A Moderate Viewpoint In a Conservative Desert

You know the old saying:  If you say it enough times, people will think it’s true.

8-28-2024 – Palm Springs – Now that the conventions are over and Donald Trump is back to his long-winded, disjointed, senseless rally speeches, the Conservative Radioverse is continuing to try and define Kamala Harris.

Mark Levin opines: “ Kamala Harris is hiding from the public with the help of corrupt media and campaign surrogates.”  Levin is well known for defining any media, except his own media empire as “corrupt”.  He can engage in hyperbole about Harris and the Democrats, yet the same behavior or worse by Trump is ignored or even praised.

Trump has now taken his cue from the Conservative Radio brawl and has started referring to Harris as a Communist, Marxist radical.  As I mentioned in a previous post, this appears to be code speak to the Baby Boomers who grew up during the Cold War when Communist/Marxist was the worst possible association.

Good old Sean Hannity is continuing with his flailing, flip-flopping description of Harris.  He is accusing her of changing policies . . . as if no-one ever did it.  Just look at Trump trying to find an out over Roe v. Wade.  He is all over the map, trying to be everything to everyone on this issue.  From taking credit for the Supreme Court that overturned Roe to being very pro choice.  NBC News published a timeline of Trump’s positions on the issue.  In 1999, Trump described himself as “very pro choice.”  In 2011, Trump was pro life.  In 2016, during various flip-flops over funding for Planned Parenthood, Trump advocated “Some form of punishment” for women who have abortions.  Later, Trump supported a 20 week abortion ban.  So, who is flailing and flip-flopping???

And, talk about flip-flops.  How many times during his administration did Trump appoint a “very smart” “highly effective” advisor or Chief of Staff or Foreign Policy advisor.  He even flip-flopped on James Comey, former FBI Director a few times.  First people were the greatest . . . then the worst that ever happened.  For example:  “Anthony Scaramucci was communications director for 11 days. He was succeeded by Hope Hicks, who resigned Feb. 28, 2018. On July 5, 2018, Bill Shine was appointed to the White House communications director role with a slightly different official title, “Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications”; he resigned on March 8, 2019. Stephanie Grisham subsequently took over both the communications director and press secretary roles. “ (From a Brookings Institute Report on Turnover in the Trump Administration)  The report looked at every administration since Reagan.  Trumps rate of staff turnover was far and away the worst at 92%.  This rate of turnover leads to confusion and bad governance.

The truth is that every politician “flip-flops” on issues.  Harris should be careful though . . . this definition seems to be gaining some traction.

Comment:  The other area that is gaining negative traction against Harris is the lack of press/media interviews.  I agree that this is starting to look like a real issue.  True, she has now agreed to a CNN interview WITH Tim Walz, but she needs to do more.  Press “gaggles” are an expected and important part of any Presidential campaign.  They let the voters know just how nimble the candidate is on their feet.  We see it EVERY TIME a President is around the press.  As one commentator put it:  It’s great practice for a debate, when you are truly on your own.