Those wondering if she could sustain the groundswell of support evident in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s reluctant decision to withdraw from the race on July 21 saw impressive capacity as she tangled one-on-one with Trump.
Until June, few if any political analysts would have imagined Harris’s current role and star power. Then came skyrocketing doubts about octogenarian Biden’s capacities and the time pressure crisis confronting Democrats, who had either ignored or hidden the issues plaguing the president that came to light in the June 27 presidential debate .
A dramatic wave is not a momentary phenomenon. A wave is one fractal of an ocean, and it’s the ocean, not the wave, that rolls on in its regularly volatile way. Can Harris successfully ride serial swells to victory in November?
Two background factors merit consideration.
Dangerous waters
First, the choppy waters Harris has to navigate until November are replete with dangers.
Predators inevitably circle in a presidential election campaign — and Trump and JD Vance are particularly shark-like opponents.
There are also perils within the Democratic Party itself, with undertows in motion caused by some hesitancy about the new leader, particularly among those agitating about the Gaza war .
Harris also confronts an entire country struggling through the deep waters of stress and division.
And beyond domestic turmoil, of course, Harris’s campaign will be vulnerable to storms raging or forming abroad. The wars in Gaza and Ukraine are already navigational challenges — with Iran and the South China Sea on an ever-evolving watchlist of international challenges.
Altered paths
Another factor relevant to assessments of Harris’s wave is the historical record: How have others aspiring to the White House dealt with moments that dramatically altered their opportunities?
The careers of other vice presidents were signficantly altered when their presidents died in office or were assassinated . These include presidents William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy.
Two examples of politicians who benefited from substantial waves of public support might suggest the range of possibilities for Harris — and potential threats.
FDR
The Great Depression created FDR’s wave . The Democrat rode a surge of swells, in fact, with the prolonged crisis causing the undoing of Herbert Hoover and the Republican domination of the 1920s — and then the ongoing groundswell of support for New Deal reforms that built the modern American welfare state that encompassed social security and unemployment insurance as well as banking and stock market regulations.
Roosevelt had flaws — including his failure to prepare a fully like-minded cohort of successors — but he did enough in 12 years to join the company of George Washington and Lincoln as transformative American leaders.
Unlike FDR, however, Bush did not sustain those waves of support that a crisis moment had produced. If the war in Afghanistan was reasonable against the backdrop of 9/11 — though debatable as a genuinely realistic strategy — the invasion of Iraq proved disastrous.
Will Harris’s wave-riding in the coming weeks resemble FDR’s or Bush’s?
Her debate performance suggests skills that still impress and a substantial command of the issues of the day
But another nod to von Bismarck is warranted. As he once observed :
“Politics is neither arithmetic nor mathematics. To be sure, one has to reckon with given and unknown factors, but there are no rules and formulas with which to sum up the results in advance.”
Ronald W. Pruessen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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