In the waning days of Joe Biden’s 2024 candidacy, Democrats were absolutely depressed that it looked like Donald Trump was going to waltz his back into the White House. Given Biden’s unpopularity, voter enthusiasm among his party was tanking compared to the GOP where things were looking up and voters were happy to support another Trump term.
That all changed for a short time right after Biden was deposed and Kamala Harris was installed as the selected Democratic nominee. Once again, Democrats had something to vote for in this shiny new toy they’d been given to play with. Who needs policy when you’ve got joy?
Well, it’s been a few weeks since then and the shine seems to be wearing off according to these recent numbers on voter enthusiasm from YouGov:
Republicans took back a narrow lead on enthusiasm
🔴 Republicans 60%
🔵 Democrats 59%YouGov pic.twitter.com/aSpPV5Qmpz
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) September 4, 2024
While Republican enthusiasm has remained largely steady since March, Democrats were running ten points behind, a situation that could’ve resulted in a potential blowout victory for Donald Trump in November. Dumping Biden and dropping in Harris as a replacement at least temporarily slowed the bleeding but the bandage is soaking through.
What changed in the past few weeks since the Democratic National Convention concluded? Well, for starters, Kamala Harris is and always was a terrible candidate. She dropped out of the Democratic primary in 2019 before a single vote was cast and since that time, her presence on the national stage has been little more than a footnote of embarrassment. It’s not as if overnight she’s going to turn into the female Barack Obama and start wowing crowds with her lofty rhetoric, she simply doesn’t have it.
As we noted previously, Harris is doing much worse than Biden was at this time in 2020 and significantly worse than Hillary Clinton in 2016. She’s way behind and her lack of answers on policy along with damaging flip-flops on everything is starting to take a toll.
The latest “evolution” on policy has to do with an electric vehicle mandate, something Harris co-sponsored as a Senator in 2019, but now says she doesn’t support, according to Axios:
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign won’t say whether she supports requiring automakers to build only electric or hydrogen vehicles by 2035 — a position she took during her 2020 campaign for president.
Why it matters: Since taking over President Biden’s campaign in July, Harris has been light on policy details.
Harris’ campaign has said she no longer supports many of her past progressive positions and has embraced more centrist stances on health care, immigration, gun control and fracking.
It’s a campaign built on lies and shifting positions to make Harris appear less California and more, well, middle America. Separating Harris from her past positions and statements is impossible since it’s all quite recent and well-documented. She refuses to explain it other than to re-iterate that her “values have not changed” but apparently her policy views have, a cul-de-sac of cognitive dissonance if there ever was one.
In short, Harris is terrible when it comes to articulating why she supports a vast array of progressive left-wing causes other than for her own self-interests and virtue signaling. She can’t explain why banning fracking was cool a few months ago nor can she explain why she co-sponsored a bill to mandate eclectic vehicles but now thinks that gas-powered vehicles are just fine as well.
Harris, still coupled with the Biden administration, gives voters no reason to trust her which explains why voters in her own party are starting to come down off the sugar high and realizing they placed their bets on a lame horse.
Donate Now to Support Election Central
- Help defend independent journalism
- Directly support this website and our efforts