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As Vice President Kamala Harris slips in the polls, the Democratic National Committee/Harris campaign/mainstream media fusion talking points become even more absurd.
Claiming that J.D. Vance and Donald Trump were “weird” did not work — especially given the genuinely odd behavior of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and would-be First Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Nor was the next Harris meme convincing, that the frenetic and non-stop Trump was somehow “exhausted,” “senile” and “confused.” Voters know the workdays of the younger Harris are usually far shorter — or sometimes not workdays at all.
But Harris also falsely claimed the physically and mentally challenged President Joe Biden was, in her words, “absolutely authoritative” and “very bold and vibrant.”
Now Harris asserts that Trump is a “fascist,” a “dictator” and “unfit” for office.
But this new talking point will also not stop the Harris campaign’s hemorrhaging — and for a variety of reasons.
First, voters see the election as a conflict of two absolutely antithetical visions.
On the one hand is the prior Trump 2017-20 concrete record: border security, no major wars abroad, calm in the Middle East, a deterred Russia, Iran, and China, low inflation, low interest rates, lower crime, lower taxes, strong deterrent military — and opposition to electric vehicle mandates, biological males competing in women’s sports and the woke/DEI agenda.
On the other hand is the Biden-Harris 2021-2024 record: the unchecked entry of 12 to 20 million illegal aliens and a destroyed border.
People still struggle under Biden-Harris’ earlier hyperinflation and high interest rates.
The horrific regional wars in Ukraine and the Middle East continue.
Biden-Harris embraces the unpopular DEI/woke agenda.
Harris herself knows that the Biden-Harris years were a failure: That is why she has shed almost all of their hard-left-wing agendas — policies she has embraced for much of her adult life.
So suddenly, in the last 90 or so days, Harris has completely flipped and flopped.
Now she is for more police, not defunding them.
She’s pivoted to a secure border, not 20 million illegal aliens pouring across it.
Harris brags about fossil fuel energy, not banning fracking, and for increasing, not cutting, defense.
In fact, several endangered incumbent Democratic senators in swing states are claiming more allegiance to Trump’s issues than identifying with Harris and her unpopular record as vice president.
Voters likely conclude that if Trump doubles down on his record, while even Harris and many senators temporarily piggyback on it, then it must be more effective and popular than Harris’ own.
Second, Harris now claims Trump is a fascist and insurrectionist.
But mouthing ad nauseam “Jan. 6.” no longer persuades voters that Trump is a danger to anyone.
They recall that Harris bragged of the far more violent demonstrations of 2020 — 35 killed, $2 billion in damage, 1,500 law enforcement officers injured, 14,000 arrested — that the unrest would not and “should not” stop, while drumming up support to bail out jailed violent protestors.
Nor does the slur that Trump is a fascist resonate.
The Obama and Biden-Harris administrations weaponized the CIA and FBI to interfere in the 2016 and 2020 elections by peddling the fake Steele dossier and suppressing all the embarrassing news about Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop.
Trump certainly did not coordinate, as Biden did, with local, state, and federal prosecutors to wage lawfare prosecutions to destroy his political opponents. He did not use the FBI to partner with social media to suppress the news.
Neither Trump nor his supporters tried to remove Biden from state ballots.
The Republican House majority did not impeach Biden twice, despite the Biden family’s corruption and Joe Biden’s unlawful, decades-long removal of classified papers to several insecure private residences.
Trump and the Republicans never coercively removed the party’s primary-winning nominee. They did not nullify the will of 14 million primary voters.
And in backroom fashion, they did not anoint a candidate who had never entered a single primary in her life.
Nor did Trump support packing the Supreme Court. He does not seek unconstitutional means of destroying the Electoral College.
He is not demanding an end to the Senate filibuster or the creation of two new states to obtain four partisan Senate seats.
Third, as for Trump being “unfit” and lacking “decorum” — what were the Biden-Harris standards?
Having a trans activist reveal his breasts on camera at a White House “pride party”?
Biden’s reportedly calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “f–king liar” and “son of a bitch”? Bragging about locking Trump up, while waging lawfare against him?
Unleashing son Hunter Biden with impunity to shake down foreign governments?
The election will not be decided on these empty talking points or fake media-generated narratives.
Instead, only two criteria matter: Which candidate’s past record and current agenda best appeal to voters?
And which candidate seems the most authentic and genuine?
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness.