1 week Ago
Former President and Vice President are set to face off in a presidential debate. The polls have the candidates neck and neck. But there's one thing Kamala Harris can do that would all but guarantee her a victory over Trump—not just in the debate but in the election: Harris must tell the truth.
I don't mean any specific truth, but rather, the larger truth about politics, namely, that it requires humility, the ability to doubt oneself, and a commitment to listen to skeptics. If Harris is able to articulate her readiness to be an honest, accountable politician, this more than any specific policy will tip the election in her favor. Because it is in embracing humility that she will provide the starkest contrast with Trump.
Imagine Vice President Harris taking the debate stage and saying something like this: Imagine if Vice President went on like this: Imagine if Harris went on to say: The real answers exist within the still functioning genius of our divided government, with you, your needs, your ideas, your interests. I will help us remember this by turning down the vitriol, nastiness, and attacks, blending my cabinet with , , and Independents. I will model the tough discipline of listening to the other side for the sake of showing how to reach consensus when it is very hard to do so.
Imagine if she concluded as follows: This is how Kamala Harris wins, not just the debate, but the presidency. Of course, Harris will not say anything like this. She will instead try to trump Trump at Trumping: She will look for the zinger, getting under his skin, angling the right policy bent to get the right voter support.
And Trump, of course, will keep provoking with his infamous politics of attack and insult, leaving the honest, humble, tempered office of the presidency buried beneath our collective lust for entertainment and public spectacle. We are fated to live not in the alternate reality I laid out but in our reality—until enough of us say.
