The Democrats are not building a campaign based on issues. Issues can be controversial and lead to strife.
This is a campaign based on how good it feels to be a Democrat and how exciting it is 1) not to have Joe Biden at the top of the ticket and 2) how wonderful it is to have Kamala Harris running for president.
The Democratic Party platform is even more irrelevant in 2024 than these exercises in public relations usually are. That's because the platform was written in July when the old man was still on the ticket. Now that Kamalamadingdong is running, Democrats have to find a way to change the narrative without being too obvious about it.
Not that it matters, but judging by the party platform, this is not Harris's party. It is still Biden's party, and Harris is going to have a hard time squaring the circle and shoehorning her policy positions into the mix.
With no ideas besides the nebulous (and widely panned) "policy proposals" she laid out in her speech last week, Harris is a cause in search of a candidate. The party is memory-holing her past radicalism in California, and any attempt to resurrect it will face cries of "old news" from her media allies. So Harris is, for all intents and purposes, a blank slate, ready for Democrats to write anything they want to describe her politics.
This was a technique the party tried with some success during Barack Obama's run for the White House. The radical community organizer suddenly became a mainstream Democrat spouting inane pieties that led to media worship. Oh, did I mention that he was black?
Watch as history repeats itself.
With Biden’s exit from the race in July and the surprisingly seamless convergence around Harris, the storyline has shifted from a rerun to a “new way forward,” to take one of the vice president’s campaign taglines. And as the 2024 party platform reflects, for Dems, this way forward need not be connected to one politician or another.
Despite the newfound support for Harris – her campaign raised a reported $200 million during her first week as the candidate – this is not yet the Harris Democratic party. Harris is a conduit for Democrats who were searching for a lifeline out of a crisis and a path to preserve their November ambitions. If the policy platform is not updated to any specific Harris policy viewpoint, that’s not seen as a hindrance. If her vision of an “opportunity economy” is questioned by economists, it deserves only a bit of hand-wringing. While a Harris presidency would likely move policy in impactful ways, what is driving the moment for Democrats is unity behind defeating Trump.
Can the Democrats ride "good vibes" all the way to election day without explaining what Harris plans to do if she's elected? Look what happened with her economic proposals. Both sides shredded them. In fact, her only chance is to keep talking about "the future" and how bright and cheery it's going to be under Democratic leadership.
Just as the race approaches the post-Labor Day homestretch, the world is watching as Democrats inject something into the campaign that has been missing over the long election slog: energy. The party convention represents a key test of both how well Harris can hold the party together, including around fault-line issues like the Israel-Gaza conflict, and whether Democrats can sustain the good vibes over the final push of the campaign season.
No one is going to call Harris out on the paucity of her ideas or the lack of specificity. She's going to keep putting out "feel-good" proposals like her "investment" in home buying and leave the details to Congress.
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If it's successful, might this be a blueprint for future elections? Harris is going to spend a billion dollars saying absolutely nothing about what her realistic plans are for a Harris administration.
That's very bad.
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