Column: ‘Never Trump’ didn’t work for Biden. Will ‘Never Kamala’ work for Trump?

Hello, and happy Thursday, but not really. There are 60 days until the election and today we’re starting with something serious — Wednesday’s school shooting outside Atlanta.

Two students and two teachers are dead, and at least nine students were injured. There have been 391 mass shootings (where four or more people were shot, not counting the shooter) this year in the United States. Yes, this year.

They have become so common we don’t even register them. They don’t even make the national news unless a school is involved. And they are happening at a faster rate than in previous years.

I am not here to defend school shooters, but when a 14-year-old kid (as was the case here) picks up a rifle with the intent to kill other children, that breaks my heart for the moms, dads, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives and friends who will never see someone they cherished alive again.

But it also breaks my heart for whoever loves this gun-toting kid, whose rage and unhappiness must be deep and impenetrable. It breaks my heart for all of us who will be sad for a moment or a day, then go on with our lives — somehow numb to the fact that guns literally surround us whether we see them or not.

Whether you frame it as a public health emergency or the price of gun rights (seriously?), we all deserve better — starting with ending the normalization of weapons of war in our communities.

How the candidates responded to this shooting encapsulates not just their views on guns, but on their campaigns.

“We have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all,” Vice President Kamala Harris said, pointing toward access to guns as the issue.

“These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster,” former President Trump said, scaring up a boogey-kid to blame.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Savannah, Ga., on Aug. 29.

(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

‘Never’ campaigns

Not long ago, when President Biden was still in the race, Democrats were relying on fear to fuel voters, the idea that a candidate wasn’t just bad, but dangerous.

Trump was billed as a threat to democracy (which, to be clear, he is). A second Trump term wouldn’t just mean more guns (we’ve all but forgotten that Supreme Court decision that upended concealed-carry limits, even here in California) but fewer civil rights and maybe an autocracy.

But it didn’t work, and Harris has largely dropped that line of attack — instead focusing on a future with her in charge of a country moving toward better days. It’s a campaign based on change, and hope.

Trump, however, has picked up that fearmongering with gusto. His entire campaign is based on creating demons and villains, from school shooters to immigrants to Harris herself.

Biden ran successfully on warnings against what Trump would do in 2020, but the Trump damage was much fresher and the demon singular.

So will a jumbled “Never Harris” campaign do any better than the latest “Never Trump” one?

The ‘communist’ in the White House

One of Trump’s favorite and freshest lines these days (I did not say good) is that Harris is a “communist.” Like all effective propaganda, it spins from a fact: Harris’ father was a Marxist economist. So he had a couple of criticisms about capitalism. Who doesn’t?

Harris, of course, is neither a communist nor a Marxist, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from labeling her “Comrade Kamala.”

Elon Musk, the owner of social media sewer X and an increasingly hard-right Trump fanboy, posted a fake, AI-generated photo of Harris in a weird communist-inspired uniform this week with the caption: “Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!?”

It has been viewed more than 80 million times, probably often by folks who don’t realize it is fake. Which is why this attack is troubling. A lot of people seemingly have no idea what a communist is, just that it should be considered bad.

Trump is also fearmongering off this with another kernel of fact. Harris has promised to end price gouging around food during a crisis. This comes out of the pandemic, when some less-than-scrupulous food suppliers may have jacked up prices based on our fear of running out of food.

The kind of price limits Harris is suggesting are common — during wildfires in California, our current state attorney general almost always sends out a warning to companies that raising prices in a disaster is a legal no-no.

And Wednesday, Harris debuted a new tax plan that is to the right of what Biden suggested, and downright bourgeoisie-friendly.

But Trump is trying to make it sound like she will seize the means of productions of Coors and Cheetos, leaving our shelves barren of staples, and the American populace left to starvation or digging for potatoes. I’m going to say we can limit the price of drinking water during a hurricane and still not go straight Joe Stalin.

Monsters at the border, monsters in schools

On a less fresh note, Trump is also beating at the immigration issue, which has been one of his most successful anxiety-inducing attacks. He relentlessly claims (falsely) that Harris has “opened” the border, and that murderers, rapists, insane asylum patients and other fun folks are pouring in.

But he’s also doubling down against teachers. At a recent Moms for Liberty event, he claimed, “The transgender thing is incredible. Think of it. Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child.”

So, no — schools are not secretly kidnapping children and forcing them to have gender surgeries. But the Moms for Liberty ate this up. They apparently really love to hate on schools and teachers, far more than school shooters. And dread that this could happen to their Timmy or Sally is real enough that the threat draws reliable applause at rallies.

Scary enough?

This scary-Harris narrative has increasingly become not just a piece of the Trump campaign, but its entirety — the “Never Kamala” idea that she will end all that we hold dear.

MAGA Republicans really have little else other than “no tax on tips,” which to be fair she did kind of steal — but credit to her for knowing a popular idea when she hears it.

The question becomes, will it work for Trump when it failed for Biden? Short answer, his base loves it. They love outrage, and hate. They love monsters and demons and villains and simple answers to complicated problems.

There is this pesky debate coming up next week, though, and I’m not so sure undecided voters will feel the same. Immigration will be the hardest issue for Harris to explain.

But teachers as gender-offender abductors? Stale.

Kamala Harris as Queen of the Hammer and Sickle? Stale.

These seem like weak-sauce monsters, unlikely to scare up new votes. But they may make for an entertaining debate.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Harris Tells the Business Community: I’m Friendlier Than Biden
The “It’s a small world”: New Hampshire is the latest sign of Donald Trump’s shrinking map
The L.A. Times Special: Politics and Hollywood collide at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

P.S. Honestly — she looks more like a doorman to me.

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