Behind the Harris Campaign’s Quest for the Mythical “Cheney Democrats”

The Democratic Party’s consultant class, the immortal swamps of Washington, D.C., seem to only have ideas for selling campaigns to the political establishment. In 2024, that means trying to win over so-called “Cheney Democrats” — whatever that means. This strategy clearly requires ignoring fundamentals regarding domestic issues. terrible Engaging in foreign policy by funding Israeli genocide. In a polarized political moment, this is electoral suicide.

The Harris Waltz ticket is running a campaign rooted in the fantasy that moderate Republicans are appalled by Donald Trump. For this to work, Trump would need to be an outlier, and a significant portion of the Republican Party would need to be looking for an alternative.

Those rational Republicans, if they ever existed, are long gone. Liz Cheney lost her reelection bid (to a Trumpist stooge) by a 30-point margin, the second-largest loss for an incumbent Congresswoman in U.S. history. The modern Republican base is proudly xenophobic and out for blood. Republican politicians are not proposing health care or wage increases. Instead, they are spending this election season drooling over pogroms against small Haitian communities in the Midwest. (Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was severely reprimanded for praising Strom Thurmond’s racist campaign in the White House, but was not punished; today’s (He’s on the rise in the Republican Party.) Republicans would sooner gargle with kerosene than challenge their own racism and sexism and vote. Kamala Harris. Some of these people may have voted for Obama, but if they aren’t already Democrats, they probably won’t vote for a Democrat right now.

Many of the same people who cheered — yes, jubilation! — when Biden resigned and Harris and Walz were retained are now cowering. Harris needs a base of support, especially in battleground states like Michigan, where we already know she’s bleeding votes by weaponizing Israeli genocide. Young people are told that there is no electoral path to change morally repugnant policies in the Middle East, so they will stay home or vote for a third party. In Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, about 35% of Democratic voters say they are more likely to vote for a Democratic candidate if they support an arms embargo, and only 5% are less likely to vote. %. August poll Conducted by the Institute for Middle East Understanding. and, In an October poll, Among Arab Americans, who are considered the most likely voters, Mr. Trump leads Ms. Harris 46-42.

No doubt Harris-Waltz’s team knows it’s repelling many young and Arab-American voters. And now we have what many critics are saying publicly and what Biden is saying privately: that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a ceasefire, giving Trump the presidency. I know that they are starting a regional war as one of their purposes to cede the area. Nevertheless, the Democratic government is still arming him. Prime Minister Netanyahu has humiliated Biden for the world to see, and Harris has no intention of walking away from Biden’s Israel policy. In the face of such obvious attacks, the Harris camp insists on sticking its chin out.

This is not incompetence. As Dan Denver on the Podcast The Dig tweeted“What we are seeing is not so much Democratic Party elites ignoring voters’ antiwar demands, but rather a concerted response to the party’s antiwar base. wants to silence and demobilize the base so it can pursue an endless Israeli war.

This is a betrayal of all those who fear President Trump’s re-election and are working to ensure it never happens. The Harris campaign has created nausea among its base as it refuses to adopt a position that could cost it vital votes inside the Cheney mansion in Wyoming and among fundraisers on the Upper East Side. It’s being held.

There were other campaigns that could have been run, campaigns that the Democratic Party might not have been built for: a campaign that broke away from Biden early on the Palestinian issue, a campaign that opposed the execution of Marcellus Williams; As for campaign immigrants who did not move to the right, this opens the door for Trump/Vance to take the issue to even more extreme places. It’s easy to accuse her campaign manager, Uber vice president and Washington, D.C., technocrat David Plouffe, of robotically trying to triangulate Harris’ positions. This camp is clearly afraid of offending Zionists, both Jewish and Christian, and of raising public expectations with a bold economic vision. They play defense rather than going on offense. They hope Trump will say enough weird things that Vance will win by making more people hate seeing his face. As a former defensive coordinator, Walz should know that the only thing a defensive defense can hold back is winning. This is a base election. And the Harris-Waltz campaign feels out of place.