OPINION:
The Democratic National Convention convenes on Monday and runs through Thursday, Aug. 22.
“More than 15,000 members of the media will be in Chicago to cover the convention,” the convention website informs us. That is, they’re supposed to be there to cover it, not act as delegates. But it’ll work out the same way.
The media will help Democrats create a misleading portrait of the party to pump into America’s living rooms.
Instead of a coven of hard-line left-wingers and transgender activists who conquered a once-mainstream liberal party, the Democrats will come across as patriotic Americans whose most incendiary expression is “aw, shucks.”
The makeovers of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate, have been underway for days.
Ms. Harris has been dumping her most egregious socialist baggage faster than the terrified occupants of a punctured hot air balloon.
What about the 10 million aliens crossing the border illegally on the Biden-Harris watch? No problem. She is tougher on illegal immigration than former President Donald Trump ever was.
Inflation has soared from 1.2% under Mr. Trump to more than 9% at times and has averaged well over 3% annually every year since 2021. Hey, Americans, inflation is so yesterday. Time to break out the Champagne, or at least off-brand ginger ale from a discount store. Shoot. It’s flat.
Did Ms. Harris start a bail fund for rioters during the 2020 George Floyd summer of burning down cities? Did she openly express approval of the “defund the police” movement? Yes, she did.
But not to worry. She’ll be portrayed at the convention as a mix of Wyatt Earp, Eliot Ness and Annie Oakley.
As California attorney general, she was a real law-and-order prosecutor, we’re told. She launched the investigation of the pro-lifers who did an undercover sting that exposed Planned Parenthood executives discussing the sale of baby parts. She did prosecute marijuana smokers but is probably counting on their forgetting all about it.
For the record, many police associations support Mr. Trump, even though loaded Democratic courts and prosecutors have made sure he is a convicted felon.
Ms. Harris will be crowned as the champion of “saving democracy,” even though she never won a primary or even one delegate. Democrats didn’t dare stage an open convention after dumping President Biden.
Deep-pocketed donors know that Ms. Harris lacks charisma, rhetorical ability or deep support. Why take a chance that socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont or California Gov. Gavin Newsom would steal her thunder — and the nomination?
This past week, she played the populist to Americans hurt by the inflation triggered by trillions in spending and the Democratic Party’s green war on fossil fuels.
She promises “the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries — setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries,” the campaign said. She promises to do the same with the price of prescription drugs.
The fastest way to guarantee shortages and kill innovation is to impose price limits. See any socialist regime such as Venezuela or New York City’s “price-controlled” apartment rentals, which are sublet at astronomical rates.
As for foreign policy, the Biden-Harris administration abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban, leaving a major U.S. air base and billions in arms and ammunition. Bungled security caused the death of 13 American service members in a terrorist attack.
Asked to explain the war in Ukraine in layman’s terms, she told a reporter: “Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So basically, that’s wrong.” Well, OK.
Ms. Harris backed the billion-dollar bailouts of Iran by then-President Barack Obama and Mr. Biden and skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress. But she’ll be made to look like the more pro-Israel candidate despite Mr. Trump’s moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and consistent support for the Jewish nation.
There’s much more to the Harris remake, but let’s move on to her running mate.
Mr. Walz, who established “George Floyd Remembrance Day” and rants about “generations of systemic racism” and “White supremacy,” will also be repackaged as a law-and-order type.
He let Minneapolis burn for two days of rioting in 2020 before deploying the National Guard. By then, at least one person was dead, 1,500 businesses were destroyed and a police precinct was burned to the ground. Residents were terrified as rioters caused an estimated $500 million in property damage.
Go ahead, spin that. Even Bill Clinton’s ruthless messaging guru, James Carville, might want to duck that assignment.
Mr. Walz served for two decades in the Minnesota National Guard. He left in May 2005, just after news broke that his unit would shortly be sent to Iraq. He said he had carried a weapon into war even though he had deployed only to Italy.
At the convention, don’t be surprised if Mr. Walz comes off as a latter-day version of World War I hero Sgt. Alvin York. Whatever works.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.