Alan Zendell, July 27, 2024

Despite knowing that you can’t believe a word Donald Trump says, it’s relatively easy to tell when he’s desperate, and Kamala Harris’ meteoric rise in just one week has made him so. How do we know? He told the crowd hosted by the Christian conservative group Turning Point Action, “You won’t have to vote anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians.”

That’s sickening on one level and horrifying on another. Trump got evangelists to vote for him by promising to overturn Roe v Wade and pack the Supreme Court with right-wing extremists. It was quintessential Trump pandering. He couldn’t care less about abortion or women’s health, and he cares even less about Christian values. He thinks he can use bigotry against LGBTQ individuals to pull off the same trick again, but not so fast, Donald. You’re a convicted felon, now, and most Christians don’t approve of that. They also don’t approve of sexually assaulting women, and a court has also found you guilty of that. They don’t like being defrauded, either, and that’s kind of your calling card, as another court found.

When Donald Trump, circa 2016 screamed “witchhunt,” “lies,” and “deep state conspiracy,” Christians and other people with positive values and moral consciences might have been taken in. But in 2024, the entire country has watched Trump flaunt laws, be indicted for more than ninety felonies and convicted, so far, of thirty-four, and stage an insurrection at the Capitol. Kamala Harris will remind everyone of every despicable thing Trump has done at every opportunity. She rarely says Trump’s name without preceding it with “criminal.”

If you believe what Trump told those “beautiful Christians” he privately disdains as losers, you should be motivated to do everything in your power to stop him short of violence. However he backtracks and rewords his statements, they’re unambiguous. He says Christians will never have to vote again in four years because he intends to have undermined our Constitution by then. Not that he’d ever be able to pull that off, but he could catastrophically damage the country trying.

Even with the bar at Trump’s low level, those words smack of desperation. The polls show that Harris has completely erased Trump’s former lead over Biden in just a week, and that’s before half the country has a chance to get to know her. And she doesn’t slur her words or forget the names of foreign leaders. She can speak off the cuff without rambling incoherently. And she’s a healthy, fit woman whose energy on the campaign trail will exhaust him.

When Harris stands before a microphone and reads off Trump’s crimes, she is America’s prosecutor, and she’s very good at it. Ronald Reagan was a successful campaigner because he used his acting skills to endear himself to voters, which made him seem natural at politics. That works for Harris even more so, because this presidential campaign will be a metaphor for prosecuting Trump. She won’t be acting, she’ll be in her element. She need not resort to slander or hyperbole, because the facts speak for themselves.

In 2016 and 2020, Democrats told voters that Trump was exactly what he seemed to be, a power-obsessed narcissistic sociopath. Listen to what he says he intends to do, and take him literally. When the uproar hits, he’ll claim he meant “you won’t have to vote because after I fix everything, it’ll all be okay.” But that’s not what he meant. He meant that if he’s elected, he will spend four years dismantling everything that has made America great. He’s insane, and he’s dangerous; he treats the government like an organized crime family, with equal ruthlessness. He meant that after more years of Trump, there will be no more voting.

The Trump campaign keeps changing their message about debating Harris. Biden’s staff never figured out that presidential debates have nothing to do with issues, and they only have value if both sides abide by the rules. Trump will probably back out in the end, because he’s quails at the thought of standing up to a strong, competent woman. It doesn’t matter to Harris. If she debates him, she’ll eat his lunch, and if he won’t play, she’ll simply dress cartoon Trump in a chicken suit.

Given her brilliant start, I would remind voters that in 1992, most of America had never heard of Bill Clinton, and in 2008, most voters had no idea who Barrack Obama was except (oh no!) that he was a black man running for president. Kamala Harris is in a stronger position today than either of them were. She has a groundswell of support that can only grow through the Democratic convention. And she has an opponent who disqualifies himself every time he opens his mouth.

If that’s not enough, let me introduce you to J. D. Vance.