Why Harris Calls ‘Fascist’: Strategies Behind Negative Campaigns

From former President Donald Trump labeling Harris “Lyin’ Kamala” to President Joe Biden responding to Trump’s Madison Square Garden campaign rally by denigrating the former president’s supporters as “trash,” insults from both sides of the aisle echoed during the 2024 election. cycle. But in the days leading up to the election, one of the most powerful insults was Harris’ move to repeat words comparing Trump to Hitler and repeatedly calling him a fascist.

In an election year where voters’ top concerns are the economy and immigration, why do candidates often seem more focused on insults than solutions? Is there a strategy behind negative campaigns?

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For candidates who feel they’re not strong on an issue or don’t have a strong policy agenda, negative attacks can be a tactic to fill the void, suggested Carol Swain, a former professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University.

“Negative advertising has proven to be effective in the past, so that’s one reason why if you don’t have something strong to offer, strategically, candidates may choose to become negative rather than focus on issues where they’re not strong she said.

Data from AdImpact shows that both Republicans and Democrats have taken full advantage of negative campaigning this election cycle. Of all TV ads aired in seven battleground states by the Trump and Harris campaigns since October, 38 percent were negative.

Swain pointed to a 1971 book written by Saul Alinsky, a radical Vietnam-era activist with Marxist leanings, to further explain why campaigns tout “fascist” labels and other inflammatory rhetoric.

Rules for radicals contains directives such as “Choose target, freeze it, customize it and polarize it”; “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push and become a positive”; and “Ridiculousness is man’s most powerful weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counter the ridiculousness. It also infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”

The book outlines a strategy for gaining political advantage through deception and manipulation, which amounts to “fear tactics,” though it may not always be effective in the long run, Swain said.

“People tune in because they care about themselves and want to hear something that will help them or give them hope. And if all they hear are attacks on their opponent, I don’t see how that would motivate people to engage very strongly. I think fear has its limits,” she commented.

Costas Panagopoulos, who teaches political science at Northeastern University, said Washington Examiner that tactics like Harris’s “fascist” claims are also geared toward exposing their base.

“It’s doing more to energize supporters than it is to attract undecided voters right now,” he said.

Donald Trump is looking for unchecked power. He wants an army like Adolf Hitler, loyal to him, not our Constitution.

He is disoriented, unstable, and given a second term, there would be no one to stop him from following his worst impulses. https://t.co/v4f8HbhmGU

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 23, 2024

As Harris battles to gain an advantage over Trump before Election Day, the Democratic Party has seen some warning signs. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), an avid Harris surrogate on the campaign trail, a ADVISED that enthusiasm for Trump is at an all-time high in the state, and the vice president is facing lackluster support from democratic cities.

Political science professor Jeff Brauer, who teaches at Keystone College in Pennsylvania, said that “Democrats often have to be coaxed into becoming, and you know they have to be pushed and prodded and given incentives, and you know sometimes they will be dragged to the vote”.

But it’s hard to get voters to support a candidate they don’t know. Although Pennsylvania will play a large role in determining the next president because of its 19 electoral votes, Brauer noted that in his experience, Harris faces a surprising lack of name recognition in areas like Scranton, the area where the professor teaches.

“You know, Tim Walz was just in Scranton of all people last Friday. And I can’t tell you how many people have asked me who Tim Walz was, and this is, you know, just a week and a half before the election,” he said.

But tactics like “fascist” appeals could help Harris build momentum in the final days of her shortened campaign, after her rapid rise to the top of the Democratic ticket in late July.

“With the election being short, you want to try to define your opponent, you know, as quickly and as effectively as possible,” Brauer said, arguing that “challenge and nicknames” could help candidates brand their opposition.

Voters may not remember “long, complicated explanations of the differences between policy proposals, but they may remember a label,” added Panagopoulos, the Northeastern professor.

The negative campaign strategy is also a simple way to get around shrinking attention spans, which have been fueled by the rise of the 24-hour media cycle and the advent of the smartphone.

“The wealth of information has created a poverty of attention,” said Nobel laureate Herbert Simon. Over the past two decades, attention spans have dropped from about 2 1/2 minutes to about 47 seconds, according to Gloria Mark, the book’s author. Attention span.

“People don’t have the attention span for that, and it’s all about instant gratification,” Keystone College’s Brauer said as he explained why candidates might not frequently delve into political explanations about issues like the economy. “And you know, it’s a matter of time and money — you’re doing 32-second commercials, 15-second commercials. You can’t explain much in those ads other than to say inflation is bad and this other person caused it.”

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While negative campaigning has certainly been amplified with 21st century technology, campaigns have intensified rhetoric for as long as politicians have been running for office. Barry Goldwater denounced former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Democratic Party as fascist as early as the 1960s. Former President Richard Nixon was accused of being one following the infamous Watergate scandal. Even former President Ronald Reagan said that members of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration admired the Italian fascist Benito Mussolini.

“If you keep saying it, repeating it over and over, people think it’s true,” Swain said.