Familiar, unfamiliar and strange lessons learned from the first six weeks of the Harris-Waltz administration:
Familiar:
Class warfare attacks on the wealthy and trickle-down economics (and more recently the “primary” target of fossil fuels) are something the Left never tires of, despite their economic contradictions. So we can expect the relentless attacks on the wealthy and profit-making corporations, especially the oil industry, to continue, this time with the usual emphasis on “price fixing” rhetoric.
Similarly, another old but good trope (“They’re going to cut your Medicare/Medicaid”) will be repeated endlessly, despite all the irrefutable evidence from four years of the Trump Administration.
But fear-mongering about money and rights pales in comparison to the issue with ultimate consequences: abortion. Abortion is now called “reproductive rights,” with the new caveat of unlimited access, and it's meant to mean what it says. And, certainly, the archaic Clinton-era idea that abortion is “safe, legal… and rare” is long gone.
And there has been a barely hidden attempt to obfuscate, conceal and camouflage Harris' record. This is Biden campaign 2.0. There's no basement, but access to the candidate is (still) limited. Sadly, this time the repackaging must be done in just 60 days, a tall order even for the legacy news organizations on the battlefield. (Related: Bob Ehrlich: Trump may be the most entertaining president in history — and it's angering Democrats)
Unfamiliar:
Calls for a return to Nixon-era price controls hit a predictable thumping blow in the same week that the reworked employment report showed 800,000 fewer jobs than initially reported. After all, that's how Democrats want to spend the next two months explaining how price controls will work. do not have Smells like socialism? Similarly, the new demand for a 44.6% capital gains tax rate and the expected but entirely new tax on unrealized gains of the wealthy (for now) are hardly “moderate” positions. If properly explained to the public, this confiscatory plan would be very hard to defend.
And the call for a tax-free tip income is new, a pitch that's been completely ripped off by the Trump campaign — and it's coming from the same Biden-Harris administration that funded thousands of new IRS agents to go after tipped workers.
Strange things:
They say the best defense is a good offense, and it wouldn't be hard for Trump to refute Harris' claim that Republicans killed her “bipartisan” border bill, even though she and everyone else in the Biden administration spent most of the first three years of their administration making the claim that the border crisis was a hoax and xenophobia. It was a position Biden supporters stuck to… until the arrival of some 12 million uninvited guests became increasingly difficult to explain.
What's also weird is that the so-called “female-friendly” Biden-Harris Administration is calling for girls to be forced to compete (and shower) with biological males who identify as female. And this is happening in a country that is (rightly) still celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX's success. I can't wait to see how Harris tries to deflect or word this issue. (Related: Bob Ehrlich: On “Defending Democracy”)
Equally odd is Harris' consistent conflation of support for Israel with her advocacy for the IDF to back off from its mission to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This is, of course, an extension of Biden's strategy to appease Jewish Democrats without offending Muslim Democrats in the key Democratic states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. It's a delicate balancing act to be sure, and one that has proven unconvincing in the political world (it's why Harris didn't meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent visit to the Capitol, and why she didn't include Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on her list).
Overall, the so-called “historic” Harris-Waltz combination is a toxic mix of California progressivism, traditional liberal policy platforms, and accompanying left-wing rhetoric (a mix of Obama III and Biden II) that is a shockingly bad prescription for America’s undeniable decline over the past four years.
Bob Ehrlich is a former Governor, Congressman, and State Representative of Maryland. He is the author of five books on American politics and opinion pieces that have appeared in major American newspapers and periodicals. He and his wife, Kendel, host a weekly podcast, “Bottom Line with Bob & Kendel Ehrlich.”
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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