Meanwhile, Harris appears to be “joyfully” singing her way through a campaign of tightly scripted, controlled appearances with a media just humiliating itself in groveling obeisance to whatever the Harris campaign demands — including never holding a basic press conference or discussing issues. The Time magazine cover with an image of her eliciting the Obama images is the perfect example.
The campaign season is now incredibly condensed to easily bypass this monolithic attempt to gaslight Americans on Harris’ off-putting personality and horrific policy stances. And time long ran out on changing American's negatives on Trump. If getting shot in the head in an assassination attempt didn’t do it, nothing will.
Trump’s schtick makes too many issues about himself and how badly he has been treated. Almost all of his complaints are legitimate and completely fair. The established power structure is trying everything — everything — to take him out. However, it is clear those issues just don’t matter to swing voters. The base roars about them, but the people deciding the election don’t.
This is reality. But there is a breakthrough lane for Trump if he can just adjust his focus some.
A recent NBC News panel of black Philadelphia voters showed the way. They were asked at one point if inflation was hurting them. An older woman became impassioned on the question. She was not identified by name, but here are her words, and she got quite emotional about it.
“Inflation is hitting me hard. I blame the federal government. If a working class mom who works as a paralegal cannot buy a $2 bell pepper because it is now $5, imagine a mother living on food stamps. Imagine a mom making minimum wage trying to feed children,” she said, choking up with tears in her eyes. “They’re killing us without killing us, if you understand that…It’s, how about, feed my children and I don’t eat. But I have to go to work.”
That is powerful. And while she considers Trump a criminal, she and the entire rest of the black voters on the panel said they are undecided on who they will vote for and believe their votes are taken for granted. By whom, seems pretty obvious. Their take on issues are largely not conservative, but the economy and inflation came up again and again. That is Bidenflation and a wide open door.
But if Trump only talks about how low inflation was under his administration and how strong the economy was, he will mostly fall on deaf ears among undecided voters. However, if he marries that with real life examples, that’s something different. Tell real Americans’ stories. And more importantly, let them tell their stories in their words. Invite non-celebrities to rallies to tell their stories of grief over the past four years.
Trump actually will fight for average, hard-working Americans. He’s proven that as President. But a lot of people don’t know that because of media gaslighting and Trump’s focus on being wronged. So he needs to bypass the media at rallies and in commercials. Let people tell their stories of woe, and end with how you hear their pain and will ensure a return to a strong economy, low energy prices, increasing wages for the working class.
These personal stories are powerful and they bypass the game-playing that is done with baked federal statistics on the economy. Americans know inflation is an ongoing problem and the economy feels weak. Stats may show inflation has come down, but prices are still going up, on top of the huge amounts they went up before.
After the economy, let Americans tell their stories of carnage because of the open southern border. Rapes, murders, fentanyl deaths. Horrific stories. Then explain how you will return to a secure border that Harris has allowed to remain open to 10 million illegals.
True or not, the impression is that the Trump campaign was left-footed by Biden’s sudden departure and the elevation of BIPOC Kamala. It has been “stumbling” in media-speak. While the slavish media response to Harris should have been expected, it still must be dealt with.
In a North Carolina speech Wednesday, Trump pitched his economic plans, but continually strayed from the topic and used no human examples. Trump will be Trump, for great and terrible. But at one point, he said of the economy: “They say it’s the most important subject. I don’t know that it is.” Whether it is or not, undecided voters and frankly voters overall say it is. And they decide elections (well, them and those who harvest and count the ballots).
Harris also gave a speech in North Carolina two days later where she called for the normal, ambiguous leftist claptrap that never works, such as a federal ban on corporate price gouging. She also tried to distance herself from Biden's terrible economic legacy, which tanked his approval ratings.
Trump cannot let that happen. He must anchor her to all of Biden’s policies, and he can most effectively do that with the stories of real Americans and their personal struggles under the Biden-Harris policies.
And it doesn’t hurt to remind Americans that a world on fire totally under Biden-Harris damages our economy and raises energy and food prices. It also inflames our open border. Again, tying this to the stories of real Americans as told by real Americans, is a powerful message to those deciding the election.
Rod Thomson is a former daily newspaper reporter and columnist, Salem radio host and ABC TV commentator, and current Founder of The Thomson Group, a Florida-based political consulting firm. He has eight children and seven grandchildren and a rapacious hunger to fight for America for them. Follow him on Twitter at @Rod_Thomson. Email him at [email protected].
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