Bob Dole, seated in wheelchair
Besides their obvious policy differences, one of the most striking contrasts between the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz on one hand, and Donald Trump and J.D. Vance on the other hand, is the difference in tone. Specifically, Harris and Walz are running a campaign full of joy and positivity, to the point where Republicans are trying (desperately, and unsuccessfully) to make fun of Harris for — get this — smiling and laughing. Trump and Vance instead are going with false doom and gloom.
These difference were apparent in last Tuesday’s presidential debate between Harris and Trump. In her very first answer (regarding the economy), Harris set the tone for her approach, stating, “I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people.” Accordingly, Harris outlined her plans for what she called an “opportunity economy,” including tax cuts to young families with children and to small start-up businesses. Harris often says that, her whole career, she has worked “for the people.”
In contrast, Trump began by lying that “we’ve had a terrible economy,” and then launched into his theme of the night, fear-mongering about immigrants. According to Trump, “Our country is being lost. We’re a failing nation.” Likewise, Trump said:
[W]e have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they’re coming in and they’re taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics and also unions. Unions are going to be affected very soon. And you see what’s happening.
And this time, bizarrely, Trump launched a new attack against immigrants:
In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.
Not coincidentally, most reviews and polls from across the political spectrum indicated that Harris trounced Trump in the debate.
Trump’s campaign of negativity is very reminiscent of Senator Bob Dole‘s 1996 campaign against incumbent President Bill Clinton. At that time, as the economy was humming along and the news was getting better and better, Dole almost comically tried to talk about how bad things were. According to one reporter who was traveling with the Dole campaign:
Dole’s campaign often arranged folksy events at businesses or farms to stress how President Clinton’s policies were damaging the economy. I recall one such event where just as Dole was about to walk out, my SkyPager — then de rigueur for the D.C. reporter set — buzzed to advise that consumer confidence had hit some sort of record.
In case anyone doesn’t know or remember, Dole’s campaign was an epic failure. Clinton ended up winning in a landslide, 379 electoral votes to Dole’s 159.
As Bill Clinton himself has said:
If one candidate is appealing to your fears, and the other one’s appealing to your hopes, you’d better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope!
We think — and hope — that is just what the majority of U.S. voters will do this Election Day.
Photo by Iggy Dolphin, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/VcifpX
