We're seeing plenty of commonly repeating refrains in the legacy media chorus this month, almost all of them portraying Kamala Harris as having "reinvigorated" the Democratic Party and "putting Donald Trump back on his heels." The numbers don't back up this sunny outlook, of course, though Harris definitely was given something of a honeymoon period as her party breathed a sigh of relief that the albatross named Joe Biden was no longer hung around their collective necks.
There has been another theme making the rounds however that might have a bit more merit to it. We've seen multiple headlines referring to Trump's allies pleading with him to stay on message, talk about policy, and lay off some of the personal attacks. To be fair, there have been many conservatives attempting to convey this message, but Trump simply seems unable to control himself.
We may have seen that again yesterday when the former president assailed Harris for her insane plan to institute price controls in the United States similar to those that have previously devastated socialist and communist nations. He didn't stop there, however. He decided to refer to his opponent as "Comrade Kamala" and accused her of going "full communist" with this proposal.
Did Trump go too far, taking a winning message and poisoning the well with extreme name-calling?
From the NY Post:
Donald Trump on Saturday ripped Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan to slap socialist price controls on groceries, saying she’s gone “full Communist.”The Republican presidential nominee compared economic proposals to reduce inflation that “Comrade Kamala” announced a day earlier – which includes cracking down on price gouging – to infamously failed communist plans pushed in Venezuela and the former Soviet Union.“In her speech yesterday, Kamala went full Communist …” Trump told a packed house of supporters at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Let's start off by acknowledging that Trump is correct about the nature of these price-control plans. Price control schemes like this undermine and eventually collapse free markets, leading to scarcity and the rise of black markets. This is well-known and documented. But the use of language such as Trump employed simply makes him look like he's punching down.
This was similar to his claim that there has never been a more dangerous time for Jews in the United States since the holocaust.
From the NY Post:
Former President Donald Trump declared there has “never been a more dangerous time since the Holocaust” to be Jewish in the US on Saturday night.The Republican presidential candidate made the remarks at a campaign rally event in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, where he claimed Vice President Kamala Harris decided against choosing Penn. Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate because he is Jewish.
Again, there was truth in every word that Trump spoke. It was obvious to anyone not shielding their eyes and ears that Josh Shapiro was a far superior pick as a running mate for Harris than Tim Walz, but she eschewed him because she feared ticking off the pro-Hamas wing of her base. It's equally true that Harris has done little or nothing to tamp down the rising antisemitic hatred in the left wing of her party or protect the Jewish-Americans who have come under attack.
But the reality is that Kamala Harris didn't cause the wave of pro-Hamas violence on the nation's campuses and in our streets. She simply failed to respond to it appropriately. It's fair to say that this is an extremely dangerous time to be Jewish in America, but saying it in a context where you lay the blame on the shoulders of the Vice President is a bridge too far and simply makes you look like a bully.
Donald Trump was dealt a winning hand in this election and until recently the polls reflected that. Joe Biden was a cognitive mess who posed a threat to our national security and Kamala Harris had backed all of his policies and helped cover up his cognitive decline. This morning I saw a new set of polls being touted on CNN showing that Kamala Harris has pulled ahead of Trump by three in Pennsylvania. Count me among those who are saddened and frankly terrified that Donald Trump can't break his old habits of hurling insults and acting in a condescending fashion when simply sticking to contrasting the success of his policies with the failures of the Biden/Harris administration should have allowed him to cruise over the finish line in a close but definitely winnable election. This isn't over yet and Trump could still pull it off, but it pains me to see him repeatedly shooting himself in the foot.
