Sending signals
The precarious state of the pre-election vibes in the U.S. media these days has me trying to avoid political news- but it still seeps in. One of my worries is about how the Harris campaign seems capable of being relentlessly fearless in their messaging about just a few vital areas like women's health and promoting a leader who has not rallied a mob after losing. Yes, I was glad to see signs stapled to light poles all over Philadelphia this month with the reminder "Defend Choice", and I get why she has been excited to showcase every major Republican who is voting with Democrats this time, but the lack of courageous messaging on a couple other topics regularly in the news is very noticeable to me.
These two missing topics- the genocide Israel is perpetrating in Gaza with U.S. support, and the ongoing effects of climate change- are ones that I think a candidate should be able to address clearly yet Harris has been avoidant of both. She seems to lack a moral clarity that would allow her to separate herself from Biden's position and call out Israel's use of starvation and bombing of civilians. She and her team come across as just calculating how many votes they could lose if she says one thing versus another. So on Israel/Gaza, the slogan 'We're not going back!' is more like 'We're not doing anything different!'
This avoidant style also comes across in the lack of direct communication about climate change. Yes, Harris is the only one of the two candidates who knows this issue is real, yet instead of reminding people of this, she allows the topic to disappear. It gives an impression that maybe this is how she will lead on climate change: by barely addressing it or just pointing at the climate spending in the Inflation Reduction bill that was already passed under Biden. A recent article in the Guardian quoted a manager of a climate action group who thinks that with undecided voters it's "harming her to not be more detailed", because people aren't sure what she will prioritize. I agree with Bill McKibben's October 28th column in the New Yorker where he commented:
"..perhaps it would be wise for Harris and her team to more aggressively remind voters nationwide of what’s at stake, maybe in an ad with a drone shot of the destruction caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton near Augusta or Asheville or Tampa, and a voice-over of Trump from a September rally, saying, “You’ll have more seafront property. . . . Isn’t that a good thing?”