No one who has witnessed the last few days can doubt the power of the Democratic culture-media machine, a formidable force honed by holding power for 12 of the last 16 years and made up of headline writers, news analysts, Hollywood rainmakers, opinion columnists, TikTokers, influencers, social media meisters and late-night talk-show hosts that ramped up so fast and with such overwhelming and unified force that it propelled Donald Trump’s ill-prepared hair halfway down the Mar-a-Lago fairway.
Republicans have spent the week as dazed and confused as Trump’s terrible acceptance speech at an otherwise disciplined Republican National Convention. Democrats who, just maybe, were thinking of challenging current Vice President Kamala Harris for the Big Job were scared right back into their burrows. “What do you mean, have an open contest? Stand down! Don’t you understand the need to defend democracy?”
It was acceptable to campaign to be vice president. But no higher. Precious few who mattered said a peep.
Finally, a pushed-to-the-brink Joe Biden had said it was time to “pass the torch to a new generation” and make room for “fresh voices, yes, younger voices,” after spending every waking moment since his disastrous debate performance insisting on exactly the opposite. Whiplash for many of us, and in our view raising a tough question or two as to what precisely the heck had been going on, but Democrats implicitly understood that meant the uncomfortable scene needed a fast change. Before the words were out of Biden’s mouth, the left-leaning media’s itchy fingers had hit “publish” on the compensatory Biden-as-statesman pieces they’d had ready for days, and the Democrats didn’t so much turn the corner quickly as barrel right through the Biden building with memes of Harris dancing.
Certain outlets had wagered so intense a campaign to get Biden out (not that we disagreed), it sure looks to us like they are now in danger of overcompensating with premature Harris deification. All reporters and editors have to be wary of the victory dance, and we’re hardly immune. Harris has yet to really address what her positions as president would be. She has not been through a traditional primary process. We don’t yet know enough.
So it’s especially frustrating that strenuous efforts have been made to scrub any and all potential problems from Harris, rather than talk about them honestly and thoroughly. An Axios reporter wrote this past week that “in the past few days, the Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the “border czar” title — which she never actually had.” It did not take long for X users to unearth a previous Axios report, as written by the very same reporter, saying that Harris had been given, guess what title? Caught in that bind, Axios then had to append an editor’s note saying, “this article has been updated and clarified to note that Axios was among the news outlets that incorrectly labeled Harris a ‘border czar’ in 2021,” even though any nonpartisan figure knows that border czar was the basic idea and she did not exactly impress. Not that the Republicans did any better on this very difficult issue than Harris: Trump, in fact, blocked a potential border deal specifically for his own political gain. Still, it’s not necessary to treat people like they have no memory.
After English pop singer Charli XCX tweeted, “kamala IS brat,” a flattering reference not to sausage but to the 2000s gestalt influenced by confident, para-feminist partying and rave culture, those three words were much amplified to try to make the tough-nosed, 60ish former prosecutor more appealing to young female voters. No matter that the tweeter isn’t even American and thus should butt out. No matter that anyone who cares was already voting for Harris.
The Republicans are failing to see that Democrats are better at ironic co-option and have fresher pop culture references of the kind TikTok loves. But the election should not turn on whatever Harris meant to say about falling out of coconut trees. We’re still waiting for actual positions. Fun she may be, but the substance of Harris as a potential president remains largely unknown. Notwithstanding her time as vice president.
Lamentably, both America’s political machines find it far easier to fire up their base these days than actually talk to undecided voters, which makes you think if one party just reversed that propensity, this would not be a one- or two-point race. Thinking he was well ahead, Trump chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his vice presidential pick, a move designed to appeal only to the people who were already going to vote for him, as distinct from the several other available characters who would have broadened his appeal. It took about 10 seconds for Democrats to find a past Vance speech denigrating childless women, thus alienating many women in the suburban constituency Trump needs to win.
Another sign of overconfidence: Trump delivered a tedious 93-minute convention acceptance speech, when he should have stopped cold after his description (riveting and moving, from the convention floor) of the attempt on his life, a day when he showed the kind of courage and fortitude that his rivals have insisted for years was no part whatsoever of his character. But, ever revealingly, he just could not take the win and leave the table.
The battle of Big TikTok is underway and one party clearly is better prepared to wage it. We advocate for both sides talking to the people, not the Chinese algorithms, and remembering that those who feel alienated and left behind by an avalanche of powerful partisanship will be the deciders of this neck-and-neck election.
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