In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden successfully defeated Donald Trump by employing what is called the "Basement Strategy." This approach was developed by the Biden campaign to keep their candidate away from unscripted public events. Their knowledge then that Biden's cognitive abilities were in decline drove the strategy. Instead of frequent unscripted public appearances, the campaign relied on a compliant media, which was largely opposed to Trump, to overlook Biden's limited visibility. This strategy proved effective, culminating in Biden's victory.
However, once Biden assumed office, the signs of his cognitive decline became increasingly apparent. His public appearances were marked by moments that raised eyebrows and could not be concealed - falling while climbing steps, a stiffened gait, calling his vice president the president, misnaming foreign leaders, and unscripted comments that often bordered on incoherent. Even in scripted events the President would often read parenthetical instructions from the teleprompter and, despite detailed instructions and prompts from his staff, he would often wander aimlessly around the stage, requiring intervention by his wife or in one highly visible instance, former President Barrack Obama.
Comedians and social media memes joked about the obvious physical and cognitive decline of the President, but it was all waved off by his staff and fellow party leaders in Congress and elsewhere. The mainstream media ignored it. It was clearly getting worse as time went on, but that decline was predictable. The limited daily calendars did not appear suddenly in the third year of the Biden term – they were the standard during his 2020 campaign. It was covered up by officialdom and the press because they could not bear the thought of Biden losing reelection to Donald Trump in 2024 or face the possibility of asserting the 25th Amendment and replacing Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris, whom they thought incompetent, unlikeable, and unelectable.
By the third year of his term, Biden's cognitive decline was undeniable, especially during critical public moments. In a reelection debate in June, his mannerisms and speech reflected those of an elderly man struggling with significant cognitive issues, leading to widespread concern about his ability to continue leading the nation. His decline apparent to all, Democratic Party leaders panicked and were forced to act, maneuvering to replace Biden as the party's nominee, despite his resistance. The charade they had carefully maintained for three years, with the tacit support of the media, was coming to an end.
The Democratic Party then shifted its focus to Vice President Kamala Harris, aiming to install her as the new nominee before the upcoming Democratic Party Convention in August. This move was calculated as the best path to defeating Donald Trump in the upcoming election despite years of concern about Harris as a candidate. A competitive and open process was thought too risky and could turn the convention chaotic.
To overcome Harris’s shortcomings, the Party would rely on the “Basement Strategy” once more. They would use the strategy that fooled the American voting public in 2020 once again, not because of Harris’s age or cognitive decline, but due to her own unique set of liabilities. Harris has a track record of failure and extreme difficulty in unscripted public encounters, making transparency a high risk for her campaign. In her 2020 Democratic Primary campaign she was early to leave the race due to a failed campaign organization, erratic policy preferences, the inability to attract donors, and a poor performance in the first primary debate.
In the twenty-five days since Harris was proclaimed the new nominee, she has not held a single press conference or interview with an inquiring press. In a brief tarmac encounter, she mentioned that her campaign is working to arrange an interview "by the end of the month"—a comment made on August 10th. She has agreed to only one debate on September 10th, while Trump has agreed to three. Early voting begins in some states on September 16th. The hope is to run out the clock until at least then.
The mainstream media, as in 2020 and continuing its opposition to Trump, has supported this strategy. A recent Washington Post Opinion headline sums up the mainstream media position: As Harris learned from Biden, avoiding interviews is good strategy; Kamala Harris is paying no price for ducking reporters and not holding news conferences.
The Democratic Party and the Harris campaign are attempting to craft an image of their candidate through carefully scripted public appearances and campaign advertising, while denying the American public the opportunity to see who Harris truly is, what she stands for, or how she might handle a challenging, unscripted environment. Why is this important? Because it will help to indicate how she may perform when she sits across from her counterparts if elected president. Word salads, platitudes, and discomforting laughter may not be what the American voting public envisions for their president when he/she sits across from the likes of Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping.
This election strategy may be successful, but it is potentially dangerous. A candidate of mediocre intelligence, limited accomplishment, and an inability to communicate effectively (this is how her own party looked at Harris until the crisis) is being hidden from the public. The same strategy that elected Joe Biden has left the United States with a president who, instead of actively leading the nation, is spending his final months in office on a Delaware beach, disengaged from the pressing issues of the day. Meanwhile, the world teeters on the brink of conflict, with escalating tensions in the Middle East and Ukraine.
The American voting public deserves transparency from their leaders. The masquerade must end, and the press must do its job—insisting on unscripted public events and genuine scrutiny of the Democratic nominee. If this charade is allowed to succeed again the country may well face a failure of leadership and competence for the next four years that not only results in poor policy but may endanger national security.
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