Stop Him v/s Vote for Him

As the US Presidential election date comes closer, the gap between Kamala Harris and Trump has reduced and they are almost neck to neck now. After the huge enthusiasm when she became the candidate (in money pouring in and in the pre-polls conducted back then), how could this have happened?

 

Andrew Sullivan feels the root cause is that nobody knows what she stands for:

“This is the first presidential candidate who doesn’t seem to want you to know what she’ll actually do, or what she really thinks about anything much.”

Normally such a candidate would have never cleared the shortlist (what the Americans call their primaries). But of course, the party never had primaries:

“She is there because of a corrupt Democratic clique that hid Biden’s rapid decline until it was too late to have a real primary, then panicked at the thought of a chaotic convention, and simply anointed this hack — because no white male or female would run against a black woman and risk their political future in the Democratic Party.”

 

Harsh? Definitely. True? It’s could explain things, so you can’t rule it out.

 

With no positive message of her own, Harris’ campaign falls back to the argument that was tried in Britain before the EU-exit referendum: “Project Fear”.

“It’s rooted in fear of Trump which, of course, I fully understand. His threat to the rule of law, the US economy, the global order and to domestic stability should absolutely be a closing argument.”

Hence, her “Trump Is Hitler” campaign. Except:

“Meanwhile, “Hitler” is handing out McDonald’s meals as a friendly grandpa in an apron and winning record support from ... young blacks and Latinos.”

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Timothy Snider worries about Trump’s mass deportation plans (of illegal aliens). That means 12 million people. Imagine that – there are 12 million illegal immigrants in the country! Moving so many people will “redefine the purpose of law enforcement”, from the usual keep-places-and-people-safe to enforce a particular law. That, he fears, would result in other crimes being deprioritized and make the overall law and order situation worse. Plus, it will create a culture of denunciation – a lot of Latinos (legal or illegal) will be expected to help identify the illegals. Such a culture, once it seeps in, rarely ends well.

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As a non-American, I feel the illegal aliens topic is a good reason why so many Americans support a guy like Trump. Despite there being 12 million illegal aliens, one party shrugs, doesn’t care for it, and has no intention of doing anything. If anything, they want to make immigration easier and the possibility of making such people citizens eventually easier, after adequate checks.

 

In such a situation, the worry and anger of many only increases. Worse, there are no real options. Either go with Trump’s over-the-top plan, or accept that nothing will be done. Is it at all surprising that many go with Trump? The US seems to have many such issues where one party won’t do anything, so the only option is the other party, however obnoxious or insane it may be.

 

This satirical site, the Onion, seems to agree with my assessment. Take this tongue-in-cheek post by them:

“Featuring nearly identical video footage in two separate $25 million ad buys, the Donald Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns both debuted new commercials Tuesday that attempt to win support for their respective candidates with a supercut of Trump’s most racist comments… including those in which the GOP candidate says “we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now” and suggests new arrivals to the country were poisoning American blood.”

Both sides are showing the same racist comments?! Aha, now the satire:

“Sources indicated there is a difference in tone between the two ads, with one using sinister music and the other employing a rousing, triumphal score. Numerous viewers told reporters that only at the very end were they able to determine which candidate each ad was supporting, because one spot said “Stop Donald Trump” and the other said “Vote Donald Trump.”