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Is the Game of Pretend Over for Harris and the Democrats?

Posted on Sunday, October 20, 2024
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by David P. Deavel
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​Photo Credit | Gage Skidmore

The Harris-Walz Campaign has had a terrible, no good, very bad few weeks. It’s not merely a matter of advertising aesthetics, campaign resource allocation, or even rotten luck. It’s about the fundamental dishonesty that has been displayed by Democrats, their media allies, and even our government.  

It started on October 2 when J. D. Vance reduced Tim Walz to a frightened doe looking into the headlights of a semi all while seeming extraordinarily smart and gentlemanly. Vance then managed the same feat with a host of Sunday morning talk show hosts, famously asking Martha Raddatz if she were actually listening to herself when she demurred that “only a handful” of apartment complexes had been taken over by Venezuelan gangs. 

Then this week Fox’s Bret Baier dared to press Kamala Harris, in her only real interview thus far, as he would any politician. The interview was shortened both because she showed up late and because her pathetic performance led to the Harris handlers waving frantically in the background to end the conversation. And, finally, to the consternation of anyone with a mind in the Democratic Party, Ms. Harris decided not to attend the traditional Al Smith Memorial Dinner, the first candidate to decline since 49-state loser Walter Mondale in 1984. Belatedlysensing this was a mistake, her team created a video message in which Harris did a sketch with Saturday Night Live alumna Molly Shannon that drew few laughs and tepid applause from the Smith Dinner crowd, many of whom were among her donors and supporters—and who nevertheless laughed at Donald Trump’s hilarious and occasionally bawdy takedowns of Democrats and their presidential ticket.

Though Republicans have traditionally not been able to do “cool” over the last few decades, Democrats aren’t crushing it in this department either. The Harris sketch was done with Shannon in the persona of her still unfunny SNL character of Catholic schoolgirl Mary Catherine Gallagher, a character whodebuted in 1995.

But being seen by the American public as uncool or, as the kids say, “cringe,” isn’t the only reason for the troubles of Harris-Walz. In fact, the fundamental problem for this campaign is deeper. No matter how many times Democrats and media says that Donald Trump has told nine million trillion lies since 2015, the reality is that most Americans can tell the difference between Trump’s hyperbole, jokes, simple mistakes of facts, and starting bids in his never-ending quest for perfection in the art of the deal—and the real lies that have been peddled by the media, the Democrats, and our government over the last few years.

It might be easy to focus on the campaign dishonesty. There has been so much of it. Hilariously, Harris supporters tried to tell Americans that Kamala’s horrifying twenty minutes of Bret Baier questioning was a stunning triumph. And the Washington Post, while not quite able to say it directly, published a piece trying to insinuate it titled, “Did Kamala Harris eke out a victory on Fox News?” Amusingly, as in most cases of Kamala Harris’s speaking engagements, there were few highlight clips being passed around by her own side—much less the entire interview. It fell to the Trump Campaign to post theentire interview on social media, with the tagline “OUR NEWEST AD JUST DROPPED.”  

So, too, in the days after that debacle, some have attempted to portray the Smith Dinner video as a triumph. But a better sign of what really took place was captured in the New York Post’s story about the “head-scratching Al Smith Dinner skit that left audience puzzled, silent.” The Post,  without noting emcee JimGaffigan’s years-long case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, did record his response to the audience’s silent puzzlement: “‘I don’t even know what that noise is,’ he said before imitating the audience reaction: ‘Meeeeeeeh.’” He then quipped that he had gained knowledge of how his children felt when he “FaceTimedinto a piano recital.”

Indeed, the Harris-Walz Campaign has now been trying for at least a week to convince Americans that Donald Trump is too elderly and incapacitated to be president. When Trump decided to stop taking questions and play music on Monday in Oaks, Pennsylvania, because two people in attendance had medical issues that were being taken care of, Democrats tried to portray this as a bizarre senior moment. This was so patently false that ABC News blew the whistle on it.

On Friday, KamalaHQ posted on about Trump’s appearance on the Dan Bongino Show: “Trump abruptly ends his live interview after it is reported that he is canceling interviews because he is ‘exhausted’: ‘Off the record, I gotta get going.’” This was particularly ridiculous because Trump had stayed on the show for about a half hour longer than planned. Remember that the Harris team waved a white flag after only twenty minutes. Not only that, but on Tuesday, Trump had faced a hostile interviewer in Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait for nearly an hour. 

No, the Harris Campaign now is simply writing free-form fantasy about what’s happening with their candidates and their opponents. And Americans are seeing this. But what they are seeing even more clearly is that what the government under Democratic control has been telling them is fundamentally false. Just as it was revealed last month that the government’s claims about how many jobs had been created under the Biden-Harris Administration had been exaggerated by over 818,000, so this week Americans learned that the FBI’s crime numbers had been quietly “revised.” As John Lott at RealClearInvestigationsreported, the long-running claim that crime in America had dropped in 2022 by 2.1% was revealed to have been based on bad information. Violent crime rose by 4.5%. “The updated data for 2022 report that there were 80,029 more violent crimes than in 2021. There were an additional 1,699 murders, 7,780 rapes, 33,459 robberies, and 37,091 aggravated assaults.”

I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll pass on the 2023 FBI claims of another 3.5% drop until we know more.

Oh, by the way, we probably do know more. Lott observes that the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which annually interviews 240 thousand people about their experiences of criminal behavior, shows a 29.1% increase in violent crime for 2022 and another 4.5% increase for 2023. The “fact check” of Trump’s claims of increased crime at the presidential debate was itself in need of a fact check. 

In addition to the rotten jobs data, we are also seeing more and more evidence that everyday Americans’ persistent claims that the economy is not working for them are more accurate than the official claims that we are living our best economic life ever. Heritage Foundation economist E. J. Antoni has been posting Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that “cumulative inflation since Q4 ’20 exceeds 20%, eclipsing earnings growth so that your larger paycheck buys you less; you’re demonstrably worse off—almost 4 years and no progress.” In an article with Peter St. Onge, Antoni looks past official data and concludes that real cumulative inflation has been much greater than official data suggest. Though “Trump-era deregulation led to marginal decreases in the cost of living which were not captured by official inflation metrics in 2019 and 2020,” this trend “had fully reversed by the fourth quarter of 2022 under Biden-Harris.” Their view is that the American economy has been in a recession since 2022.  

And, in case you were in any doubt about the Biden-Harris commitment to allowing young people to have their biochemistry and genitals mutilated in the name of radical gender ideology, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall published the amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief the State of Alabama had submitted for a case challenging Tennessee’s limits on so-called gender affirming surgeries, showing “a medical, legal, and political scandal that will be studied for decades to come.” The scandal is this. When it came to challenges to Alabama’s prohibition on such treatments for minors, “The federal government, ‘social justice lawyers’ from prominent activist organizations, and self-appointed experts at the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) conspired to abolish age limits for sterilizing chemical treatments and surgeries.” 

That’s right. The Biden-Harris Administration doesn’t want any age limits for either chemical or surgical mutilations of children. And though the Department of Health and Human Services knew that “there is little/no evidence about children and adolescents” with regard to long term effects, it had testified to the Supreme Court that this was an evidence-based position. And the Department of Justice tried to prevent discovery in Alabama’s case. 

Every American, no matter their views on so-called gender transition in general, should be deeply worried about a government that is both dishonest about the health effects of treatments on children and tries to prevent Americans from knowing them.   

In some very famous lines, often attributed to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer Elena Gorkova described in her 2010 memoir, A Mountain of Crumbs, the “game of vranyo,”that is, the game of pretending that was necessary in Soviet society: “The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying but they keep lying anyway, and we keep pretending to believe them.” Eventually, the lies became too great to bear. The people could no longer pretend to believe.  

This is what is happening to the Harris-Walz Campaign. Too many people have been waking up to the reality that they have been swallowing lies. Too many who knew and were pretending to believe them have grown tired of pretending. 

No, the economy is not great. No, crime is not better. No, a “handful” of apartment complexes ruled by illegal immigrant gangs is not acceptable. No, the claim that medically sterilizing and altering the bodies of young men and women who are confused about their identities is not scientific or safe or good. No, the Trump years were not bad. No, Trump is not senile or weak. No, a vote for a candidate who never received a single primary vote is not a vote for democracy. And no, that candidate, Kamala Harris, evinces neither joy nor the ability to take on any kind of serious job, much less leader of the free world. 

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad time the Harris Campaign has suffered has little chance of getting better. For it is built on a series of lies that are steadily coming to light. And Americans can neither believe nor pretend to believe them any longer.

David P. Deavel teaches at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. A past Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, he is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. Follow him on X @davidpdeavel.    

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John Shipway
John Shipway
18 days ago

Better lay off the over confidence crap. NEVER underestimate the power of election fraud especially when we now live in a country where its openly blatant and NEVER punished.

Michael F. Burke Sr.
Michael F. Burke Sr.
19 days ago

Excellent description of what is and has been happening throughout the entire disaster that is the Biden/Harris administration

Kim
Kim
19 days ago

Harris, especially, and Walz are not able to connect with people. There’s something missing when they’re being interviewed or giving a speech. We know they’re lying all the time, but they continue the narrative, hoping a few people will joyously vote for them. They’re appealing to people’s emotions, not trying to win them over with facts, credible plans for the future, or a history of successful experiences in Washington.

For months now–and actually all during Harris’ VP post–she has shown us how incompetent she is. She’s not serious about anything, and with a multitude of serious issues going on right now, it won’t take more than a moment’s distraction to cause a huge blunder. It’s only the enemies of our nation who want the democrats to remain in office. Can anyone imagine the buffoon, Walz, possibly becoming president if something happened to Harris?!

On those transgender surgeries for minors–what a terrible thing to do to people struggling psychologically. Let kids be kids, for heaven’s sake, and let the parents take responsibility for raising them instead of paying teachers to indoctrinate them into “that” kind of culture. It reminds me of those awful sterilization projects performed on black people decades ago. This must stop.

MAGA with Trump/Vance.

BandidoNomad1%er
BandidoNomad1%er
18 days ago

Here in Texas the “fraud” is already taking place, sorry to say. After you vote on the voting machines, be sure to check the physical ballots (paper) match your cast vote before they scan the ballot. They have been finding many errors, stay vigilant.

Thinking
Thinking
18 days ago

I have seen the lies since 2008. O was a liar president that tried to negate the reps by calling them names, “teabaggers” remember? We had 4 years of peace, harmony and prosperity under Trump. Then 2020 came. A candidate with onset of Alzheimer disease. They created a pandemic to keep him from campaigning. He couldn’t get a dozen people come to his rallies and Harris did not much better. When they were campaigning lies about Trump were continued and with changing voting laws and regulations and other pro dem voting programs, they won. For 4 years we saw a leader that needed cheat sheets to hold a conversation with allies and adversaries alike, who could not read from a teleprompter which included commas question marks or repeat words in it. We saw his mental decline day after day. And now out of desperation Harris starts attacking Trump as unstable, sick, tired old man. It is a bit hard to believe her when she never saw any decline in Biden, being around him every day, she had nothing else to do, but not being around Trump at all she is convinced he is unstable. Harris please take a look in the mirror and answer this question. What is your plan for America in 2025? No word salad no Trump reference, no middle class background mentioned. Just in your own words. A detailed well thought out plan for America. waiting for her answer could be a long wait she has no plan for she is not running the country O is VOTE TRUMP VANCE and bring peace, prosperity and safety back to America.

anna hubert
anna hubert
18 days ago

It ain’t over till it’s over and this is not over yet. Far from it They certainly will not go down quietly if such should be the situation.

Robert
Robert
18 days ago

When you LIE down with dogs you get up with the current Democrat Party!

Nord_Ulv
Nord_Ulv
18 days ago

“Too many people have been waking up to the reality that they have been swallowing lies.” The missing ingredient is the police state—the terror of a well-oiled internal security apparatus with a bottomless penal system (i.e., gulag) at their disposal, and no Judicial branch to oppose their ideological caprice. Patience… it’s a Team Blue work-in-progress.

Kathryn
Kathryn
18 days ago

Well written! I can tell you one great reason why the lies of the Harris campaign in particular and Democrats in general are being exposed: millions of Christian prayer warriors like me have been praying that their lies would be exposed and that the cobwebby coverings of lies over people’s minds, eyes, and ears would be blasted away. Isaiah 28:20 – “The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.” And Isaiah 59:6 – “Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make.” See, at the same time that veils of lies are being torn off of people’s heads (so that the Republican party now has a 7% majority), they’re also being torn off of the liars, so that we citizens can see what they’re really like and what they are really doing. Being a prayer warrior doesn’t mean that I’m naive about their ability to cheat, either. As we pray, we also ask the Lord to empower those 200,000 Republican volunteers who stepped up to watch over our votes on Election Day, many of them attorneys.

Marie
Marie
18 days ago

The way Kamala presents herself, always with an open mouth is so uncouth and unrefined for a would be leader of our country. The Europeans are laughing at us and our enemies are loving it so they can walk all over her.

Barrett T Smith
Barrett T Smith
18 days ago

Harris is a phony, and it is becoming apparent even to democrat voters.

David Millikan
David Millikan
18 days ago

Excellent article telling the Truth.

Juana Contreras Mendoza
Juana Contreras Mendoza
19 days ago

QUESTION:
Does anybody out there have notice that Walt nominee for Vice President Walts
Had a shot gun that may have been iligal to be shooting ducks with ?

That The shot guns needs to be one on one in ordered to be legal to shoot ducks with?

One on one ?
So that the ducks have a chance..

Not a shot gun as what walts had.

Four on one?

Are not Four on one shot guns iligal in most of the states in United States?

Not being able to load the gun
In my opinion was the most important thing to criticize but the fact that Tim was hunting with an illegal shot gun.

Kevin P Davis
Kevin P Davis
18 days ago

Beautifully said and 100% correct.

Stephen Russell
Stephen Russell
18 days ago

Dems Always pretend

Mar
Mar
18 days ago

Harris doesn’t come across as comfortable in her own skin. Trump does. It is obvious that there was very little or no vetting of Tim Walz. His socialist background may be what drew him to Harris, but his ties to China are extremely concerning. His leftist record as governor is also telling. He also has been caught in many lies or exaggerations. Neither one of them come across as authentic or likeable. Harris reminds me of Hillary…..

teresa
teresa
18 days ago

all the left are disasters – they are liars, cheaters, sleezy, under handed, unethical, morons. they will do whatever it takes to win – they would even eat their young

Jo Ellen Branham
Jo Ellen Branham
18 days ago

Plus something else to consider: Two thoughts: “take control of and save control over women’s bodies by allowing them to have abortion on demand.” or “men who feal they are female who are allowed to compete against women in sports.” Which topic is most harmful to women? Do you allow males who believe they are really females in women’s sports and are harming and endangering women or is not allowing “abortion on demand” a danger to women? I think laws that do not allow abortions to save a woman’s life will be changed under a Trump administration but under Harris “males” will still be able to be in woman’s sports. Thousands of females are negatively affected by “males” in women’s sports while very few will ever lose their life because they would not be allowed to have an abortion if their life was in danger (this part of the law must be changed). Women’s sports are being cancelled because if they complete they will be harmed if competing against a stronger (male) person. But abortions can be reduced by women being more selective and/or saying NO.

David P Nelson
David P Nelson
18 days ago

I do hope that the Harris supporters ‘wake-up’ before Nov. 5th.

Donald King
Donald King
17 days ago

In my 83 years I’ve watched the Democrat Party transcend from the party I once supported down and into the progressive/socialist party. A party that has complete hatred towards our constitution and our nation. It is now the party that truly reflects the old saying that “the inmates have taken over and now control the asylum”.

Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
18 days ago

From the National Desk this morning …. their are 500,000 more registered voters in Michigan, than their are people of legal age to vote! Election integrity in Michigan?… Please… now who’s pretending!

Mike
Mike
18 days ago

I can’t believe that any sane person would vote for Harris. She hasn’t done anything in the last four years, she continues to use word salads in every speaking engagement and she continues to plan to enable the woke agenda. God help us and the world.

Randall L. Beatty
Randall L. Beatty
18 days ago

Biden and Harris have no idea how to run a country and who has been behind those two all this time should be ashamed of what they have done to this country time for this to stop Harris has no right to become president she will run this country into the ground and she does not care what happens here time for this to stop and President Trump is the only one to stop this.

Robert Zuccaro
Robert Zuccaro
18 days ago

TDS is so bad with Democrat voters, they don’t care who the DNC puts forward. They ran Joe Biden and would still be if they didn’t F up and let him debate. 4 months ago, she was called a “detriment to the ticket” and now she’s the embodiment of joy and the Female Obama who will save democracy! This election shouldn’t even be close… shouldn’t but we’ll see! Come on voters!

Philip Seth Hammersley
Philip Seth Hammersley
18 days ago

If KACKLER did one day’s worth of DJT’s activities, she would collapse from exhaustion! What a softie! Schmoozing with her mindless celebrity friends is all she can handle!

uncleferd
uncleferd
18 days ago

Whenever I think of both “Vice President Harris” and “President Biden”, in those full titles, I have such grave doubts about the accuracy of it…. as these titles give such an optimistic impression, in direct comparison to what is audible and visible in these highly problematic human beings. We all make mistakes, but THIS “dual mistake” was borne of a cultural and political neurosis… like lighting a match to check the level in a gasoline tank. Our “body politic” must evolve in a way that prevents a repeat of this mistake… from EVER happening again. This will take better public education, and more attentive parenting. We have no choice.

;^)
;^)
18 days ago

There’s a difference between mis-speaking or joking and a conceived scheme! Democrats constantly attempt to control people and situations with their whoppers. They know Americans cannot hear their true purpose. Their ideology has led to countless deaths worldwide. Nothing is more egregious than Communism, especially to our Veterans. Leftist lies are actually DNC “programs” that are distributed among their true believers! If it’s a DNC Talking Point, it is most certainly a developed un-truth.

Reynaldo
Reynaldo
18 days ago

Rip her mask off… she’s really a he. And as phony as a three peckered billy goat…

Jackie
Jackie
18 days ago

I really have to wonder about all of those Democrat voters who are still with the Party, stuck in their ideology and policies, whose brains have petrified matter now and can’t have an original thought of their own any longer – I wonder how they can keep going on year after year with these same politicians, same broken promises, more personal issues, more social issues but those Democrat voters are loyal to the bitter end even though they, themselves, caused the bitter end by their blind voting!! Another term of Democrats terrifies me!!!

Tom in Seattle
Tom in Seattle
17 days ago

Harris and Walz are simply bad, unlikable politicians. It’s gotten to the point that I have to turn off any TV or online video depicting either one of them. I simply can’t stand to hear their voices anymore. They’re so utterly repulsive.

CLIFFORD F GERACI
CLIFFORD F GERACI
18 days ago

It’s hard to believe more than half of Americans vote Democrat. Even if Conservatives win this election, I’m afraid it’s just “a battle”, and at this rate of liberal insanity, we will lose the war. SAD!

Kay
Kay
17 days ago

Problem is too many people put on their blinders and refuse to accept or even see what the Democratic party or the administration has done and continues to do. I am hoping any one who had a sound mind and can think for themselves will get out and vote these scumbags out of office. Our lives were so much better before Biden and after Obama. I have to laugh at Obama pretending to care about us little people, when he has how many mansions?? Take it some where else. Makes me sick. All of them need to go. How much money has Palosi, Schumer, Sanders, Warren, etc, etc., etc made off us? To me, it’s borderline criminal.

Donald G
Donald G
18 days ago

I am sending this to all my lib friends. Awesome thanks David

Bill Serra
Bill Serra
17 days ago

And you can add that Harris is as phony as a $3 bill.

Orion Bennett
Orion Bennett
18 days ago

Let’s be honest here. Does anyone really think that independents or democrats are reading AMAC materials? If not … who are you trying to convince that kamala is not mentally competent to be president? It is fully obvious to all republicans, and conservatives, that are members and readers of AMAC materials … so why the constant push? I doubt with an accuracy of probably 99.99999999999999999999999999999% that any ad, speech, or democrat formulated sound bite, is going to make me switch teams … so why the push?

Tidewater
Tidewater
16 days ago

She is despised as is Biden and that whole crooked crowd.

Bomsta
Bomsta
17 days ago

Lord i hope this fake shows over with all the lies dont care if i ever see there faces again dont think this nation is going to miss them or all the cayous thats been nonstop the last four years. Time to revamp back to the real constitution and not monthly change of orders to fit personal whims …

Moma Chaunce
Moma Chaunce
17 days ago

Even Willie brown has revised his secx tapes to AI Beyonces face over kamalas

Bob
Bob
18 days ago

Does anyone ever proofread these articles before publishing them? This article, while having made some good points, is a disaster. It is filled with so many errors that it was very difficult to force myself to read it in its entirety.

Pete
Pete
18 days ago

..it Trump would quit opening his mouth just to change his feet….

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Donald Trump speaking to supporters at an immigration policy speech at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
“All the nations of the world — friend or foe — will find that America is strong, America is proud, and America is free.” (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

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