New York Times columnist lauds Harris' "muscular patriotism."

Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations a-happenin' with her.

I understand that the mainstream media wants to support Kamala Harris’ “vibes” campaign, but David Leonhardt of the New York Times carries the joke too far in this column purporting to find in her a “muscular patriotism.” Leonhardt writes:

At her first rally with Tim Walz, Kamala Harris delivered a riff about their quintessentially American backgrounds. She grew up in Oakland, Calif., raised by a working mother, while he grew up on the Nebraska plains, she explained. They were “two middle-class kids,” she said, now trying to make it to the White House together.

“Only in America,” Harris said, as the Philadelphia crowd burst into a chant of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

This sort of unabashed patriotism doesn’t always come naturally to today’s Democratic Party. But it has been central to Harris’s presidential campaign. In her ads and speeches, she portrays herself as a tough, populist, progressive patriot.

Bragging about how far one has come isn’t a sign of genuine patriotism. It’s more like narcissistic patriotism.

Nor is there anything new in Harris’ pose. Joe Biden tried to come off as “Scranton Joe,” a working class hero and American success story. Now that I think about it, he was more convincing than Harris.

As part of his muscular patriotism act, Biden liked to say, “we’re American, we can do anything.” Anything except police our borders, execute a successful withdrawal from Afghanistan, etc.

Even Michelle Obama said she was proud of America once it was ready to elevate her husband to the presidency. That’s narcissistic patriotism in the extreme.

To find the “muscularity” of Harris’ patriotism, Leonhardt really has reach:

Harris excoriated Gaza protesters for burning a U.S. flag. She and Walz also cast themselves as defenders of liberty against Republicans who threaten it, especially on abortion rights.

Okay, but Harris has also shown solidarity with militant Gaza protesters. And what does defending abortions have to do with patriotism?

Harris combines patriotism with muscular promises to defend the interests of ordinary Americans. “Being president is about who you fight for, and she’s fighting for people like you,” the narrator in a campaign ad says.

Has the presidential candidate of a major party ever not promised to “fight for people like you”?

Her ads explain that as a prosecutor, she took on murderers, child abusers, drug cartels, big banks and big drug companies.

But as a Senator, she gave aid and comfort to criminals who were raging violently through Minneapolis. And as vice president with the border portfolio, she presided over the influx of many millions of illegal immigrants, while she toured Latin American countries to address the “root causes” of people’s desire to come to the U.S.

That’s not being a muscular patriot. That’s being a fuzzy-headed San Francisco Democrat.

Leonhardt ends up acknowledging that Harris’ muscular patriotism is a “strategy” and not an original one:

Patriotism has long been a successful Democratic strategy, for both female and male candidates. The last three Democratic presidents — Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton — all celebrated American ideals while acknowledging the country’s flaws. So have successful Democratic Senate candidates in purple and red states, like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Montana and Ohio.

So have unsuccessful Democratic candidates like John (“Reporting for Duty”) Kerry and Michael (I’m in a tank) Dukakis.

If Americans fall for Harris’ muscular patriotism act, they will deserve the decidedly unmuscular country she, like her Democratic predecessors, delivers. And if Donald Trump fails to point out the ways in which Harris’ actions belie her pose, choosing instead to focus on non-issues like her racial identity, he will deserve to lose.