Under the headline "Can Trump Overcome Harris with 'Common Sense'?", Barton Swaim wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "Democratic politicians and experts have reacted with near-euphoria to the news that Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to replace President Biden in the November ballot." Swaim noted that Democrats are energized ahead of their convention in August, yet the wisest among the party's power brokers will wake up when they realize they have chosen a West Coast progressive with minimal political skill to defend Biden's record on issues like inflation, border security, student debt relief, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the accompanying international chaos.
Swaim mentioned that the Trump-aligned political action committee has already issued a statement indicating that Harris pretended Biden was fine mentally and physically until the moment he withdrew from the race, adding that he expects more such material regarding Harris's work as San Francisco's district attorney and California's Attorney General, her tendency to speak in incomprehensible sentences, and her neglect of the border crisis for which the White House bears responsibility.
In contrast, the writer sees Trump's statements at campaign rallies—both scripted and unscripted—as increasingly containing political logic, pointing out that Trump has deprived the Democratic campaign of what was its main theme under Biden: that Trump "poses a threat to democracy." According to the writer, Trump's popularity among low- and middle-income Americans is largely a result of the insanity of progressivism, noting that the former president briefly ran for presidency in 2000 without success and hinted in 2011 that he would run, also without success, only in 2016, when modern liberalism escalated into what we now call "woke" ideologies—an obsession with racial and gender identity, anti-Americanism, and law enforcement hatred—ignited Trump's candidacy enthusiasm among wage earners and shopkeepers across the country.
He added that Trump's popularity is a gauge of how discontent the middle and working classes are with the illusions and deviations of non-liberal progressive elites, which is why, according to the writer, his poll numbers rise, as he enjoys telling crowds, every time he faces accusations. The writer concludes his article by stating that leftist officials claim they hate Donald Trump more than anything else, and to stop his rise, all they need to do is moderate or exercise a little common sense.
