The one rule of politics Kamala Harris needs to follow but the Democrats are already breaking

Success in democratic politics is actually a lot simpler than it seems. Just be normal. Or, at least, more normal than the other side.

Success in democratic politics is actually a lot simpler than it seems.

There’s one basic rule for any candidate or party hoping to win a majority: Just be normal.

Or, at least, more normal than the other side.

Bonus points, of course, if in the course of being normal you say things that people not only agree with, but which also drive your opponents so crazy that they expose just how un-normal they are.

John Howard was a master of this technique.

Recall how bonkers the left went when he said perfectly normal things like, “we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances under which they come.”

Former Prime Minister John Howard cut a very normal figure, particularly when followed by Greenpeace protesters, as during this morning walk in 2004. Photo: John/Grainger

His time in office only ended in 2007 when he went up against Kevin Rudd, who made a studied attempt to present himself as a worthy heir to Howard’s very normal Australianness during the campaign.

As the nation discovered not long after, even carefully cultivated appearances can be deceiving.

In 2016, voters decided Donald Trump was more normal than Hillary Clinton, who many wrote off as just a slick politician. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP)

In 2016, Americans decided Donald Trump – despite his gaudy property developer persona – was a lot more normal and real than Hillary Clinton, who did deeply abnormal things like carrying Tabasco in her purse to seem “normal” while calling normal people “deplorables”.

Four years later the Democrats ran Joe Biden (albeit mostly from his basement) on the theory that his occasionally grumpy old uncle routine would out-normal Trump. They were right, though it wasn’t long before Biden’s relationship with normal became, shall we say, estranged.

Which brings us to the Democratic National Convention currently playing out in Chicago, where with the help of a largely friendly media the party has just one job.

Introduce pinch-hitting presidential candidate Kamala Harris to the nation and show Americans that Harris and her party are, well, normal.

Vice President Kamala Harris is hoping that doing things like buying Doritos makes her seem normal, and distracts from her hard left agenda. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

But it’s clear the Democrats know they have a problem here.

The whole coordinated effort to demonise and define Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance as “weird” over his comments about “childless cat ladies” shows how much the party of the left wants to be thought of as the normal ones.

Good luck with that.

Consider this: As delegates descended on Chicago, Planned Parenthood announced they were setting up a mobile clinic outside the convention hall to offer free abortions and vasectomies.

Frankly, that seems pretty weird, too.

Meanwhile, under threat of riots and what is euphemistically known as “civil unrest” by hard left demonstrators, Hamas aficionados, Antifa, and other charmers, businesses across Chicago have boarded up their windows.

Needless to say, no one in Milwaukee felt the need to take such precautions when the Republicans came to town last month.

At the same time, on the first day of the convention, protesters breached at least one perimeter ring fence around the convention hall which – ironically, given the Democrats’ feeling about borders – is surrounded by walls and requires IDs for entry.

Pro-Palestine protesters march through the streets of Chicago near the United Center where the Democratic National Convention is being held on August 19, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Inside the convention hall, it’s even weirder.

Washington Times correspondent Susan Ferrechio noticed that in the convention hall men still get mens’ rooms, but in the press filing centre, womens’ rooms have been replaced by “gender neutral bathrooms.”

For the religiously inclined, there’s also apparently a gender-neutral Muslim prayer room.

Worse, though, is what the Democrats are saying.

The other day Kamala Harris – who, don’t forget, has been going to work in the White House for nearly four years now – suggested that price controls are what’s needed to bring down inflation, an idea that’s worked in very normal places like Venezuela and the Soviet Union.

The official Democrat Party platform, released for the convention, opens with a “land acknowledgement” that all but apologies for the United States’ existence, and calls for amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

Among the ideas buried inside the platform is amnesty for illegal aliens, a thumb in the eye to voters who have consistently listed immigration and America’s all but open southern border as a key concern.

But Democrats are hoping people ignore all this for the canvas of normality they are carefully painting around Harris and her vice president Tim Walz.

This means eschewing media conferences and sit down interviews in favour of puffy campaign videos where the candidates interview each other about their food preferences (central casting white guy Walz doesn’t go any spicier than black pepper) or stop at petrol stations to buy Doritos on the campaign trail.

The ultimate strategy seems to be, don’t worry about our policies, we’re more normal than Trump.

Will voters buy it? Perhaps, but it would be nice to see Democrats who claim they want an actual contest of ideas participate in one, rather than trying to meme their candidate into office.

How wonderfully normal would that be!