Vote Harris/Walz on November 5th

So, a little over a week to go before polling day, and I have written practically nothing about the US Presidential election campaign. My excuse is that there hasn’t really been a campaign to comment upon, in the sense of candidates offering policies to the electorate and vying to win over the undecided by articulating a positive vision. Rather we have been treated to the dispiriting spectacle of each party focusing on turning out their base, by painting a terrifying picture of the horrors that will ensue should the other side prevail, a process which has singularly failed to inspire me.

Of course blame for this state of affairs is not evenly shared; Kamala Harris started out trying to keep it classy, but, over the last month especially, as the polls have remained stubbornly tied even as Donald has dialled up the demagoguery, the Democrats have had little choice but to adopt a more negative tone, the logical endpoint of which will be pointing to a photo of Trump and Vance, and asking the American voter “These guys? Have you lost your fucking mind?”

I guess it’s another example of liberal reliance on reason failing to understand fascism’s appeal to emotion. Trump does not win over his MAGA acolytes with a rational plan to address their problems; he validates their grievances and offers fantastic solutions, that generally involve identifying some out-group for blame and victimisation. Attempting to refute Trump’s arguments by referencing reality is ineffective; people know, with varying degrees of consciousness, that stories of immigrants eating pets and the like are not true in a factual sense, but they fit with a worldview that comfortingly absolves the listener of responsibility for identifying, let alone rectifying, the actual causes of their discontent.

What is to be done? Well, if I knew that I would be a highly-paid political consultant, not a lowly blogger. At this stage trying to convert those voters already leaning Trumpwards looks like an impossible task; throwing everything at making sure the anti-Trump majority actually shows up at the voting booth seems as good a strategy as any.

So, boldly going where the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times fear to tread, I can announce that Second Life Shrink endorses Kamala Harris for the office of President of the United States of America. If you have a vote, for the love of everything that is decent, go out and use it.