Attention to the Unseen

Peter Wehner writes: Kamala Harris has had as good a three-week stretch as any presidential candidate in modern American history. When Joe Biden dropped out on July 21, less than a month after his catastrophic debate performance against Donald Trump, the Democratic Party was on course to be defeated in a landslide. Today, Vice President Harris is slightly ahead of Trump in national polls, and in three important swing states—Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan—new surveys by The New York Times and…

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Michael Tomasky writes: This is something Democrats, with some exceptions, seem not to have understood well for two generations or more. If you don’t answer the other side’s attacks, they stick. The press assumes the attacks must be valid, so they smell blood. But if you just answer and go on the offensive, you blunt the attacks right out of the box. Because all you have to do is say “bullshit” and then, in the media, it’s a he-said she-said,…

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Jeff Greenfield writes: Even apart from Trump, the American public has long shown a desire to break with “normal” politics in ways large and small. It means the voters of Alaska can send a write-in candidate to the Senate, as Lisa Murkowski proved after she lost a GOP primary. It means the voters of Minnesota can elect ex-wrestler Jesse Ventura as governor on a third party. It means the voters of California can — for the first time ever —…

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E. Tammy Kim writes: Just before Joe Biden dropped out of the Presidential race, polls showed a head-spinning turn in the youth electorate. Since the Obama years, voters under the age of thirty had been a solid, enthusiastic part of the Democratic coalition. But in early July, according to Pew Research, registered voters in that age group were identifying more with the G.O.P.—and by a double-digit margin. Though some commentators tried to brush it off—“Sample noise?” an analyst at ABC…

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Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Nick Surgey, Documented, reports: Project 2025, the controversial playbook and policy agenda for a right-wing presidential administration, has lost its director and faced scathing criticism from both Democratic groups and former President Donald Trump. But Project 2025’s plan to train an army of political appointees who could battle against the so-called deep state government bureaucracy on behalf of a future Trump administration remains on track. One centerpiece of that program is dozens of never-before-published videos created…

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James Risen writes: To understand the rise of Donald Trump, you don’t need to go to a diner in the Midwest or read “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D. Vance’s memoir. You just need to know these basic facts: In 1980, white people accounted for about 80 percent of the U.S. population. In 2024, white people account for about 58 percent of the U.S. population. Trump appeals to white people gripped by demographic hysteria. Especially older white people who grew up when white…

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