What’s Wrong With Kamala’s Campaign and Economic Advisors?
Incredibly, Kamala Harris is tied in the polls two weeks before the presidential election against an ignorant, boorish, dishonest, corrupt, undereducated presidential candidate like Trump, who led a seditious conspiracy and insurrection against the Constitution and the U.S. government on January 6, 2021; who is indicted not only for the insurrection but also for illegally taking highly classified materials from the White House to his private club in Florida and stacking them where club members could read them and even take them away; who lost a civil case for rape; whose favorite foreign leaders are cruel, corrupt dictators; who nominated Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade and opened the doors to the banning and criminalization of abortion even in cases of rape, incest, and where the mother’s life is at stake. That is an indictment of Harris herself as a candidate and of her campaign and economic policy advisors. Any decent, competent candidate would be far ahead in the polls and would win by a landslide against Trump.
The terrible campaign advice came from not persuasively addressing the complaints of Republican voters regarding the migrant/illegal immigration/asylum/border crisis and the sharp rise in inflation and interest rates since 2022 under the Biden-Harris Administration. And yet, the proper campaign and economic advice didn’t require great minds.
The border crisis could have been instantly solved with a simple administrative asylum reform measure through a presidential executive order: requiring all asylum requests to be made at the U.S. consulate in the country of residence or in another country if necessary, no longer at the U.S. border, just like tourist and work visas. That requirement would come with the added provision that all those caught without valid visas or asylum papers would be deported immediately and precluded from requesting asylum and visas in the future. All current illegals with a job and fixed residence in the U.S. would have to immediately register with a dedicated immigration website online or at a post office, thereby obtaining a two-month grace period before having to return to their country of origin where they can apply for expedited asylum or work visas. Kamala should admit that the Biden Administration was slow to find a solution, but that she just came up with an effective humanitarian solution no one else has proposed, and that she has asked Biden to immediately issue an executive order implementing the administrative reform, before the election. She should also state that the acceptable limit of 5,000 illegal entries per day or week was illogical, and that she will insist on a zero tolerance, while also finishing “The Wall” that Trump never finished.
As for the complaints blaming the Biden Administration for the inflation and high interest rates from 2022 until recently, Kamala should patiently and clearly explain why Biden was not at fault. The inflation was due to the Covid supply-chain disruptions and then to the Russian invasion of Ukraine which drove up energy and grain prices. Biden had only two choices: either do nothing and let a severe recession devastate the economy and cause unemployment to surge; or order a big stimulus package to make the economy recover quickly and strongly, thereby keeping unemployment low. Biden made the right choice. Who would have made the mistake of doing nothing and allowing a depression to develop? Sure, the stimulus package kept consumer incomes from cratering while supplies were disrupted, leading to a temporary rise in inflation, but the alternative was skyrocketing unemployment and businesses closing down. Biden clearly saved the economy and should be applauded, not blamed. Who in their right mind would choose depression and low inflation instead of rapid economic recovery with some temporary inflation?
As for con-man Trump’s gaslighting voters ignorant of economics that he will greatly reduce income taxes by raising enormous amounts through tariffs on imported goods, Kamala must point out the fallacy underlying Trump’s tariff plan. In fact, if tariffs are jacked up a lot, imports will shrivel and consequently tariff revenues will be minimal. Very simply and logically, high tariffs lead to few imports and consequently to low tariff revenues. She should also clearly explain that contrary to Trump’s assertion, tariffs are not paid by foreign governments, they are paid by the importers of goods to the U.S. and passed on to American consumers. She should also explain why high tariffs would be inflationary.
Kamala must also explain why the strong economic recovery during Trump’s Administration up till the Covid pandemic in 2020 was not due to Trump’s policies, contrary to his and Republican assertions. Rather, the strong economy under Trump occurred only because the economic recovery under Obama was gaining steam due to its own momentum. Very simply, Trump was lucky, he was president at the right time!
On foreign policy, as for Republican criticisms that Biden was responsible for leaving Afghanistan hastily, Kamala must explain that Biden had no choice since Trump signed the agreement with the Taliban for the U.S. to withdraw its troops in short order. Trump is responsible for abandoning the Afghan government and Afghani women, and for the Taliban returning to power. Biden could not violate Trump’s agreement without undermining the legitimacy of all past and future American agreements with foreign governments. You violate one agreement/treaty, no country trusts your country anymore to uphold agreements. Furthermore, Trump signed the U.S. withdrawal agreement when our military was limited to backing up the Afghan army with air power and intelligence, and was not suffering any casualties. Ten more years of painless U.S. support for the Afghan government would have meant Afghanistan would have become a strong democracy fully respectful of women’s equal rights, with the Taliban defeated. Trump, a complete incompetent, “saved defeat from the jaws of U.S. and Afghan victory”!
Additionally, Kamala should demand to see Trump’s ear, the one supposedly grazed by a bullet at the outdoor Butler PA rally. Why has he refused to have anyone check his ear to see if it was indeed grazed, and refused to allow his doctors and the Butler hospital from releasing any reports and photos of the ear injury? He must be hiding something. Was the Butler assassination attempt staged to have the shooter shoot a bystander in Trump’s vicinity (i.e., Corey Comperatore, who was shot and killed) and then be immediately killed by the Secret Service sharpshooters? With Trump slapping his ear upon hearing the sniper’s gun shot, to break a tiny balloon/pouch containing blood taped behind his ear, to make it seem that his ear was hit? In order to raise sympathy for Trump and allow him to say he was saved by God, and that God is on his side, as his Evangelical Christian backers believe?
Why no federal investigation to determine whether Trump’s ear was really grazed by a bullet? Who can believe that the Secret Service and the local police simply forgot to secure the roof with a perfect line of sight to the rally stands, allowing the sniper to access it? It all sounds like a cover-up of a staged assassination attempt, intended to boost Trump’s sagging poll numbers. The line of sight from the roof on Trump’s right a hundred yards away would make grazing Trump’s right ear impossible. Either Trump would have been hit on the right side of his head as he was talking to the crowd below in front of him; or he would have been hit frontally when he turned his head to look at the poster on his right; or else the bullet would have missed him entirely. His right ear could not have been grazed.
Kamala should also demand that Trump release his college transcripts! His refusal to do so clearly suggests he has something to hide, namely that his grades were terrible. Trump had no problem demanding that Obama produce his birth certificate. So, Trump can’t complain if people ask to have his ear examined by an impartial witness and for his college transcripts to be produced.
Since Trump accuses Kamala and Democrats of being fascists and communists (a contradiction), she should challenge him to publicly define what fascists and communists are, and the difference between fascists and communists. Trump is so ignorant that he won’t be able to correctly answer. If he did, then everyone will see he was gaslighting.
Finally, Kamala must explain to undereducated Americans what a dictatorship is like, i.e., a police state with censorship, along with illegal imprisonments and assassinations of journalists and political opponents (including ordinary citizens), just as happens in Russia. Is that what Trump voters want?
It’s not too late for Kamala to set the record straight against Trump, nor to challenge him now to a second debate before the election. He would no doubt decline, as he already has, allowing Kamala to accuse him of being weak, a coward, who knows he would perform miserably in a second debate against her. If she wants to win, Kamala cannot continue not to set the record straight. Her advisors must wake up and see the light without delay.
© Edward Sonnino 2024
October 30, 2024
