One of the most encouraging developments of this election is that Kamala Harris has clearly learned something that Democrats have traditionally refused to accept:

For purposes of winning an election, policy doesn’t matter. (1/) Policy matters very much AFTER YOU GET ELECTED. But governing and campaigning are two different things. The voters who are interested in policy are 1) in the minority and 2) already know who they’re voting for. The people you have to convince won’t be convinced by policy. (2/)

So let me tell you why I’m really encouraged about Harris right now:

She understands—in a way Democrats have largely resisted understanding for the last three years—that voters judge the economy based on prices. And she is offering proposals that go right at that problem. Republicans clearly understand how effective Harris’s proposals are likely to be and they are currently screaming their heads off about “price controls,” hoping to either get her to back off of a winning strategy, or to convince people that action on prices is somehow a bad idea.

There has been an uptick the last 24 hours in Democrats suggesting Biden tell the Supreme Court to go pound sand. That’s a position I share.

But it is important to understand that there are some practical limitations to that, and it depends upon the ruling. (1/) To wit—there’s nothing Biden can do about a decision like Dobbs, which gives states the power to decide. Unless he’s ready to send the Army into Mississippi to protect abortion clinics, he can’t just snap his fingers and make that ruling go away. (2/)

If you ever find yourself wondering “Why do old people have such outsized power while nobody listens to young people?”—consider this:

1) In every single election since such data have been tracked, under 25s have had the lowest turnout of any age demographic. No exceptions. (1/) 2) In every single election since such data have been tracked, over 65s have had the highest turnout of any age group.

3) Politicians’ first priority is getting elected or reelected. When they ask “Who’s going to vote?” they inevitably come to this conclusion: “Fuck those kids.”

Folks, there are a couple things going on right now that you just need to ignore and stop worrying about:

1) Polling is completely, 100% fucked. If you believe Trump is winning by 13% in Nevada and leading in New Jersey, step away from Twitter and get help.

(1/) 2) Six months out from an election, people have a tendency to spout off. They’re pissed off about one thing or another, and they’re just talking out of their asses right now. “Screw Biden, I’m gonna vote for RFK!” In a few months, when things get serious, they’ll get real.

(2/)

The reason leftists annoy me is because they cause Democrats to lose and have no recognition whatsoever that they are a liability. They want what they want, but they aren’t willing to do the hard work necessary to get it. They don’t get that progress happens piecemeal. (1/) Every time Democrats have gone too far left too fast, the voters have punished us. People fear rapid change. You have to warm them up to it a little bit at a time. The left’s impatience always results in a backlash that ultimately pushes their goals further away. (2/)

What we all have to understand is that Republicans fundamentally believe the 1960s destroyed their country. They believe that the Civil Rights movement, gay rights, the Sexual Revolution and the antiwar movement wrecked America. It is vital to understand this, because … (1/) When you understand what they believe, it is easy to understand what they’re trying to do, and all of these things that keep shocking us actually make sense and become predictable. They’re trying to repeal the 1960s and everything that’s happened societally since then.

Biden got the best deal possible. All the other suggestions were fantasies. There were never going to be five Republicans to sign a discharge petition (thereby almost surely ending their careers due to inevitable primaries). The Supreme Court would have squashed any 14A gambit. Minting a $1 trillion coin was an idea right out of Fantasyland. The writers of “The West Wing,” on their absolute craziest day, would have dismissed the idea as absurd—and that entire show was absurd. Biden would have done as well to print a trillion dollars in Monopoly money.

You can criticize Biden all you want for his promise to sign the DC crime bill, but the bottom line is that he’s not going to let Republicans paint him as soft on crime. The crime issue almost single-handedly revived New York’s GOP in 2022. It was the only move he had. When people start getting nervous about crime, their inner Republican comes out real fast. That’s why Republicans always try to play the crime card. They know it works. Biden couldn’t let them do it. It’s as simple as that.