Vice President Kamala Harris
During their abbreviated presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, have used the “freedom” theme very effectively. In particular, they built on the prior work of President Joe Biden and other leading Democrats, and took “freedom” away from the Republicans. Harris, Walz and other Democrats thus have applied “freedom” to government interference in reproductive rights, gun violence against children in schools, voting rights, and more. The theme worked so well that we didn’t think it could be topped.
But now, weeks before the 2024 elections, Vice President Harris has been leveling a new attack against her opponent, Donald Trump, and it may be even more effective than the “freedom” theme. As was the case with “freedom,” this new attack goes right at a point that Republicans, specifically Donald Trump, have been making for years.
The new attack that Kamala Harris is making against Donald Trump is that he is “weak.”
The “Trump is weak” attack could be seen, for example, at last month’s debate between Harris and Trump. Then, Harris called it “a pretty weak move” when Trump chickened out of a second debate. Most recently, during an appearance on Charlamagne Tha God’s popular radio program broadcasting from Detroit, Harris went into more detail:
The man is really quite weak. He’s weak. It’s a sign of weakness that you want to please dictators and seek their flattery and favor. It’s a sign of weakness that you would demean America’s military and America’s service members. It’s a sign of weakness that you don’t have the courage to stand up for the Constitution the United States and the principles upon which it stands…. This man is weak and he is unfit.
There is every expectation that Harris will keep leveling the “weak” attack against Trump.
This attack by Harris is doubly effective because Donald Trump’s entire persona is built on the myth of being “strong” rather than weak, whether it’s in business deal-making, womanizing, or otherwise. That’s how authoritarians and dictators (often referred to as “strongmen”) operate. For them, image and perception are everything. It’s why, for example, the photos of Vladimir Putin shirtless on horseback , or suited up and playing ice hockey, were spread so widely by Russian and pro-Russian propagandists. But if enough facts emerge to refute the image of the authoritarian’s strength, and if enough people accept such facts (a big “if” at this time of Republican cultism), then the “strongman” quickly gets brought down to earth like the Wizard of Oz. That is certainly the hope of Harris and the Democrats in this case.
“Weak” is also a term Trump uses to attack his opponents, ranging from certain Democratic Governors to The New York Times to, more recently Fox “News.” Once again, therefore, Vice President Harris is turning the tables on Republicans with their own language. And we find it delicious.
Photo by Dunk, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/FrCZmQ
