Kamala Harris gets it. Yes, we should fear Trump—but we should also mock him mercilessly, because it drives him nuts.
Donald Trump is in free-fall. Read this description from Sunday’s Washington Post of how the GOP nominee spent last week: “[A]ides did not want a situation where he was watching the convention every night, getting angry, and then just golfing all day and stewing, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private interactions. Trump also had grown annoyed with the news coverage that depicted him as not working as hard as his opponent, one person who talked to him said.”
If you didn’t know that the article was about Trump and you just read it cold without knowledge of the context, you might think it was a description of parents trying to figure out how to handle an ungovernable four-year-old. So they convinced Trump to get out of Bedminster and hit the road, trading suck-ups with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In the past, Trump has called Kennedy the “dumbest member” of the Kennedy family and a “radical left lunatic.” Kennedy has calledTrump a “terrible human being” and “probably a sociopath.”
Because they assumed that the moral high ground would net them more voters than joining in the mud-slinging. “They go low, we go high” is a quite noble sentiment that should appeal to decent people to vote for them, if for no other reason than to keep the rude man-child out of office. They hoped that even the apathetic non-voters would be moved to cast a vote against the Temper-Tantrump.
It didn’t work, as we know now, but I can’t fault them for remembering the times when class and dignity mattered and hoping to extend those times.
Harris’ team seems to have learned that lesson. Here’s to hoping this actually works better.