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People watching U.S. television last month may have seen a rehashed television advertisement from the 2024 campaign featuring President Donald Trump. In the so-called public service announcement, which has been especially controversial because it was funded by the U.S. government, the president walks down a hallway as audio plays of him declaring that “this is the final battle” against communists, Marxists, fascists, and the “fake news media.” He promises to “throw off the sick political class that hates our country” and “liberate America from these villains, once and for all.”

The spot is classic Trump.

People watching U.S. television last month may have seen a rehashed television advertisement from the 2024 campaign featuring President Donald Trump. In the so-called public service announcement, which has been especially controversial because it was funded by the U.S. government, the president walks down a hallway as audio plays of him declaring that “this is the final battle” against communists, Marxists, fascists, and the “fake news media.” He promises to “throw off the sick political class that hates our country” and “liberate America from these villains, once and for all.”

The spot is classic Trump.

At Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas, Vice President JD Vance delivered a blistering keynote speech in which he attacked Democrats as the “party of hatred” and extremism. “This fall, the Democrats are running candidates who will tell your children what they’re allowed to say, how they’re allowed to live, and importantly, who they ought to hate,” he said on Sept. 10. “The Democrats are the party of hatred. They are the party that despises America and the people who built it. They are the party that can find sympathy for the terrorists who perpetrated 9/11.”

Both the advertisement and the speech grow out of the basic strategy that Republicans have embraced in the final weeks leading up the midterm elections. Given that Trump is facing historically low approval ratings, including on the economy, and that Republicans are struggling in states that are usually considered safe for the GOP (like Kansas), they can’t focus on a positive vision for the future.

Instead, they are clinging to Trump’s playbook from his first campaign: When you can’t persuade the public to like who you are or what you’re doing, concentrate on shaping how voters see your opponent. Through fear and smear, make the electorate hate the other team more than it hates you. There is no reason to appeal to hearts and minds. Rather, the........

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