Losing (Con)Troll

In 2020, Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris to be his running mate, despite her evisceration of him on a debate stage where she attacked him as perpetuating and collaborating with racists. Biden, at the time, explicitly said he would choose a nonwhite female running mate and had originally flirted with the idea of failed Georgia candidate Stacey Abrams. To Republicans today, Harris is the epitome of a DEI candidate, and Democrats are furious about that comparison. It is a problem for the Republicans.

Democrat focus groups and media focus groups have regularly shown Kamala Harris is not well liked in parts of the black community. Black women and younger black men have often voiced criticisms of Harris. In the opinion of black focus group participants, Harris has not lived what they see as the "black experience." The daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father and Indian immigrant mother, Harris is the epitome of the American dream and melting pot. But her father's family descends from a line of slave owners in Jamaica. She herself grew up in progressive politics in Oakland, California. Her father was a Marxist economics professor, and her mother was a biologist and cancer researcher.

Black voters may lean toward Harris as a Democrat, but not necessarily as someone with a shared cultural background. When white Republicans call Kamala Harris a "DEI hire," black voters get defensive. Too many of them have had their hirings questioned as perhaps the product of affirmative action and not their merit. Attacking Harris as a DEI pick, true or not, draws black voters drifting away from the Democrats back in to take up defensive positions around Harris.

Many Trump supporters operate as "edgelords" online, i.e., they seek to provoke others through an extreme online persona embodied in Donald Trump himself, who often sounds like an internet comments section come to life. They want to "own the Left" more than they want to beat the Left. The same Trump supporters who even now relish the opportunity to attack Ron DeSantis and his supporters, months after the end of the Republican primary process, will not be controllable. Their trolling will only help the Left.

Republicans used to understand they were held to a double standard by the press and worked harder with more discipline. In fact, in the past month as the media that had protected Biden turned on him, we all got to see Democrats held to the same standards the press holds Republicans to, and Democrats did not like it. Now, the press is back in defense mode, retracting prior news articles that had referred to Harris as a "border czar" and deleting nonpartisan rankings that showed Harris as the most progressive senator while she was in the Senate.

Democratic operatives and activists tend to be more collectivist and easier to corral. Republican activists pride themselves on their independence. With Trump, too, many Republican activists pride themselves on pushing every button, racial and otherwise, to get a rise out of the Left. A media that would never tie a Democrat activist to Harris will work overtime to tie a Republican troll to Trump and, more often than not, there will be a picture of that troll at Mar-a-Lago.

Like with Project 2025, which embraces more than any candidate for office would ever embrace on the campaign trail, all the Trump trolls online will be tied to Trump. The news broadcasts relied on by low-information voters will cover the ties and tweets. Republicans must be careful.

Kamala Harris has a progressive record. She favors "a conversation" about letting prisoners, including terrorists, vote in elections. She favors using tax dollars to fund the health care of illegal aliens. She favors decriminalization of illegal alien entry into the country. She favors using government force to make Americans give up red meat. She favors the eradication of the fossil fuel industry. She favors disastrous economic policies. Republicans need to focus there.

Trump needs to focus on her record and a competing vision for the future. The DEI digs, etc. will hurt the GOP more than Harris. She's a deeply beatable candidate, but uncontrollable Republican trolling will blow up in the GOP's face.

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To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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