A New York Times news story this morning lays out the strategy MVP Harris is using to close the deal: Harris Aides Quietly Grow More Bullish on Defeating Trump:
- Keep hammering that Trump is a fascist
- Have the best ground game in place to GOTV
- Talk about the importance of restoring reproductive rights
(Not what I was expecting when I saw the story’s title, but that’s how it goes.)
Democrats are closing with a trifecta of messages that have been the foundation of Ms. Harris’s snap campaign: support for abortion rights, promises to improve the economy by lowering costs and housing prices, and warnings that Mr. Trump is a dangerous authoritarian.
(Modern journalism being what it is, the reporters couldn’t resist adding a “but”: “But she has largely refused to separate herself from the Biden administration, which remains broadly unpopular.”<sigh>)
Fascist: Even though WWII finished 80 years ago, the fight against fascism by the “greatest generation” is still held as one of our proudest moments. It’s a gut word, in other words. Eli Merritt, a poly sci professor, argues in a WaPo opinion —There’s a better term for Trump than ‘fascist’— that Harris should be calling Trump a “demagogue” rather than a fascist, but he’s missing the point IMO. “Demagogue” is a word intellectuals use, and doesn’t have the emotive power of “fascist.” Plus, people who used to work for Trump have taken to calling him a fascist, so repeating the same word reminds voters that this is what Trump’s own people — the “best people”— are warning about him. Also, it’s clear the word is getting under the GOP skin; McConnell and Johnson were complaining about it, always a sign she is doing something right.
The rally at MSG Saturday night only served to emphasize the “fascist” label and how appropriate it is. Trump’s HUGE (or “yuuuge”) unforced error —A Racist Joke at Trump’s New York Rally Could Be a Costly Mistake— could drive PR and other Latino voters to vote for Harris, and many of them live in the swing states, especially Pennsylvania.
But Harris has to do — and is doing — more than just make the case that Trump is unfit for office. She is showing why and how she will do a good job as our president.
The Ground Game: The president is the head of the executive branch, and has to run that branch efficiently if the country is going to prosper. One of the ways the electorate judges (or should judge) how good a job the candidate will do is by seeing how they campaign. Harris has done an extraordinary job under extraordinarily circumstances — she had 100 days to go from start to finish; a normal campaign can have two years or more. Maybe this hasn’t been getting the attention it should have, but even so, her ground game is doing the efficient job it needs to in getting out the vote. Trump outsourced his GOTV — such as it is — to Elon Musk, who is making a mess of it. Other top officials in his campaign are more interested in getting money out of it than in getting him elected, which both hurts him and is another example of his poor executive skills.
Also, from the NYT article:
Some of Democrats’ assurance stems from their campaign’s sizable financial advantage and what they believe is their superior field operation. In the final weeks, the campaign has dispatched an army of 2,500 staff members across the battleground states, while the Trump campaign has an untested strategy that relies heavily on inexperienced super PACs and outside groups.
Reproductive Rights: Ever since Dobbs, voter initiatives to enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions have been uniformly successful even in red states. Ballot initiatives are on the ballot again in this election, including in the swing states of Arizona and Nevada (and also in Florida and Montana, which could just possibly shift the races there). Harris has made this a centerpiece of her message — both negative, in terms of the real-world impact of Trump’s actions on real lives — and positive, in terms of her promise to restore dignity, health and safety to American women and reassurance to the men who love them. That’s a majority of the voters right there.
Even as she focuses more on Trump, Harris and Democrats up and down the ballot still believe abortion is one of their strongest issues and among Trump’s biggest weaknesses. They cite anger among suburban women over sweeping abortion restrictions that have taken effect in many states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, with justices appointed by Trump bolstering the majority.
(That quote is from the WaPo article Autocracy and ‘enemy from within’ are thrust to center of campaign’s final days, which still can’t resist quoting Democrats wringing their hands over Harris’s tactics and strategies; e.g.: “Even some of Harris’s advisers have questioned privately whether the focus [on fascism] is a smart one in the final stretch.”)
But Harris is also making economic arguments, and will probably highlight some of the recent headlines such as Americans’ economic mood is perking up ahead of the election, survey finds (CNN, one hour ago). But her basic mixture remains a multi-pronged approach: one part warning, one part positive, one part technical.
We put our trust in Harris to save our democracy, and she is doing the best job possible at it. Now she needs our help to close the deal. Let’s do it by working with her and stop the sniping, second-guessing, and armchair consulting.