We are weeks away from Election (counting) Day. In some states, ballots are already being cast – which is a good reason to shorten the early voting period.
As a political consultant, I routinely advise my client-candidates that elections are won on what voters decide to decide upon. That division has come into stark contrast in the 2024 presidential election.
Team Harris has two issues upon which they want voters to decide – abortion and Donald Trump. Team Trump wants voters to have immigration, inflation and crime on their minds as they cast their ballots.
That theoretically gives Trump the edge since a majority of voters put the economy, immigration and crime as the top issues of concern. According to polls, Trump dominates on all those issues by a wide margin. In a normal year (which we can all agree this is not) those numbers would lead to a big victory for Trump and down ballot Republicans.
The abortion issue remains low on the voters’ list of top concerns – rarely making it into the top ten. That leaves Trump – the man/the personality – as the Democrats’ only winnable issue. Unfortunately for Trump, they – with the unseemly help of a crony news media – are making it work.
Team Harris is also getting help from another surprising source – Team Trump. They are creating issues that (1) distract from the really important issues and (2) reinforce the bad dangerous Trump personality narrative.
So, what two issues have dominated the news in recent days? Childless cat ladies. Adults without children. Migrants eating cats and dogs.
If is not uncommon for campaigns to create arbitrary issues that have no meaning beyond the election. I first learned that way back in the 1960 contest between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Two of the biggest issues were the fate of the islands of Quemoy and Matsu and the so-called “missile gap.” They were no longer an issue after the election.
Whoever wins this year, the subjects of childless folks and animal cuisine will be lost forever. But for now, they are an issue. They are taking away the spotlight from the economy, immigration and crime. And they are an unforced error by Team Trump.
A person’s reason or desire to not have children is a personal situation – and not one that suggests a personality problem. Yes, there is a legitimate concern over the serious drop in birth rates. And yes, abortion is one of the factors in both the birth rate and in individual decisions to not have children. But …beating up on people without children is both wrong and stupid. It is even counterproductive in terms of winning votes.
Governor Sarah Huckabee’s attack on Harris for not having biological children was inexplicable – from the standpoint of fact and political strategy. She did have stepchildren. Having raised kids who were not biologically related to me or my wife, I consider raising adopted or acquired children as legitimate parenthood. You love them and nurture them just as much as your own because they become your own.
I still have a problem getting my head around the cat-eating Haitians story. That story has suffocated a real concern for the negative impact of the Biden/Harris immigration policies on America’s small towns and big cities.
It is this kind of nonsense that gives credibility to the bad Trump narrative. I am not sure how many unforced errors Team Trump can make and still win the election, but they seem to be determined to find out.
Unless Trump and the Republicans get back on the economy, immigration, crime and foreign policy, they will lose an election that has been Trump’s to lose for several months.
So, there ‘tis.