I'm sure this clip has more context to it, at least from Tim Walz' perspective. Nevertheless, for the first time, I find myself in complete agreement with my former governor in Minnesota. And am still laughing about it, as apparently Walz forgets which ticket represents the last four years that we can't afford (via PJM):

🚨 WALZ FINALLY TELLS THE TRUTH: "We can't afford four more years" of Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/EwhBbY0O4p

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 21, 2024

Yes, yes, I know ... there's more context to it. And we'll get to that shortly, but for the moment let's recognize what we can't afford from the last four years. There's inflation, an unchecked border crisis, multiple wars breaking out in Europe and the Middle East, and rampant crime. And that's just a taste of the misery that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have created.

Nor is this a limited phenomenon. A look at the RCP right/wrong direction tracker for the last 15 years shows that the American electorate spent the last three years at record levels of sustained dissatisfaction under Biden and Harris:

At the moment, the aggregate average of the "right direction" polls has crawled back up to 28.4%. That's lower than the lowest reading of the Donald Trump presidency (Oct 2017) until the pandemic hit. More than six in ten Americans agree with Walz that we can't afford another four years of the status quo -- the status quo brought to us by the BIden-Harris administration.

So what about the context in which Walz made these remarks? Walz was talking about gun control and race relations, Fox News reports, and "living in fear":

Around two minutes later, the Democrat brought attention back to the race and began criticizing former President Trump and his running mate JD Vance.

"I'll bring her home here quick, folks: Look, Kamala Harris made it clear these guys want to instill fear," Walz began. "They want to tell you that [you should] just get over it, it's a fact of life. This is the way it is."

"[Harris] simply has said it doesn't have to be this way," he added. "It doesn't have to be this way. We can't afford four more years of this."

Again ... who's been in charge the last four years? But even beyond that, which party has based their pitch entirely on fear? Donald Trump may be bombastic, but his campaign has serious policy proposals, plus a four-year track record on which to run. Trump has engaged the press on these issues, talking about ideas and policies.

Democrats, on the other hand, have nothing but fear to sell. For the past year, the message from Biden and then Harris is that Trump is The End of Democracy personified. Neither of them would defend their record; they just expect voters to cast ballots for the status quo as a default. Neither Harris nor Walz will even acknowledge their status as incumbents, let alone talk to reporters in anything except the most controlled settings possible. 

They're the anti-FDRs: All they have to sell is fear itself. That's what demagogues and authoritarians use to manipulate voters. In a level media playing field, these two would have been laughed out of the election already, but even in this modern media era of corrupt propaganda, Harris and Walz are still having trouble making the sale. There's hope yet.