GOP consultant: This presidential election should have been easier for Republicans | Opinion

Vice President Kamala Harris always seems to deliver in the big moments. She did so in the September presidential debate and again during her “closing arguments” speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. After she made the case against Donald Trump and touched on what she wanted to do as president, Harris ended with a vision of America that is “fearless enough to imagine a future of possibilities.”

It was a nice change of pace from the ugliness that had dominated the news cycle leading up to and following Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Americans have endured one of the nastiest presidential campaigns in the modern era. In their race to the bottom, both Trump and Harris subjected us to fearmongering, hate and talk about Hitler. Each candidate seemed to take pleasure in turning my decision at the ballot box into a game of political Russian roulette where a wrong choice might lead to an apocalyptic future where all is lost.

Fear has always been a powerful tool in politics, and it’s a smart campaign tactic when properly used. But how we choose the next leader of the free world should not be based on fear — we deserve better.

Rank-and-file Democrats can be forgiven for the failings of their nominee. After all, they did not get a choice — party elites made that decision.

Yes, Harris is a deeply flawed candidate that managed to successfully run a campaign about nothing. She avoided taking many clear stances on issues, has yet to answer why she changed several of her positions, and sidestepped questions about Joe Biden’s mental decline and whether she was part of the cover-up to hide it from the public. But America will not cease to exist if Harris is elected.

Republicans, we have no excuse. We chose this chaos.

Instead of picking someone who could easily win the race — Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy or Mike Pence — Republicans chose the guy who voters kicked out of office in 2020 and who has since spun wild tales of a deep state conspiracy and stolen elections.

At every step of the way, the Trump campaign seemed determined to lose this race. It ignored suburban women who rejected him in 2018, 2020 and 2022, and it missed a historic opportunity to persuade Black and Hispanic voters.

Trump focused only on his base and did little to persuade voters he needed to win in swing states — a strategy highlighted by his refusal to participate in more than one debates or sit down for interviews with some in the mainstream media. I don’t want to hear that the press is nasty and biased and won’t hold Harris to the same level of scrutiny. Stop whining! As a candidate for the highest office in the land, Trump owed it to every American to answer tough questions and make his case to the voters.

Any vision that Trump tried to deliver always became lost in a mishmash of conspiracy theories, grievance politics and fear designed to turn Americans against themselves. In the last 40 years, the Republican message has gone from America as a “shining city on a hill” to a “garbage can for the world.”

That is not who we are.

What makes us uniquely American has always been our undying belief in the greatness of our country and the promise that it holds. Americans see a future filled with hope and optimism. Woven into our DNA is the understanding that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can achieve anything.

As we turn the page on the presidential election, let’s hope that the one lesson we’ve learned from 2024 is that we must demand better choices. Let’s do a better job in picking our nominees, and let’s demand that they be the full embodiment of the best of us. That’s how we fulfill the promise of America.

This is not pollyannaish or wishful thinking. This is the way things ought to be.