The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Vote Trump, and the Media Will Die

Posted on | November 1, 2024 | No Comments

Did you just orgasm? Or was that me?

We’re all kinda sticky after reading this quote:

“If half the country has decided that Trump is qualified to be president, that means they’re not reading any of this media, and we’ve lost this audience completely. A Trump victory means mainstream media is dead in its current form. And the question is what does it look like after.”

STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS WITH THIS!

There is no better argument for electing Trump again — to announce, in no uncertain terms, that “the mainstream media is dead.”

Jake Tapper, Jim Acosta, Joe Scarborough, Norah O’Donnell, David Muir — tens of millions of Americans waving their middle fingers in the faces of all those pompous TV douchebags — VOTE TRUMP!

But here comes Byron York to urinate in our cornflakes, with a column reminding us that the election is actually very close and, as much as it boggles our minds, Kamala might actually win it:

There are some political races in which, if you go to a few rallies by each candidate, you get a pretty good idea of who is going to win. This presidential race is not like that. If you go to former President Donald Trump‘s rallies and Vice President Kamala Harris‘s rallies, you’ll have wildly different experiences, but you’re also going to find large crowds of highly enthusiastic voters who just love their candidate. The race is not only tied in the polls but is tied in the impressions of intensity and strength that each candidate’s events leave with an outside observer.
In the Real Clear Politics average of national polls, six of the nine most recent polls are tied, or the candidates are separated by a single percentage point. The results in the swing states are similar. In five of the seven swing states, including here in Pennsylvania, the two candidates are separated by 1 point or less. So, the poll numbers of a tied race confirm one’s observations and vice versa.
A lot of Republicans would not buy that argument. . . . [M]any Republicans believe Trump has the election in the bag and that it might not even be close. . . .

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.) Y’know, I like Byron York. Always enjoyed bumping into him out on the campaign trail in Iowa or South Carolina or wherever, back in the day where sometimes we’d be the only two conservatives in the squad of journalists covering an event. So I respect Byron’s instinct here, his sense that it’s important to bring some balance to the story, so that his conservative readers — most of whom have made it a habit to ignore the mainstream media — are not unaware of the possibility that Kamala could somehow win this thing.

Byron’s column describes a Harris event in Pennsylvania:

The Democrats who turned out on a weekday afternoon really loved Harris. As we waited for the rally to begin, I asked a dozen women — there was a definite gender gap in the crowd — what they liked best about Harris. They all gave glowing answers: “Her positive energy.” “Her willingness to include everyone in the conversation and the party.” “She’s brilliant and kind, and I really do think she cares about the people.” “I like the joy she brought.” “Her respect for institutions.” “She represents modern America — it’s been centuries and centuries of the same people, and it’s time to change.” “She protects access to women’s own bodies and bodily autonomy.” “She’s a reasonable person and is going to protect democracy.” “Her inclusivity and representation for all.” “She’s honest.” “Her character.” “Her decency and honesty.”
And so on. Nearly all of the answers focused on what the voters saw as Harris’s attributes, as opposed to any specific campaign pledge she has made. And, of course, many of those same voters might have had no opinion of Harris six months ago. But even if their newfound love for the Democratic candidate is just a measure of temporary partisanship, it’s still a positive for Harris.

There were between 4,000 and 5,000 people at this rally on Wednesday in Harrisburg, which is the Pennsylvania state capital. Gosh, who has time on a Wednesday afternoon to attend a Kamala Harris rally? Were these government employees, perhaps? Byron apparently didn’t think to ask the people at the rally what they did for a living, but it would make sense that a lot of them were clerks from state bureaucracies or legislative staffers. Harrisburg is in Dauphin County, which has gone for Democrats in the past four Presidential election, albeit by narrow margins. My point is that it’s not at all surprising that the Harris campaign was able to get as many as 5,000 people at a rally in Pennsylvania’s state capital, but when I inform you that Dauphin County has a population of 289,234, you can see why such a crowd isn’t really impressive, size-wise.

The vagueness of the reasons for why these people support Kamala, which they shared with Byron York, are indicative of the basic problem with the Harris campaign, i.e., its essential negativity, the fact that Harris expects to win simply by virtue of being Not Donald Trump.

Why do Democrats think that will be enough to win? Because it’s basically how Biden won four years ago (allegedly, I hasten to add). Nobody voted for Biden because they were wowed by the cleverness of his policy proposals, or his personal charisma. No, a vote for Biden was a vote against Trump, and that was all that mattered. That’s why Democrats thought they could get away with this ridiculous campaign — switching out candidates in July, and foisting upon the electorate a nominee who never got a single vote for president in any primary, running on a platform of . . . Well, what, exactly?

Nobody has a clue what Kamala Harris stands for, policy-wise, and the kind of people who turn out for a Harris rally don’t care. All they care about is that she gives them a chance to vote against Orange Hitler.

This worked for Biden in 2020, but will it work for Harris? Excuse me for being deeply skeptical of that proposition. And please, Byron — no more doomfest columns like this, OK? Our people need hope.



 

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