In a shocking development, Bernie Sanders said the obvious: Kamala's flip-flops on policy are nothing more than an attempt to fool the low-information voter into believing she isn't a raving lunatic. 

Welker: "Do you think Kamala is abandoning her progressive ideals?"

Bernie: "No... I think she is trying to be pragmatic and do what she thinks is right in order to win the election."

Oops, you weren't supposed to say that part out loud!pic.twitter.com/IKKbmGW5YA

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 8, 2024

Sanders, like Ro Khanna, is a throwback to the time when liberals would tell you what they think. Perhaps they would use a bit of persuasive spin, but their primary tactic was not just using hoaxes and lies to fool Americans into voting for them. 

I'm not a fan of calling Kamala Harris a "flip-flopper," although it seems to be a handy way of describing her doing 180s on every policy issue. In 2019, she was to the left of Bernie Sanders; in 2024, she is running as the female MAGA candidate. 

But what we are seeing isn't a candidate shifting with the wind, as politicians often do. Instead, we are seeing yet another liar and hoaxer playing Americans for fools. 

That's not exactly what Sanders is trying to say here, but that is what he is describing. Kamala is lying about her views because she needs to in order to win the election. 

You may say, "All politicians do that." But that isn't really true. All politicians spin, use puffery, emphasize what's popular about their policies, and downplay the negatives. But generally speaking, you have a pretty good idea of where they stand on issues and what the choice before you in an election is. 

That's why most elections are stark choices: you have the left and right duking it out. Neither may be telling the whole story, but neither tries to hide what they are. 

What Harris is doing is entirely different: she is trying to convince the American people that she is an entirely different person than she is, and is doing so because she knows Americans would never vote to put somebody with her radical views in office. 

Sanders calls this pragmatic, and in a sense, he is right. But it isn't policy pragmatism he is describing, but rather the kind of pragmatism that you see all the time in con artists: say whatever you need to in order to get the "mark" to hand over his cash. 

And the results would be the same if Harris won: Americans who voted for her based on the image she is trying to create would have been conned. 

For three elections in a row, Democrats have relied on hoaxes to get elected. In 2016 it was the Steele Dossier (it didn't work, although it hampered Trump's ability to govern), in 2020, it was COVID and "moderate" "return to normality" Joe Biden, and in 2024 it is the tough-on-the-border and small business-friendly Kamala Harris. 

Sanders may call this "pragmatic," but the pragmatism is about gaining power, not centrist policies. 

Kamala is lying, and on this Sanders is pretty clear. She remains a radical leftist but has to hide that fact if she has a prayer of getting elected. 

The good news is that Americans are starting to see through it. Harris, even with the collusion of the mainstream media, is so bad an actor that she can't pull off the hoax. She is so bad at acting that she can't even pretend to be on the phone convincingly.

Kamala #Harris, to avoid talking to reporters, pretended to talk on the phone by putting the receiver to her ear. But she forgot that she already had headphones connected to the gadget and had long been in her ears. There is no truth even in small things... pic.twitter.com/H7UFXVhzNf

— UinHurricane (@UinHurricane) September 4, 2024

Will she collapse utterly in the debate? Probably not because it is too much to hope for. But then again, the chances are far above zero percent because she is just no good at this. 

However, the best she can hope for is just to survive without doing a lot of damage. You can't add 20 IQ points to a person.