Opinion: Harris, a freedom-loving defense hawk, is the choice for traditional conservatives

There’s a new epidemic sweeping America. PDS — Political “D”-rangment Syndrome — is the unreasoning, morbid fear of anyone with a “D” after their name. Symptoms include dry mouth, an increased heart rate and an irresistible urge to write in “George Washington” for president.

What causes PDS is no secret. Democrats, we are told, are “ thugs and tyrants, and fascists, scoundrels and rogues ” who “ hate America .” According to Donald Trump, Kamala Harris is a “ communist ,” and a “ radical left lunatic who will destroy our country ,” ban fracking , plunge America into a “ dark age, ” and open the borders to tens of millions of illegal immigrants.

Of course, this is all nonsense, even if she was in favor of banning fracking back in 2019. But whatever positions Harris had five years ago — lots of Trump supporters, including JD Vance , have had far more dramatic changes of heart much more recently than that — she’s now a gun-toting , freedom-loving , defense-hawk former prosecutor who wants order on the border and sounds like Ronald Reagan. If you’re a traditional conservative, there’s actually quite a lot to love there, no matter what you think about her views on the corporate tax rate .

Trump knows that. That’s why he’s not arguing against her policies. Instead, he’s trying to convince people it’s all an act and that “Lyin’ Kamala” will turn into Che Guevara the minute she’s elected.

Is Harris sincere? It’s true that a lot of politics is about pandering to voters. Look at Trump himself. He used to be pro-choice on abortion, then he was all-in for right-to-life . Now he’s pro-choice again, publicly opposing (after extensive waffling ) national restrictions on abortion. And if you think that’s a political promise that’s going to stick, I have a bridge you might be interested in.

There are two reasons politicians change their minds. Sometimes it’s a matter of political convenience. Other times, it’s a matter of political maturity.

In Harris’s case, her views have been tempered by spending four years involved in government at its highest level. You should be more worried if her opinions hadn’t changed after that experience.

It’s one thing to have edgy opinions when you are a junior senator or a college freshman. It’s another once you’ve had some experience with all the moving pieces involved in running the country. The most famous example of this is candidate Barack Obama’s table-thumping insistence that he would close Guantanamo prison . Once he got a little experience being president, he realized that the problem was more complicated than he thought. Guantanamo is still open today.

Something similar happened to Harris. When she says that “her values haven’t changed” when asked why she’s changed many of her opinions, she’s not dodging the question. Ending fracking was one way, in Harris’s view, to help address climate change. But now she realizes that there are better, market-based ways to reduce fossil fuel use, and that concerns about climate change are just one of many issues a president has to juggle.

At the moment, America is the world’s leading energy producer . That’s critical to our national security, our economy and our influence in the world. Policies that reduce America’s reliance on fossil fuels while ensuring that we can produce more of them than anyone else are actually pretty smart, regardless of what you think about climate change.

I don’t know what Harris believes in her inner heart, but that almost doesn’t matter. Harris is, above all, pragmatic, and she has demonstrated that she understands that America can only be governed from the center. She’s now spent her entire campaign reaching out to center-right voters and welcoming people like former Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) into her coalition. She hasn’t just promised — she has insisted — that at least one Republican will be a member of her Cabinet. In short, she’s gone too far to back out now.

That doesn’t mean center-right voters will love everything Harris does. But it does mean that conservatives will have a seat at the table and will likely even take the lead in some areas. There’s certainly no question that traditional conservatives will have a bigger role in a Harris administration than in a Trump administration.

Mostly, it means that no matter what policy missteps she makes, America will survive four years of Kamala Harris unscathed. The people around her will force her to respect the rule of law and our constitutional norms even in the extremely unlikely event that she doesn’t want to. She certainly isn’t going to implement Project 2025 .

The same can’t be said of Trump. As much as he denies even knowing what it is, he’s already tried to implement some of Project 2025’s most extreme recommendations. There’s every reason to be concerned that Trump will do all the crazy, dangerous things he is promising to do — suspend the Constitution , throw his enemies in jail , criminally prosecute Google , etc. — and warp America’s democracy beyond recognition.

So there is no reason for PDS. The only way you can be terrified of voting for Kamala Harris in 2024 is if you believe Trump is telling the truth about what Harris will do but think Trump is lying about what Trump himself would do. If you’re a conservative, a Harris administration might be occasionally annoying, but it will mostly be boring. And boring is good.

I remember all too well the feeling of waking up every morning during the Trump years and gingerly checking the news to see what unnecessary crisis Trump had stirred up while I slept. Let’s not go back, okay?

Chris Truax is an appellate attorney who served as Southern California chair for John McCain’s primary campaign in 2008.

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