Remember when Democrats were demoralized? When they dreaded another Trump term? When they realized, with shock and horror, that the candidate they backed displayed age-related infirmities (confirming public opinion that he was too old for another term in the White House)?
Remember when Republicans at their convention were roused up, anticipating a landslide victory in November? When they were confident that Americans would be more put off by Joe Biden (looking and acting older than 4 years ago) in November than by Donald Trump (with his history of lying, fraud, sexual assault, racism, misogyny, contempt for democratic norms and the rule of law, deliberate divisiveness, and compulsive narcissism)? When their nominee doubled down on MAGA belligerence and selected J.D. Vance as his running mate?
National Democrats had another idea, which -- remarkably -- they succeeded in putting in place. And on Sunday, July 21 things flipped. With a new candidate came new messaging, more energy, and an "overnight shift in tone," as NBC's Sahil Kapur illustrates with contrasting press releases from the Democratic campaign. Before: "Statement: Workers Cannot Afford A Second Trump Term." After: "JD Vance is a Creep (Who Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide)."
JD Vance has quite a history vis-a-vis Donald Trump. Personal ambition seems to have pushed him from a stance as a no-holds-barred Trump critic. In 2016 he wrote, "Trump is cultural heroin." And, the same year, "I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he's America's Hitler."
Since then, Vance has decided to hitch his wagon to Trump, and he's gone all-in, with podcast after podcast with true-believing MAGA acolytes. Women, women's roles, and women's rights are trumped by the Christian Right's fondness for traditional families headed by a patriarch, again and again and again. Whether or not that's weird, it may be toxic to swing voters.
July 21 was ten days ago. The Trump campaign is still floundering. Now Trump is the old, out of touch guy -- confused by or angry about, for instance, multiracial families -- running for president. Yesterday the man who led the birther movement challenged the racial identity of the Black/South Asian woman running against him:
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said. “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
It's not all that complicated. Harris's father was Jamaican; her mother, Indian. The vice president attended Howard University, joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and has identified as Black throughout her political career in California. She didn't "turn Black" (though she been open about and has never denied her Asian roots). Trump's claim is plainly false, whether he is consciously lying or simply indifferent to the truth. And that's classic Trump.
As is making personal attacks. As is couching those attacks in racial terms. Many Trump allies have urged his campaign to refrain from racial attacks on Harris, to no avail. But Trump being Trump means playing the MAGA version of the race card. It would be surprising, given his history, if the man didn't rush to focus on race in attacking an opponent.
His outburst has succeeded in dominating a day (or a few hours) of the news cycle. Was this a tried and true political tactic then? Or Trump's narcissism -- his compulsion to be the center of attention that surfaced? Or just habitual grievance-mongering, never mind if it was nonsense?
Whatever. We saw Donald Trump (whether unfiltered or playing a part) in action. This is who he is.
Kamala Harris responded, noting Trump's comments:
And it was the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better.
The American people deserve better. The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth. A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us. They are an essential source of our strength.
The man who riffs on sharks and electrocution, celebrates Hannibal Lector, and inevitably drags race, gender, nationality, and/or religion into our political discourse in order to divide us, is there for all to see. It's worse than weird, though weird might serve to repel the Trump campaign.
We'll see come November 5.