By james art 
I drive 105 miles from Raleigh to Winston-Salem, NC. I have made this journey over a hundred times. The whole time I’ll be on I-40, which if you continue past Winston-Salem, will take you to the California coast.
Signs of futility
On this particular trip, days before the election, I saw for the first time many electronic billboards where you can change what is displayed every two seconds. All these billboards advertise Kamala Harris. It’s an odd development because this stretch of freeway is deep Republican territory.
According to multiple reports, the Harris/Walz campaign has raised more than a billion dollars in campaign contributions for distribution across the board. My immediate thought? It wouldn’t have mattered if they had raised two billion dollars; Harris would not be selected.
As I drive down the highway and come across one billboard after another, it strikes me that these ads aren’t saying much. One report said Harris voted to cut taxes for middle-class families. However, how many dozens of other senators have done the same over the years? Another billboard says she supports maintaining Social Security for the elderly. OK, but where is the influence here? All he is doing is emulating Donald Trump, as he has tried to do on many issues.
Nothing to see here
As I come across endless lame billboards, I eventually get the message. She doesn’t have much to say and her track record is negligible. Any notable achievements will be widely publicized. Her handlers would ensure that anything with excellent impact was included. Since the Harris campaign has little or nothing to highlight, they can only cite how she voted in the Senate five and ten years ago, even if she never lifted a finger beyond simply saying she supported this or that issue.
Another billboard shows a photo of JD Vance. Nothing is mentioned about him except the word “weird”, with an exclamation mark for emphasis. Is that all Harris and company have to say about candidate Trump? Do they believe that calling Vance weird will convince anyone to vote Democrat?
Now the message can be effective if a billboard is shared quoting Tim Waltz as the opposite of weird (monumental challenge). Still, what would you call a Walz? normal? Rational? Done? Nothing seems to fit.
Do Harris and Waltz think they themselves are not, to use the operative word here, queer? What’s weirder than being the presidential candidate of a major political party, never getting a primary vote, and only having one backroom deal? This isn’t just weird; it is anti-democratic.
Messages with impact
Coming off the freeway, I’ve only seen a handful of pro-Trump billboards. One in particular stands out. It’s a traditional billboard featuring a picture of Kamala Harris on one side and Donald Trump on the other. Underneath Harris, a word giggled. One word comes up with Trump: decisions. Just two words, but the message is overwhelming.
Another billboard supporting Donald Trump explains how he will restore the economy. It will restart American drilling and energy supplies, stem the flow of illegals and boost production, thereby helping to create more American jobs.
His messages are on target. Since he has done these things before, these are not empty promises, but completely within his capabilities.
Money to burn
When you have more than a billion dollars in your coffers, you have money to burn. Various such billboards in America probably mirror these billboards in central North Carolina. Will they generally have an effect? Will the voters driving by think, “Okay, that billboard convinced me.”
When your name is Kamala Harris, joined by Maoist challenger Tim Waltz, and you’re running on fumes with no idea how to run the country, lead, get things done, or face the world’s autocrats and dictators, you need a lot of slogans and a lot of insults.
If this is the best the Democrats can generate, their fate is sealed. Without massive fraud they don’t stand a chance.