Between a FOX and a Hard Place

Out at dinner one night this past week, a family member shared with me his dismay over the current state of the election.

“How can it be so close?” he asked.

I answered quickly, confidently: “FOX News.”

The Murdoch’s propaganda machine is the highest rated news channel in America. With that kind of scope, FOX finds an audience not only in the extreme right, but also in a passive center. This latter group isn’t exactly enthused to lean towards Trump but, given as he is the best option against an opponent they have been told (as FOX tells it) is a radical threat to America, they will begrudgingly put principles aside and back this perceived lesser of two evils.

The appeal to the center, the lowest common denominator among voters, is the prize pig of elections. Campaigns tailor their messaging to get as many votes as possible. Unfortunately for Kamala Harris, this strategy on her part has been received as vague and principleless.

For a recent example, during an interview with NBC News last week, the Vice President was asked if she believed that “transgender Americans should have access to gender-affirming care.”

“I believe we should follow the law,” were her first words and Ms. Harris then redirected to the Trump campaign’s advertising budget. The interviewing reporter pressed for a yes or no answer, asking for Harris to “define” herself on the issue.

Harris did not answer in the binary. Instead, she went on to say that Americans should make the best decisions for themselves on the advice of their doctors.

Harris’ response has been decried as a betrayal, failing to stand up for a marginalized minority when it could not have been easier for her to do so. Her invocation of the law was an especial sleight, seeing as far across America several states prohibit or outright ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors, with some legislatures even drafting bills to deny transgender adults as well.

As a leftist and an ally, my own immediate feelings were of similar consternation. How could she let down her base like this? Why, so close to the presidency, would she reveal such a self-sabotaging, heartless position?

At that same family dinner, I vented these frustrations.

“What was she supposed to say?” my relative asked.

“‘Yes!'” I exclaimed, exasperated.

“Okay,” he was now getting a little frustrated himself, “but if she says that FOX News is going to take that ‘yes’ and blast it across the airwaves.”

I was struck. My own point, used against me—and he was totally right. This is the same network that uses “progressive” as a pejorative; jumps between vogue buzzword bogeyman like “DEI” and “critical race theory” every few weeks; and which communicates that “gender-affirming care” is a euphemism for genital mutilation.

Had Harris answered ‘yes,’ it would have been sound-clipped and spun into something it never was by the most powerful news empire in this country and targeted at its most powerful voting group, furthering the false image of Harris as a dangerous radical.

As unfortunate as it is, the majority of Americans do not have as clear of gender-positive feelings as they do on other LGBT issues like gay marriage. As recently as 2022, 60 percent of Americans subscribe to the belief that gender is determined by sex assigned at birth, which was actually an increase over previous years polled.

I wish Harris would take stronger stances on this and other causes, or rather now I realize I wish she could take stronger stances. But at this time, with the election so tight, it is just not politically pragmatic with such a powerful media weapon armed against her.

Trump is not only a very broad danger to our country and the countries of the world, but he also presents a very specific threat to transgender Americans. Absolutely no policy of Harris’s is as antagonizing to this at-risk group.

If you are reading this as a disaffected leftist or undecided voter, for every problem that you think Harris presents, Trump has those same problems and then some. There is in fact a very real difference between these candidates, and that difference will reveal itself after this election is decided.

If you want what is right for America and the world, vote for Kamala Harris for President of the United States.