We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

The left probably really does believe that Trump is “literally” (as The Atlantic literally put it) Hitler, but the handful of adults in the Democratic playroom surely know that this hoary charge has lost its sting, because it is preposterous. So why did Harris herself make the charge?  I have a theory that so far I’ve not seen advanced. I think it is being done to shore up a small faction of the progressive base that might not turn out for Harris. It reflects the desperation of the campaign.

For progressives, the problem with Kamala is that she isn’t left enough, while some are disgusted at her embrace of Dick and Liz Cheney. As one leftist put it on Instagram, Harris “has been endorsed by the ghost of Henry Kissinger.”

Recall my two items about the “undecided” leftist voter who undecidedness is not between Trump and Harris, but between Harris, Jill Stein, or not voting at all for the top of the ticket. It is also being reported that outrage that Harris isn’t aligning against Israel played a part in the decision of the Los Angeles Times not to endorse Harris—even though she’s running against literally Hitler! It is being reported by non-mainstream media (which means it is more likely to be true) that the daughter of the Times‘s owner, who has been known to swing her weight around the paper, nixed the endorsement because of the Gaza issue:

But in a stunning statement on Saturday, his daughter, Nika Soon-Shiong, 31, a progressive political activist who has frequently been accused of trying to meddle in the paper’s news coverage, said the decision was motivated by Ms. Harris’s continued support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

“Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process,” Ms. Soon-Shiong, who has no formal role at the paper, said in a statement to The New York Times. “As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.”

Over the past six years, writers and editors have increasingly chafed at interference by Dr. Soon-Shiong, 72, and his family in the newsroom, where owners are generally regarded less as proprietors with the right to impose their personal views than as guardians of a public trust.

Meanwhile, The Nation endorsed Harris, and immediately received blowback from its junior staffers and interns:

We, The Nation’s current interns, find this endorsement unearned and disappointing. We have a different interpretation of the magazine’s abolitionist legacy, one that says a publication committed to justice must refrain from endorsing a person signing off on genocide. We do not support Donald Trump, but to champion Harris at this moment is to ignore the atrocities that are being carried out with weapons supplied by the Biden-Harris administration. . .

In the 12 weeks since she effectively became the Democratic nominee, Harris has failed to differentiate her policies from Joe Biden’s blank-check support for genocide.

With the election possibly coming down to a margin of a few thousand votes in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, Harris can’t afford any attrition among progressive and young voters who ought to be in her pocket. Playing the Hitler Card is a desperate attempt to keep these voters from defecting or not voting at all.

The closing weeks of this campaign are giving off distinct 1968 vibes, when the New Left heckled Hubert Humphrey repeatedly at his rallies, just as Harris is facing pro-Hamas hecklers now. I recall speaking with Peter Collier about the 1968 protest scene once, asking, “Weren’t you concerned about electing Nixon [who was also Hitler]?” Peter said, “Nah—we didn’t care about Nixon. We thought he was irrelevant at worst, and if anything might bring about the revolution sooner. Our main target was the Democratic Party.” Recall Tom Hayden’s proclaimed objective for the New Left at that same time: “To murder liberalism in its official robes.”

Not much has changed on the kindergarten left, except that most of them grew up to get tenure.

Chaser: