Joy, excitement, and optimism filled the conference arena this week in Chicago as Democrats rallied around Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee.
We heard flowery promises “to care for each other,” celebrate freedom, and chart “a new path forward” of competence, calm, and normalcy. It evoked the “hope and change” of an earlier era.
This may be shrewd political strategy, but it is not a governing agenda. The convention was one massive air brush: Believe the marketing. Buy the product, take it home, and then find out what’s inside the package. It’s the Nancy Pelosi playbook.
Ultra-liberal VP Harris and running-mate Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota cannot discuss their core policy beliefs for fear of alienating moderate Democrats and independents whose votes they need to win.
The DNC put on slick production to fire up thousands of delegates to march out and “fight” to elect Kamala and Coach Walz. The one uniting idea they share appears to be contempt for President Trump. We will find out if that is enough.
This year’s bizarre Democratic party “nominating” process meant that Kamala didn’t have to answer questions from primary opponents or reporters about her agenda. Delegates—and tens of millions of people watching on TV—appear to believe that they and Kamala are in sync. She can be a chameleon and allow the party to appear to be one big happy family.
But Harris’ history indicates she would double-down on the liberal, woke, progressive policies of the Biden administration.
The 92-page Democratic Party Platform shows the long wish list of new and expanded government programs requiring trillions of dollars in added taxpayer spending. This will be the Harris administration’s roadmap. Harris represents a continuation of the “most progressive administration in my generation,” one insider wrote.
Now Kamala is in the awkward position of having to camouflage many of her strongest policy positions, including Medicare for All; full national paid family and medical leave; free child care; cash for new homeowners; universal pre-k; expanded Medicaid; increasing the federal minimum wage; government price controls on groceries, medicines, and event rent; more Green New Deal spending; spending for undocumented immigrants; and, of course, much higher taxes on the rich, especially investment capital.
Fortunately for her, the mainstream media seems to have a little curiosity about these “details.”
“Whether she can keep this up, unexplained and unexposed, for the next 12 weeks will determine whether she becomes America’s 47th President,” The Wall Street Journal opines.
“Mr. Trump has let Ms. Harris claim the mantle of change, though she has been Mr. Biden’s sidekick all along. This is political malpractice,” the Journal rightly observes. “If [Trump] can’t make voters see that Ms. Harris’s views on energy, taxes, spending and so much more are out of step with middle America, he will lose.”
Both Kamala and Gov. Walz have succeeded in politics by knowing how to play the political game, but their records provide insights into how they would govern.
When she was in the Senate, Harris competed with Sen. Bernie Sanders to be the most liberal US senator. Gov. Walz was marketed as a moderate Democrat—a coach and all-American dad. But once he got re-elected as governor in 2022 and gained control of both houses of the state legislature, he pushed through legislation many believe is turning Minnesota into another California.
The DNC platform says they “reject political violence” and that we need a new generation of civility and politics. It calls for lowering “the temperature of our politics.” Who could argue! Yet Gov. Walz watched for several days as the Twin Cities burned in 2020 after the George Floyd riots before finally calling in the National Guard. By then, 1,500 businesses had been destroyed, and the local police headquarters had been burned to the ground.
Like so many others, Harris repeatedly blasts Trump, including saying Heritage’s 2025 Project is his agenda, that he would slash Medicare and Social Security benefits, and strip health insurance from millions of working people—which Trump repeatedly has disavowed.
Democrats are accusing President Trump of doing exactly what they already are doing, including weaponizing the judicial system against him, allowing millions of illegal immigrants to flood our borders, and contorting the tax code to favor the rich.
“She’s much more skillful than I have ever seen,” Tucker Carlson told his viewers last night. “The things she is saying right now are not just untrue—they’re the opposite of the truth… She’s much more like Gavin Newsom than I ever realized.”
Social media was in an uproar last night during Kamala speech with people outraged over the untruths that they were hearing. Their voices need to be more widely heard by uninformed voters.
Kamala Harris is being coached to hide her true beliefs, dutifully reading her speeches from teleprompters to offer hard criticisms of Trump and soft platitudes about her governing agenda. Voters may like to hear soft reassurances, but hard decisions have to be made once a president is in office.
At the end of the convention last night, Brit Hume said on Fox News that he wondered if this might be the last of these convention spectacles. Right now, it’s a four-day movie, with Hollywood production quality. All brought to your living rooms free of charge.
“The only reason they do this is because we cover it,” he said to his other panelists. Covering a convention looks like great fun, but it is really hard work for reporters and for all of the people who are putting on the show. Maybe we do need to rethink the wisdom of all this.