From the beginning of the presidential campaign, it was apparent that voters knew more about the two major party candidates than the politicians in Washington, the mega-donors, and the political parties. Voters did not want Joe Biden or Donald Trump to do a repeat of the 2020 election. Now, one of those two will not be on the ballot in November, Joe Biden. That leaves only Donald Trump. So, the choice is an untested, far-left Kamala Harris and a far-right Donald Trump. Yes, America has succumbed to the politics of the extreme.
This campaign has taken unexpected twists and turns, unlike any campaign in recent history. President Lyndon Johnson’s withdrawal from the 1968 campaign was a shock, a result of voters tired of the Vietnam War and the violent riots in the streets. Voters, not Washington politicians and mega-donors, wanted a change, and they got it. President Johnson withdrew because voters wanted him out, and that campaign began anew.
It should be easy enough for Donald Trump to take it to VP Harris. She has had three and a half years to cure our nation’s many ills. Her proclamations that she will fight to bring down inflation and high prices beg the question, “What have you been doing the past three and one-half years?” Instead, Trump continues reinforcing his political base and the votes he has no matter what he says or does. He leaves voters not sold on the vice president and wary of him on the table. He continues with name-calling and insults, which American voters have grown tired of. Simply put, it appears that Donald Trump is working hard to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, or he is in it to raise money for his legal defense. Political campaigns are about building support, not alienating potential voters. This is a race Trump should win, but he is doing all that he can to make sure it does not happen.
New polling shows that the race is neck and neck, with Kamala Harris leading. Former President Trump has all the ammunition he needs to attack the record of the current administration but instead resorts to insults, name-calling, and exaggerated claims of how great he was as president and how bad the Biden-Harris administration is. On “Meet the Press,” Sen Lindsey Graham said that Mr. Trump needs to stop the name-calling. Trump, “the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.” (NBC News August 18, 2024). Sen. Graham said Trump may lose if he fails to focus on policy. Sen. Graham is 100% correct.
In Georgia, Mr. Trump went out of his way to attack the state’s governor, Brian Kemp. This was a gratuitous attack on a governor who could help him win a critical state that he, Trump, lost in 2020. The former president’s campaign is befuddling and confusing. Once again, is he trying to lose?
The Republican Party and members of Congress are to blame for the disaster that this campaign has become. The January 6 attack on the Capitol and denial of the 2020 election outcome should have been enough for republican politicians, the national party, and leaders in Washington and elsewhere to move on from Mr. Trump. But they didn’t. They doubled down. At the rate things are going, America is in line for the most liberal presidential administration in history, which may all but guarantee a republican victory in 2028, but not if the candidate is once again Donald Trump or his clone.