The Harris Presidency

wayneL said:

Yes, all Democrats *should have vasectomies

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Nah, will never work.
Ya gotta have balls to have a Vasectomy.
Mick

This analysis on The Bulwark offers an insight into how the Democrats and Republicans compare with their approach to winniing supporter.

Trump Is Going to Lose. (Probably.)​

The Democratic convention was a strategic masterstroke.​

Jonathan V. Last

1. Strategy
​

This convention attempted to establish the following strategic positions:

• The Democratic party as a broad and diverse, but wholly unified, front.
  • And also as the party of freedom and patriotism.
• The election as a referendum on moving forward versus going back.
• Kamala Harris as the change candidate.

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On the first count, the convention was a total success. The Democratic party was a healthy and united institution.

Consider the following: Democrats featured Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton—that’s all but two of the living Democratic presidential nominees going back to 1992.

The Republican convention featured no former presidential nominees. The state of the Republican party is so toxic that previous nominees—even previous presidents—have been unpersoned and read out of the movement.

That’s a portrait of two institutions: One institution in harmony with its legacy and continuing to evolve in such a way as to hold its coalition together. The other institution in a state of convulsion.

On the subject of political diversity, the Democratic party had a wild advantage: Their convention featured every part of the ideological spectrum from Old Man Biden to AOC. It presented Democrats from the big cities and from the rural hinterlands. Culturally, this is a party that ranges from Tim Walz to Raphael Warnock, from Nancy Pelosi to Wes Moore.

Then the Democrats featured independents (Oprah) and Republicans (Adam Kinzinger, Olivia Troye, Stephanie Grisham).

Compare that with the Republican convention, which didn’t dare feature anyone outside the MAGA core.1

The conventions were indicative of the parties’ respective theories of the election. The Trump campaign is restricting the breadth of its appeal in the hopes that it can make up the numbers in depth: Target a smaller slice of the electorate, but try to turn them out at higher rates—and get just enough votes to win the Electoral College while losing the popular vote.

The Harris campaign is a broad-spectrum operation. They are trying to win as wide a swath of voters as possible through their ideological positioning while allowing their turnout to be driven by two other factors:

1. The cultural phenomenon of Kamala Harris.
2. Widespread loathing of Donald Trump.

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As for positioning the Democrats as the party of freedom and patriotism, the convention was such a rah-rah, U-S-A! freedom fest that it felt like the 1984 RNC. If I had to sum up the DNC vibe in a gif it would be:

Which is a crazy accomplishment since it was the Republican convention that had the actual, flesh-and-blood, IRL Hogan.

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Did the DNC succeed on the other two goals? Making Harris the change candidate and framing the election as future versus past?

We won’t know until we see the polling next week, but it’s hard to see how it could have failed. Trumpism is an explicitly backward-looking, revanchist project: Make America Great Again.2

Meanwhile the language at the Democratic convention was ceaselessly about “page turning” and “moving forward.” Harris’s catchphrase is “We’re not going back.”

All of which is to say that everything about the Democratic convention was both intentional and in furtherance of the campaign’s overall strategic vision.3

By next week we will get a sense of how it played with the electorate.

3. About Kamala
​

I feel the need to keep saying this about Harris: We have no idea what sort of president she will be. Maybe she’ll be a great president. Maybe mediocre. Maybe bad. There are some encouraging signals.9

But her speech last night was very good. Her entire campaign has been very good. We are watching a politician execute, at the highest level, with an enormous degree of difficulty. Harris is doing something extraordinary and I don’t think we should take that for granted.

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One person not taking Harris’s performance for granted? Donald Trump.

He has seen the same things we’ve seen and they have made an impression on him, too. Trump understands that he’s facing a cultural freight-train.

Big crowds. Big guest stars. Big TV ratings. A candidate who wears the historical nature of her job lightly. A candidate who is strong.

Trump looks at Harris and sees how tough and hard-headed she’s been.

Harris comes across as kind, but she is wholly unsentimental. Trump noticed how smoothly she flipped on single-payer healthcare and fracking. He saw how deftly President Biden was ushered offstage after the first night. He understands that he is facing a formidable woman who is clear-eyed about what it takes to win.

I suspect that over the last four weeks Trump has been comforted by the Supreme Court’s get-out-of-jail-free card. Because he understands that he is likely to lose this election and will need it.

Leave a comment

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One last thing: Bulwark contributor

Adam Kinzinger
was fantastic last night. And he had maybe the most important line of the convention:


“Democracy knows no party.”

I want to put that on a pillow.

Three cheers for that guy. He’s great. He’s everything that we’re trying to do here, together.

Adam, thank you for your courage and your good-cheer. For your honesty and your heart. You sir, are a great American.

They Served With Trump and Saw the Crazy. They Should Endorse Harris.​

Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing.​

Tim Miller
Aug 26, 2024




H.R. McMaster, John Kelly, Rex Tillerson, and Mike Pence—respectively the national security advisor, White House chief of staff, secretary of state, and vice president in the Trump administration—photographed August 2017. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
THE MOMENT FROM THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION I kept coming back to this weekend wasn’t from Oprah or the Obamas, Steph or Steve, Kamala or Doug—not even Gus Walz, America’s proudest son.

It came early in the program on Wednesday night, from a former lieutenant governor, a modest slot for a mid-level political figure. He was there in his role as a conservative Republican willing to offer a full-throated endorsement of Kamala Harris, putting patriotism over partisanship or policy particulars.

In that speech, Geoff Duncan recalled how his family needed armed officers outside their home to protect them from MAGA radicals who were upset he would not be a party to Trump’s attempted coup. As they bunkered inside, Duncan wrestling with the choices that had led him to this point, his son came downstairs with a coaster that his father had given him years before at a church retreat.

It said, “Doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing.”

I’m turning into John Boehner just typing this.

But as moving as that moment was, it left me wondering. Why was this story being told by ex-Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan? I don’t mean any offense to a good man. But wasn’t anyone higher on the anti-Trump food chain available?

A handful of other Republican officials came to the convention stage last week, including John Giles, the sitting mayor of Mesa, Arizona, and on the last night, Adam Kinzinger, a Bulwark contributor and former congressman. Two former Trump staffers were given time as well, my friend Olivia Troye and onetime Trump spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham. All honorable individuals and patriots.

But again (and, once more, with no offense) were there not a few more resonant speakers available? Because my attendance sheet showed quite a few absences.1

The unelected Democrat candidate will, if elected as POTUS, throw the American constitution in the bin.

wayneL said:

The unelected Democrat candidate will, if elected as POTUS, throw the American constitution in the bin.

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Well she won't cuz the courts will strike it down

Maybe they'll expand the court and stack it.

finicky said:

Maybe they'll expand the court and stack it.

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That had been mooted and you could just about guarantee that.

Well getting rid of the guns on tap would be a step in the right direction.
After being a gun owner for more than40 years I have decided to hand mine in.
I look at it as one less that can be stolen.
Gun safes are about as good as a paper bag.
One battery operated angle grinder is all it takes.

farmerge said:

Well getting rid of the guns on tap would be a step in the right direction.
After being a gun owner for more than40 years I have decided to hand mine in.
I look at it as one less that can be stolen.
Gun safes are about as good as a paper bag.
One battery operated angle grinder is all it takes.

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It's the constitution in the US. They would need a referendum. If any government ignores the constitution, that is the path to tyranny.

Btw, the villains will still have guns, just like here.

wayneL said:

It's the constitution in the US. They would need a referendum. If any government ignores the constitution, that is the path to tyranny.

Btw, the villains will still have guns, just like here.

Sydney underworld figure Tarek Ayoub, known as the 'Angel of Death', killed in targeted Parramatta shooting - ABC News

amp.abc.net.au

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The Yanks will never get the gun ownership down.
The gun lobby is too powerful, so consequently mass shootings will always be the norm, because some loon has decreed its OK to own high powered military style armaments.
Its only the honest ones when it comes to guns here and elsewhere.

farmerge said:

The Yanks will never get the gun ownership down.
The gun lobby is too powerful, so consequently mass shootings will always be the norm, because some loon has decreed its OK to own high powered military style armaments.
Its only the honest ones when it comes to guns here and elsewhere.

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The problem is not the guns. In Switzerland every able-bodied person is a member of the army reserve and has a military firearm in their home, yet you don't see the problem say like you do in the USA.

IIRC Canada actually has more guns per capita then the USA, yet does not have the same issues either.

The problem in the USA is the culture, indeed mass shootings are a relatively recent phenomena coinciding with the decline of cultural cohesiveness.

In fact it is the states with the most gun control that have the worst problem and states that actually have open carry that have the least problems.

Additionally, take a look at UK/Europe where it is not the guns, it is the knives. Knife crime is over the freaking top there, again not because of the knives but because of the cultural damage done to their countries by the current Liberal order.

The gun's gotta go. You can't knife Trump from 200 yards away.

Guns are a right so they can rise up against the government.

Obviously, if they are going to do that they also need lethal drones because that is the future of warfare.
So I checked if you can buy them in the USA.

Yes, you can buy them. I found a website. It did look pretty dodgy though.
No, you can't fly them. It is against the law. Surely that's against their constitution.

farmerge said:

The Yanks will never get the gun ownership down.
The gun lobby is too powerful, so consequently mass shootings will always be the norm, because some loon has decreed its OK to own high powered military style armaments.
Its only the honest ones when it comes to guns here and elsewhere.

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The gun lobby puts guns ownership above kids lives unfortunately Howard and Anderson against their own constituents put lives above guns.

The US constitutional arguments are totally retarded by any measure but thats US culture just watch the election currently underway absolutely nuts.

farmerge said:

After being a gun owner for more than40 years I have decided to hand mine in.

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My gun cabinet is empty also.

Guns can be a legitimate tool - particularly for those on the land. If you have to put down an injured animal what else would you use ?

If you want to deal with a feral dog or wild pig what are your other options ?
On a worst case scenario you may even need to defend yourself when other law enforcement options aren't viable.

The insanity of US gun ownership with people have assault rifles as weapons of choice is one thing. But sometimes, especially on farm, an appropriate firearm is just another very useful/important tool.

When it comes to guns, there is a lot of emotional claptrap written.
I don't like guns, have never owned one and most likely never to own one.
But I can see why some others do.
As for the gun culture in America, a little research, say from Pew Research, goes a long way.
It shows among other things, that hand guns both legal and illegal, are used in the majority of shootng deaths.

In 2020, the most recent year for which the FBI has published data, handguns were involved in 59% of the 13,620 U.S. gun murders and non-negligent manslaughters for which data is available.

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Assault rifles get a lot of the publicity, but not so much of the stats.

Rifles – the category that includes guns sometimes referred to as “assault weapons” – were involved in 3% of firearm murders.

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Tragically, the biggest number of gun deaths were suicides.

In 2021, 54% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (26,328), while 43% were murders (20,958), according to the CDC. The remaining gun deaths that year were accidental (549), involved law enforcement (537) or had undetermined circumstances (458).

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Guns were by far the highest contributor to the murder rate.

About eight-in-ten U.S. murders in 2021 – 20,958 out of 26,031, or 81% – involved a firearm.

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There are many other stats in the research, should someone bother to go looking.
Mick

I'm with Hitler.
This thing is a monster of fatuity. You actually support this? What have they done to your brain? What have you done to it?

Even what they did show 18/41 min was a farcical train wreck. This is not a serious POTUS contender, the Commander in Chief FFS.

A sock puppet at best.