No Joy
Usually in a general election campaign, a candidate will spend the first part of the race defining himself or herself in TV ads and appearances. Then he or she goes negative against his or her opponent…then for the closing stretch, more positive advertising to elevate the candidate himself or herself.
That’s the normal plan. But these are not normal times, especially at the presidential level.
Kamala Harris began her campaign with slogans like “joy”—the latest version of the Democrat “happy warrior” on the stump. That worked for the initial few days. But the bloom quickly came off that rose. So the campaign went right to attacking Donald Trump, which made sense because he had a record in office, and frankly often plays into an opponent’s hand with things he says.
But that didn’t have the desired outcome. So now, in the last days of the campaign, the Harris folks are doubling down on going negative, to the point of using names like Hitler and descriptions like fascist. It would appear—if polls are to be believed, and they generally are not—that this may be backfiring with little time left to pivot to a positive approach, especially with so many having already voted.
I dare say a large number of Americans could not define fascist if asked, but they know it’s bad…and when you call your opponent Hitler, there’s not much territory left.
I have no idea how the vote will turn out, so what I’m criticizing may well turn out to be brilliant strategy. But when your best closing argument is to condemn your opponent, that’s pretty thin. Especially since the idea of tearing down the opponent is to leave a voter open…but then you as the candidate need to close the deal and win someone over.
Simply saying “other side bad” is only part of the approach. You need “other side bad, and here’s the good I will bring”…and as the final weekend of the campaign begins, the Harris side seems stuck on making only half an argument to voters…and an angry half, at that.
