Kamala Harris’ closing message: It’s his record, stupid

Commentary: The fifth estate

Americans are addicted to nostalgia. We want to believe in the good old days. Donald Trump has always understood this. That’s why his slogan is “Make America Great Again.”

Now that the elections are just around the corner – and the polls stalled – the urge to focus on all the crazy things Trump says every day is understandable. It is also a big mistake. With Trump, as with any demagogue, it is not his words that matter, but his own deeds.

The media – along with the Harris campaign – should focus on reminding Americans of Trump’s terrible record as president. Unless you were an oil executive or a foreign oligarch, his administration was an abject failure, the worst in US history according to historians.

Here is a short list of those failures.

He made false promises. To remind “infrastructure week”? Think about how Trump would do that Replace Obamacare with something better? Remember how he would go build a wall and make Mexico pay for it? None of these things happened because Trump had little interest in actually governing.

He has ridiculed the rich and hurt the poor. Trump pushing through was one huge tax cut that handed over billions to the mega-rich has increased our deficit.

He faced one crisis and botched it. As has been the case his entire life, Trump inherited prosperity– this time from the Obama administration. The only crisis he faced was the COVID-19 pandemic, which he initially treated as a PR problem pretending it would magically disappearand then contradict health experts by offering idiotic press conferences recommending it Americans inject bleach And take horse medicine. As a result of Trump’s mismanagement, COVID-19 has killed more than 400 people 1.1 million Americans And our economy tanked. He left the office with unemployment at record highswhile our economy has lost more than 3 million jobs.

Most Americans experienced the Trump administration as a time of anger, illness and exhaustion. We felt stressed almost constantly.

He took away women’s reproductive rights. Trump’s only ‘success’ was the appointment of the conservative judges which helped Roe vs. Wade, which allowed states to deprive women of their bodily autonomy.

He stirred up violence and division. Remember the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.?The attacks on Muslims? What refugee children were like separated from their parents and kept in cages? Remember when he the military ordered peaceful demonstrators organizing a photo session? Think of the mass shootings in Pittsburgh And El Paso and how both shooters were inspired by Trump’s rhetoric? Trump gets to work violence and bullyingand he inspires violence and bullying.

He was lazy and disinterested. Trump spent more time playing golf than he governed.

He chose rebellion over democracy. When Americans finally had enough of Trump and voted him out of office – on seven million ballots and 72 electoral votes – he refused to admit defeat. Instead, he inspired a violent mob attack on the US Capitolduring which they beat up law enforcement officers and terrorized then-Vice President Mike Pence.

This is just a short list that doesn’t include Trump’s portrayal hurt towards dictatorswas looking for enrich themselves and tried to politicize the Ministry of Justice.

All these things happened, folks. Our fourth position was there. They covered all these stories. Most Americans experienced the Trump administration as a time of anger, illness and exhaustion. We felt stressedalmost constantly.

Harris seems to have settled for a closing argument that is increasingly focusing on Trump threatening rhetoric. It is the job of our free press to remind voters of Trump’s disastrous actS as chairman. If we cannot muster the courage to face that history, we are doomed to repeat it.

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