Kamala Harris is roundly criticized for feeding America a steady diet of word salads. But what else can she do, given her impossible task of making the Democratic Party’s progressive policies palatable to the American people?

To appreciate Harris’ challenge, note that none of her top surrogates have been able to square that circle either. There is no Democrat who makes you think, why can’t our candidate just say that – as Sen. Tom Cotton and Vivek Ramaswamy do for Republicans while describing Donald Trump’s policies. Harris’ stand-ins may not get lost in the weeds of pablum, as Harris did last week when she told a crowd, “I grew up understanding the children of the community are the children of the community.” But when they are not comparing Trump to Hitler, her representatives are as gauzy and incoherent as she is.

No wonder. How could anyone:

• Assure voters you can secure the border when you have allowed millions to set up residency here during the last four years in the belief that no one is illegal?
• Convince voters that you support fracking when you have cast climate change as an existential crisis?
• Trumpet your commitment to freedom when you pressure social media platforms to censor speech you don’t like?
• Pose as a centrist when you have rewritten Title IX to mandate that biological males be allowed to compete against girls?
• Champion equal opportunity for all when you demand special privileges for favored groups?
• Celebrate the goodness of the American people when you have embraced the idea that our country is irredeemably racist?
• Decry the weaponization of the justice system when you have repeatedly used it to go after your political enemies?
• Defend the sanctity of our country’s institutions when you have relentlessly attacked the Supreme Court because it issued rulings you oppose?
• Proclaim yourself a champion of democracy when you repeatedly circulate the fiction that Donald Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election and when you tainted the 2020 election by fraudulently claiming that Hunter Biden’s laptop was a “Russian disinformation”?
• Claim you are Israel’s stalwart friend when your calls for a cease-fire would allow the butchers of Oct. 7 to retain power in Gaza?

In fairness, the silver-tongued Pericles might cry uncle if asked to find the words to untie such Gordian Knots. To expect the lead-tongued Harris – or her supporters – to accomplish that is unrealistic. If they could, they would. They can’t, so they don’t.

Yes, Harris and her surrogates could tell the truth about their intentions to continue the unpopular and feckless policies the Biden administration has imposed on the country during the last four years. But there’s an election to win.

The brazenness of their deception is breathtaking. Consider Harris’ refusal to meet the press. She’ll take softball questions from carefully selected local outlets but flatly refuses to hold unscripted press conferences that might include a few challenging questions. Her handlers’ apparent fear is that she will come across as incoherent – not because she is stupid, but because she has to say something, so long as it’s not the truth about her record and her party’s goals.

The press corps is happy to play along, pretending her unscripted silence is normal. It’s not. It’s a scandal.

Instead, the media is helping her run out the clock by seizing on every opportunity to cast Trump in a bad light. One would never guess that America and the world face monumental challenges – e.g., the high cost of living, soaring debt, shooting wars abroad, assassination attempts at home – from campaign coverage whose focus has moved from J.D. Vance’s comments about “cat ladies,” Trump’s visit to Arlington Cemetery, and claims that migrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. Wouldn’t it be nice if these really were the most pressing issues we face?

For his part, Trump is hardly running a stellar campaign. While continuing to be a gaffe-machine, he has only painted a broad-brush picture of the future. But he was president for four years. Four years marked by peace and prosperity. He was well-positioned to win a second term until the pandemic struck, and Democrats successfully used the crisis to blame him for every death while rewriting the rules of the election.

Nevertheless, Trump is an open book. What you see is what you get. For all his vagueness, his successful presidency tells us how he will govern.

We also know how Harris will govern. She will double down on Biden administration policies, including open borders, inflationary spending, piles of debt, and divisive rhetoric that have led the vast majority of voters to say we are on the wrong track.

We’ve seen this movie before. Following Joe Biden’s disingenuous 2020 playbook, the Harris campaign is casting her as a freedom-loving, common-sense centrist who seeks a return to normalcy. In fairness to the American people, who would have expected Biden to swerve so sharply left? Four years later, the Democrats’ goals are clear. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.