(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not consitute an endorsement of any political party, or candidate, on the part of Newsmax.)
'Not Me' Can Cut It in Politics, but Not for Long
Let's begin by recalling the year 2000.
A Reggae pop-star, "Shaggy" had huge hit with, "It Wasn't Me," (MCA Records; Album: "Hot Shot.")
The song reached number one on Billboard.
It's about a man caught cheating on his girlfriend, as she walks in on them during the act; she sees everything herself, in a vivid, indisputable manner.
In the music video version, the man was horrified at the prospect of losing his girlfriend over this incident, and asks a close friend (Shaggy in the video version) about what to do.
Shaggy urges the man to say, "It wasn’t me," and also recommends he vehemently deny everything, despite what the woman saw with her own eyes.
This snapshot of pop music history is no inconsequential retelling of what has since come to be known as the legal strategy, the "Shaggy Defense."
As you may have guessed by now, it has become a more less bona fide legal strategy in court cases of varying genres.
On Sept. 10, 2024 the "Shaggy Defense" made its "official" debut in American presidential politics; during the presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris.
To be clearer, Democratic Party operatives are feverishly attempting to rescue Kamala Harris from her own record as vice president. A record the American people have seen and heard with their own eyes and ears, since January, 2021.
May heaven help all of us!
We the People are being cleverly directed to not believe their "lying eyes," to evoke another pop-song, this one from decades ago ("Lyin' Eyes" - Asylum Records - The Eagles - Album: "One of These Nights") when it comes to almost any issue of consequence, including but not limited to: the current administration’s disastrous record on the economy, the wide-open border — seemingly giving violent criminals preferential access (akin to "Priority Pass" holders) — raging conflicts, which eventually render the U.S., and places eslewhere, beyond vulnerable.
Once we also consider the shrinking middle-class, the besieged working-class, fentanyl deaths destroying families nationally at record paces, and the first administration in history openly working to end women’s sports, we realize Americans are faced with an argosy of daunting problems.
That is dilemmas which didn't exist four years ago.
Do the math on who was president from 2016-2020.
Kamala Harris’ campaign advisers seem to be taking Shaggy’s advice to heart.
The cinematic, impressive, and carefully manufactured convention in Chicago strongly indicates that Democrats are hoping Americans are either dumb enough to disassociate the last four years with the fact that Biden and Harris were in charge, or that they will hate Donald Trump enough to ignore the fact that the Biden-Harris administration made them poorer and afraid to walk outside at night.
As Campaign '24 lumbers on, we're subjected to a barrage of commercials proclaiming that she is tough on immigration, while Harris previously stated that she would like to abolish ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and as "border czar" hasn’t even visited the border, even though a record number of millions illegally entered the country, inclusive of hundreds on the terror watch list.
If only the border was the only issue on which Team Harris expects us to reject the truth.
During her convention speech she spoke of caring for the middle-class.
Yet . . . Harris supports electric vehicle mandates that will destroy thousands of jobs and thrusts an insane burden on workers who can’t afford electric cars.
In the same speech, Harris smiled broadly as she mentioned firefighters, nurses, and construction workers.
What she failed to mention is that thanks to her administration, tens of thousands of these same hard-working people lost their jobs overnight, because of the arbitrary, unconscionable, and illogical mandates the administration imposed that Harris herself celebrated.
A champion of promoting abortion, it was no coincidence that the free abortion and vasectomy truck was a prominent feature of the convention in which Harris was nominated for president.
Kamala Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., may have actually outdone Harris in delivering meretricious remarks at the convention.
Whatever you think of the questions about Walz’s military record, or some of his other dubious claims, you saw him skillfully play the role of a "folksy," relatable," and "moderate" elected official.
Walz’s best line of the night may have also been his creepiest.
"So while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours," this comment refers to the fact that while Minnesota offers free breakfast to public school students (just like dozens of other states in the country) they also passed a law (at Walz’s urging) that makes it nearly impossible to remove books like "Gender Queer" and "Lawn Boy" from elementary school libraries.
Walz spun into action when parents groups mobilized in favor of the removal of these books after they were found in Minnesota elementary school libraries. "Gender Queer" not only graphically depicts sex acts between adolescent children, it includes vivid illustrations.
"Lawn Boy" contains a lurid description of oral sex between two ten-year old boys. Governor Walz crafted and passed a law that would prohibit the "banning" of these books from "public" and "school" libraries.
Despite their beguiling entreaties, the woke radicals shaping the Harris-Walz campaign secretly execrate common sense and moderation.
Right now, some Americans may simply be impressed by the sheer chutzpah required to present this scam to the public.
While voters may be reluctant to outwardly push back, they will eagerly and enthusiastically express their own disbelief quietly in the voting booth.
This can only mean Donald Trump is winning in a landslide.
There's no shifting that more than factual reality onto another viewpoint.
Nicholas Chamberas has advised good government advocacy groups, elected officials and political candidates on public policy matters as well as having served as a senior adviser on several prominent New York City campaigns. He holds a degree in Political Science and a Juris Doctor. Read Nicholas Chamberas' Reports — More Here.