How Trump Set Deadly Election Trap for Himself

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-trump-set-deadly-election-trap-for-himself-against-kamala-harris?ref=home?ref=home

How Trump Set Deadly Election Trap for Himself
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Jill Filipovic, CNN columnist and author of OK Boomer Let’s Talk, on how Kamala wins.
Jill Filipovic
Published Jul. 23, 2024 11:30AM EDT

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The GOP was remarkably successful at making Biden’s age an issue, and after the disastrous Trump/Biden debate earlier this summer, the entire country has spent the last month talking about how old is too old to sit in the Oval Office, and expressing concerns about the prospect of a very old man leading the nation. Well, Trump is now that very old man. He is a man who is not particularly articulate, and who often fumbles his words and mixes up people, places, and things. Voters have been primed—by him—to be very concerned about age and cognitive function. It was only in contrast to the subdued Biden that he seemed vigorous. Now he is almost surely facing off against a candidate who is two decades younger, appears significantly healthier, and comes across as much more intellectually adept—advantages that will hold true whether the ultimate candidate is Harris or some other, possibly even younger Democrat.

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But the peculiarities of an election eight years ago are not identical to the ones at play now. To many voters (including this one), a Clinton win felt inevitable, not urgent. This time around, no one is under the impression that Trump can’t win. And because the history-making quality of the potential first female president doesn’t feel at all preordained but rather like a difficult but in-reach goal, we very well may see many more people willing to work hard and turn out to make it happen.

America in 2024 is not America in 2016, psychologically or demographically. Young voters who were not eligible to cast ballots in 2016 are the most racially diverse in U.S. history. And the fastest-growing racial group in the U.S.? Multi-racial Americans, of which Harris is one: her mother was Indian and her father is Black. This is not to say that multi-racial voters are going to automatically cast their ballots for Harris. It is to say that in a nation where one in ten people now identify as multi-racial—and where nearly 1 in 5 are Latino, and more than 1 in 10 are Black—a Trumpian strategy that depends on racial animus and resentment is a risky bet, not just for the legions of non-white voters, but also for a white American public whose partners, children, grandchildren, neighbors, friends, and loved ones are less likely than ever to be white. Harris’ very existence may indeed push racially-resentful voters further toward Trump. But she may also trigger Trump’s own racial animus, and that very well may turn off even many conservatives.

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There are a lot of words that may come to mind when one thinks of Donald Trump, but “new” is not one of them. Harris is not a new kid on the political block, but she has never had the national profile of Biden or Trump, and has been newly propelled to the top of the Democratic candidate pool. She sits at the fortunate intersection of inspiration (a potential first), anger (over anti-abortion laws), novelty, and hope. No amount of campaign spending can buy that kind of emotional resonance. And if she can keep hitting all of these bright notes as she faces off against a sour old man, she can be the person who finally tosses Trump into the trash heap of history, and makes clear that his MAGA movement has fully expired.