To the media, Donald Trump is the enemy. One who must be destroyed, no matter the costs. For months (years, really), they ran some major interference for President Biden (where is he, by the way?). They downplayed his very public lies and gaffes, dismissed his critics as pedalling 'cheap fakes', and told you he was going to stay in the presidential race right up until the moment he dropped out.
We have zero reason to believe the media, and they're setting fire to the last shreds of their credibility by propping up the Kamala Harris campaign.
There has been a lot of spin -- this piece from The Atlantic is just one example -- but the most bizarre and downright laughable is the notion that Kamala's campaign is running on 'bringing joy' back to the White House. I mean, they failed to return decency and adults to the Oval Office, so I guess they're lowering expectations a bit.
But joy? Really?
Harris is pushing joy. Trump paints a darker picture. Will mismatched moods matter? https://t.co/2PjYO2zRT1
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 12, 2024
Really, AP? Really!?
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They write:
At the top of his first speech as her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz turned to Vice President Kamala Harris and declared, “Thank you for bringing back the joy.” The next day, Harris took the theme a step further, branding the Democratic ticket “joyful warriors.”
Contrast that with former President Donald Trump, who opened a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida a few days later by saying, “We have a lot of bad things coming up,” and predicting the U.S. could fall into an economic depression unseen since the dark days of 1929 or even another world war.
“I think that our country is, right now, in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in, from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint,” Trump said Thursday.
I gladly read this drivel so you don't have to.
And that's what it is: drivel. For a couple of reasons.
The mood of the country is not one of joy. Two-thirds of voters believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. Nearly four in ten Americans worry their income won't meet expenses. In survey after survey, inflation and the economy are the top issues, with two-thirds (gee, there's that number again) listing inflation as their biggest concern heading into November. The numbers of homeless continue to rise, including homelessness among those who are employed.
And Kamala is going to bring joy back when people are so sour on the economy? How? She's not rolled out a single policy yet, and although she vowed to tackle inflation on 'day one' of her presidency by going after 'illegal price gouging' and rent hikes (what's she been up to the last 3.5 years?) she won't release her economic plan until later this week.
No rush, lady.
She did steal the 'no tax on tips' idea from Trump so she's got that going for her. I guess.
It's easy to see why Kamala hasn't rolled out an economic plan, now that I think about it. She's been too busy making sure campaign staffers flip-flop every policy position she's held since at least 2020. She's such a joyful warrior she has to make sure no one knows what she fought for while the Senate's most liberal member, as the border czar, or chair of the National Space Council.
This is all by design. By not holding fast to policy positions and having campaign staff -- named and anonymous -- reverse positions she favored (many times on video), it makes her agenda hard to pin down and easily reversible. It doesn't take a poli-sci major to know exactly how this plays out if Kamala is elected: she'll deny she reversed her positions, as it was staffers who issued the statements and enact her radical policies.
But the biggest reason is the rhetoric Kamala uses to describe Donald Trump.
In fashion reminiscent of Biden's 'put y'all back in chains' rhetoric, Kamala warned voters that Trump will enact 'anti-LGBTQ policies' and oppress the LGBTQ community. Recall that the Left said Mike Pence would put gays in camps if he was elected with Trump in 2016.
She repeatedly lies about abortion and miscarriage care. She spreads deadly misinformation to women, telling them abortion bans mean they will be denied health care if they miscarry their unborn child. This actually puts women's lives at risk. Is this 'joy', AP?
The Biden-Harris campaign repeatedly puts out statements and social media posts that call Donald Trump a serious threat to democracy. One that will take away our freedoms and -- once again -- put people in 'camps.' They kept doing this even after someone tried to assassinate Trump at a campaign rally.
Kamala campaign surrogates get on MSNBC and say this election comes down to 'Trump or our lives' and women have a 'life or death' choice: vote Kamala or be killed.
So. Much. Joy.
Even the Biden campaign had nothing kind to say about Kamala at one point. The book is This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, written by Politico's politics chief Johnathan Martin, and Alex Burns of the New York Times. In 2022, this is how Kamala was described BY HER RUNNING MATE and his associates: 'strange and disappointing', 'uneven', and a 'fiasco.'
And just a couple of weeks ago, that 'messy' and 'uneven' VP was given Biden's endorsement.
A word that was not used to describe Kamala in that book? Joyful.
Does the media think Kamala cackling when she can't answer a question is 'joy', because we could understand that. She does it frequently. But that is not joy. It's the tic of an unqualified, unprepared candidate who runs a dysfunctional VP office with high turnover where she can't even be bothered to read daily briefings.
I will give AP some credit though. The mismatched moods will make a difference. Kamala, Walz and the AP can speak of 'joy' because they are insulated from the disastrous policies the Biden administration has foisted on the rest of us.
Meanwhile, Americans -- struggling under the weight of inflation, a stagnant jobs market, increased unemployment, and uncontrolled illegal immigration -- will see Kamala and Walz laughing it up on the campaign trail while they worry about putting food on the table.
They'll also see ads like this from Trump and remember that when Trump was president they could afford gas and groceries.
And at the ballot box, that's all that will matter.
