked later when they find out who she really is? We’re now on version 3 of Kamala Harris. But what won’t they do to stop Trump?
Make America Venezuela Again.
In a normal year, Harris would be on the defensive. She would have to explain what happened with Joe Biden, why she continued to support him and lie to the public about his cognitive state, or else, if he was “fine,” why they pushed him out in such an undemocratic way.
But because she’s been rebranded as the JOY™ candidate, a change agent, she figured, why not go for broke. Let’s offer Americans a bold new plan for what appears to be Democratic Socialism, the thing the Democrats have avoided for years now.
Finally, the Trump campaign is gifted with a media doing its job. They’re actually daring to criticize the Harris campaign for her economic proposal. Shocking, I know.
From CNN:
The Washington Post:
CNN again:
David Friedberg, a lefty through and through, lays it out on the All In Podcast:
Enjoy it while it lasts. They’re already trying to find a way to silence her even on policy before the election.
Gen-Z has always identified with what they believe is “Communism,” so this is a test to see where the American electorate is now. Who knows, maybe they are ready to abandon the country’s founding principles and embrace Socialism at long last.
After her speech, the Trump campaign went into action highlighting how she is making a case for his campaign, not hers, in highlighting the high food costs since Biden/Harris took office:
Here is a longer supercut of edited bits by someone on TikTok:
The Trump side should not be running against the Harris we saw as Veep but the Harris from 2019. The firebrand. She won’t stop at stealing the No Tax on Tips. Be warned. It’s like that scene in Indiana Jones when he does the work to get the Idle, but it’s taken from him.
Trump’s superpower has always been his ability to tell truths most are afraid to tell. Trump should tell it all. He should push in the tender spots like her first election, where she threw her former boss under the bus. He should bring up her refusal to call for the death penalty in the killing of a young cop whose child had to grow up without a father.
He should continue to bring up her shameful treatment of Joe Biden, the man who helped her until he was no longer useful and was then cast aside. All of this paints a picture of a woman who cares more about her own rise and her own career than the American people.
But Trump will have to close the deal. He must outline a strong vision for a free, saner, more fair America—one that gives us all hope for the future.
He should return to his speech from July 4th of 2020, his best speech to date, and he should stand strong.
This was not a dark speech, but an optimistic one:
Remember, younger generations don’t know what it is to love this country. They don’t really even know patriotism. They’ve been raised to look at our history with a critical eye, but they’ve never been taught how to love this bold, brave, and beautiful American experiment. Trump can switch on that light and give young people something to feel good about.
Whoever wrote that speech for Trump must be hired now to write every speech he gives until Election Day because that is exactly the right note to hit right now.
When they say, “We’re not going back,” Trump’s answer should be: “You’re right. We’re not going back; we’re going forward away from the Biden/Harris America and toward a more free America for everyone, not just those they deem worthy.
If she can take from him, he can take from her.
Finally, he also might take a page from Reagan yet again:
But consider these questions as well when you finally make your decision:
Are you more confident that our economy will create productive work for our society or are you less confident? Do you feel you can keep the job you have or gain a job if you dont have one?
Are you satisfied that inflation as the highest rates in 33 years were the best that we could do? Are interest rates at 14 percent something you are prepared to live with?
Are you pleased with the ability of young people to buy a home; of the elderly to live their remaining years in happiness; of our youngsters to take pride in the world we have build for them?
Is our nation stronger and more capable of leading the world toward peace and freedom or is it weaker?
Is there more stability in the world or less?
Are you convinced that we have earned the respect of the world and our allies, or has America’s position across the globe diminished?
Are you personally more secure in your life? Is your family more secure? Is America safer in the world?
And, most importantly--quite simply--the basic question of our lives: are you happier today than when Mr. Carter became President of the United States?
I cannot answer those questions for you. Only you can.
That’s a powerful message to send to the people, and it will be useful to Trump only if he can remind voters that Kamala Harris is not moving forward. Kamala Harris is just more of the same.
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Adopting Positions from Her Rivals is a Signature Move for Kamala Harris