At the presidential debate and on the campaign trail, Kamala Harris has hardly sounded like the Marxist or the Communist that Donald Trump has accused her of being.
Asked to place themselves on an ideological scale, more Americans see Mr. Biden as too liberal than see Mr. Trump as too conservative.
Nor is this tendency isolated to Mr. Biden: More Americans place themselves closer to Mr. Trump than to Ms. Harris on ideology, and in 2016, voters saw Mr. Trump as more moderate than Hillary Clinton.
The reason is that despite embracing many popular policies, Democrats have fallen out of step with the American people on something larger: their approach to the world.
To win, Ms. Harris will need to ignore calls to return to the orthodox fold and continue signaling strategic breaks from it.
Persons:
Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, fracking, Mr, Trump, Oprah Winfrey, they’re, Biden, Harris, Hillary Clinton
Organizations:
Communist, Democratic, Republicans, mavericks