As Vice President Harris slips in the polls, the Democratic National Committee/Harris campaign/mainstream press fusion talking points become even more absurd.

Claiming that Senator Vance and President Trump were “weird” did not work — especially given the genuinely odd behavior of the vice presidential candidate, Governor Walz, and the would-be First Gentleman, Doug Emhoff.

Nor was the next Harris meme convincing that the frenetic and non-stop Trump was somehow “exhausted,” “senile,” and “confused.” Voters know the workdays of the younger Ms. Harris are usually far shorter — or sometimes not workdays at all.

Yet Ms. Harris also falsely claimed the physically and mentally challenged President Biden was, in her words, “absolutely authoritative” and “very bold and vibrant.”

Now Ms. Harris asserts that Trump is a “fascist,” a “dictator,” and “unfit” for office. Only this new talking point will also not stop the Harris campaign’s hemorrhaging — and for a variety of reasons.

First, voters see the election as a conflict of two absolutely antithetical visions.

On the one hand, is the prior Trump 2017-2020 concrete record: border security, no major wars abroad, calm in the Middle East, a deterred Russia, Iran, and Communist China, low inflation, low interest rates, lower crime, lower taxes, strong deterrent military — and opposition to mandatory electric vehicle mandates, biological males competing in women’s sports, and the woke/Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion agenda.

On the other hand, is the Biden-Harris 2021-2024 record: the unchecked entry of 12-20 million illegal aliens and a destroyed border. People still struggle under Biden-Harris’s earlier hyperinflation and high interest rates. The horrific regional wars in Ukraine and the Middle East continue. Biden-Harris embraces the unpopular DEI/Woke agenda.

Ms. Harris herself knows that the Biden-Harris years were a failure. That is why she has shed almost all of their hard left-wing agendas — policies she has embraced for much of her adult life.

So suddenly, in the last 90 or so days, Ms. Harris has completely flipped and flopped.

Now she is for more of, not defunding, the police. She pivots for a secure border, not 20 million illegal aliens pouring across it. Ms. Harris brags about fossil fuel energy, not banning fracking, and for increasing, not cutting, defense.

In fact, several endangered incumbent Democratic senators in swing states are claiming more allegiance to Trump’s issues than identifying with Ms. Harris and her unpopular record as vice president.

Voters likely conclude that if Trump doubles down on his record, while even Ms. Harris and many senators temporarily piggyback on it, then it must be more effective and popular than Ms. Harris’s own.

Second, Ms. Harris now claims Trump is a fascist and insurrectionist.

Yet mouthing ad nauseam “January 6th” no longer persuades voters that Trump is a danger to anyone. They recall that Ms. Harris bragged of the far more violent demonstrations of 2020 — 35 killed, $2 billion in damage, 1,500 law enforcement officers injured, 14,000 arrested — that the unrest would not and “should not” stop, while drumming up support to bail out jailed violent protesters.

Nor does the slur that Trump is a fascist resonate. The Obama and Biden-Harris administrations weaponized the CIA and FBI to interfere in the 2016 and 2020 elections by peddling the fake Steele dossier and suppressing all the embarrassing news about Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop.

Trump certainly did not coordinate, as Mr. Biden did, with local, state, and federal prosecutors to wage lawfare prosecutions to destroy his political opponents. He did not use the FBI to partner with social media to suppress the news.

Neither Trump nor his supporters tried to remove Mr. Biden from state ballots.

The Republican House majority did not impeach Mr. Biden twice despite the Biden family’s corruption and Mr. Biden’s unlawful, decades-long removal of classified papers to several insecure private residences.

Trump and the Republicans never coercively removed the party’s primary-winning nominee. They did not nullify the will of 14 million primary voters. And in backroom fashion, they did not anoint a candidate who had never entered a single primary in her life.

Nor did Trump support packing the Supreme Court. He does not seek unconstitutional means of destroying the Electoral College. He is not demanding an end to the Senate filibuster or the creation of two new states to obtain four partisan senate seats.

Third, as for Trump being “unfit” and lacking “decorum,” it depends on what were the Biden-Harris standards?

Having a trans activist show his breasts on camera at a White House “pride party?”

Mr. Biden’s reportedly calling Prime Minister Netanyahu “a f—ing idiot” and “son of a b—ch?” Bragging about locking Trump up, while waging lawfare against him?

Unleashing son Hunter Biden with impunity to shake down foreign governments?

The election will not be decided on these empty talking points or fake press-generated narratives.

Instead, only two criteria matter: Which candidate’s past record and current agenda best appeal to voters? And which candidate seems the most authentic and genuine?

Tribune Content Agency