This Year, Voters Are Flexible and Ready To Deal

SAN DIEGO -- As if the 2024 presidential election didn't have enough surprises, it now delivers something completely unexpected that we don't see often in politics: a squishy electorate.

Usually, it's the politicians and elected officials who bend and twist and contort themselves to get elected. Forget about kissing babies. The real tradition of American politics is flip-flopping.

Kamala Harris was against a border wall before she was in favor of one. The vice president has called the idea of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border a "stupid use of money" and a "medieval vanity project" for former President Donald Trump. Now she promises that, if elected president, she'll sign into law an enforcement bill that appropriates $650 million to build the kind of wall that Trump planned to build. Only this time, Mexico isn't picking up the tab. U.S. taxpayers are.

As a fellow resident of the border state of California, I doubt that Harris -- who served as attorney general of the Golden State and later as a U.S. senator -- has spent 10 minutes thinking about immigration. But as a fairly skilled politician, she knows just enough to understand that the explosive issue has the power to blow up political careers. An elected official cannot afford to be seen as soft on illegal immigration and weak on border security. We can expect Harris to continue to veer right on the issue, and be less of a leader and more of a follower.

Meanwhile, when it comes to abortion, Trump isn't pro-choice. He is multiple choice. One minute, the former president is bragging that he put on the Supreme Court three conservative justices -- Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett -- who helped overturn Roe v. Wade. The next minute, Trump is declaring his opposition to a national ban on abortion and insisting that the issue needs to be sorted out by individual states.

The Republican has also appeared to express qualms about a Florida law that makes it illegal to have an abortion after the sixth week of a pregnancy because, in his words, "we need more than six weeks." In a recent interview with NBC News, Trump said that -- as a resident of Florida, where voters face a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution in order to overturn the ban -- he was "going to be voting that we need more than six weeks." After a backlash from the pro-life crowd, Trump said that he'll be voting against the initiative.

If you don't like an elected official's stance on an issue, give them a few days. They'll conjure up a new stance that is more to your liking.

Voters are usually the inflexible ones. Whether the issue is climate change or gun control or health care, they're the anchor that keeps everyone grounded.

Yet this year is different. Suddenly, voters in both parties are ready to bend and meet the candidates where they are, which is to say where they feel most comfortable politically. Voters are willing to make allowances, even on the most controversial issues.

A new poll by The New York Times and Siena College finds that the race for the White House is essentially tied, with 48% of Americans planning to support Trump and 47% backing Harris.

But this is the finding that jumped out at me: Nearly half of Trump voters (44%) said that he had offended them at some point but that they still planned to vote for him.

Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson has a name for those who don't like Trump but plan to vote for him anyway. She calls them "begrudging Trump voters." In the Times/Siena poll, about 7% of likely voters who support Trump fall into this basket.

Something similar is going on with Harris supporters. Some progressives I've heard from have qualms with her rightward tilt on immigration and her record as a prosecutor who, critics say, disregarded the civil liberties of the accused. But they're willing to look past all that if it means defeating Trump.

The entire electorate is controlled by fear. Trump's supporters are afraid of Harris and what it would mean to the country if she were elected. Harris' supporters feel the same way about returning Trump to the White House. Both camps are willing to vote for less-than-ideal candidates because they're terrified of the alternative.

But the voters aren't looking ahead. If they abandon their principles, they'll never get from politicians the one thing they need most: respect.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.