Kamala Harris’s Momentum Is Gone
On Monday, Donald Trump’s brain broke. After medical emergencies in the crowd cut short his town hall in suburban Philadelphia, the former president decided he didn’t want to leave the stage. Instead, for half an hour, he swayed as the loudspeaker blasted a playlist of his favorite songs—among them “Ave Maria,” “Nothing Compares 2 U,” and “November Rain”—and his increasingly confused supporters streamed out. Trump’s abnormal behavior is central to his political appeal, but this was something different. He did not seem well. As has been increasingly true, he looked old and diminished and more than a little confused.
At the same time, Trump is more extreme than ever. Before the aforementioned town hall detoured into a zombie dance-off, Trump said of migrants, “So they’re coming in, many are coming in from jails and prisons and mental institutions and stay-in asylums … and they’re coming as terrorists.… It is an invasion like we’ve never seen before.” And he promised to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in response, noting that “it gives the president tremendous power to do what has to be done to secure our country.”
Trump is running an explicitly authoritarian, if not outright fascist, campaign: The central planks of his platform are to deport millions of people, to let police use violence without oversight, and to use the military to round up his political opponents. He is, by every metric, more dangerous than he was when he left office four years ago. And yet, most polls show him having a roughly 50–50 chance of returning to the White House in January—which, understandably, has Democrats in a panic.
“Dread is growing among Democrats that the euphoria over Harris’s entry into the race in July, her successful convention in August, and her debate performance the following month have not translated yet into a decisive lead over Trump,” CNN reported on Monday, in one of multiple recent articles about growing unease in the party. Politico’s Playbook published a guide for “anxious Democrats”; Maureen Dowd wrung her hands at the lack of “fierce urgency” in defeating Trump.
The Democrats are right to freak out. Harris should be trouncing Trump, and the fact that they’re neck and neck is at least partially her fault.
