With less than a week until Election Day, we’ve reached that part of the campaign where things are getting…tense. For months, Democrats have been busy trying to bury Donald Trump’s chances under a mountain of soundbites, slogans, and carefully curated talking points. And yet, here we are, in a dead heat between him and Kamala Harris, with the polls showing no clear frontrunner. So much for that runaway victory Harris’s camp thought they’d have in the bag.
This close race has Democrats sweating, maybe even cracking open some stress balls behind the scenes. They’d banked on Harris pulling away, coasting to an easy win while Trump trailed somewhere in the background. Instead, the guy they’ve been trying to write off as “done” is right on her heels, and it’s starting to show in some fairly desperate moves on their end.
Case in point: Harris’s team just got caught running a classic campaign trick on Reddit—a major social media platform that’s no stranger to questionable “community moderation” tactics. Turns out, her campaign has been engaging in some creative “astroturfing.” For those unfamiliar, this is basically a way to make it look like Harris has a bigger, more enthusiastic base than she actually does by having staffers pose as average folks singing her praises. It’s like paying a dozen people to clap the loudest at your own concert. And, yes, it’s as fake as it sounds.
According to a report from Breitbart News, this “astroturfing” operation was uncovered by the Federalist, which claims that Harris’s campaign is actively manipulating Reddit’s algorithm to plaster pro-Harris content all over the platform. Staffers and volunteers are allegedly tasked with flooding certain subreddits, especially ones like “Politics,” with what amounts to campaign ads disguised as genuine posts from “concerned citizens.” Then, as if that’s not enough, they’re having others jump in with supportive comments, all in a bid to create a cozy little echo chamber for Harris.
You’ve got to admire the dedication, if not the integrity. According to the Federalist, this level of manipulation is essentially no different than the sketchy companies that pay armies of bots to flood Amazon with fake five-star reviews. The only difference? Instead of convincing you to buy a questionable blender, Harris’s team is hoping to convince you she’s the most popular candidate on the ballot.
Apparently, Harris’s campaign has even gone so far as to keep a spreadsheet for tracking these posts. You can just picture some poor intern’s screen filled with rows and rows of timestamps, comment threads, and usernames—all carefully plotted out to keep the Reddit crowd on-message. This isn’t just a one-off attempt to sway public opinion; it’s an organized, well-oiled, pro-Harris machine, masquerading as the grassroots “voice of the people.”
If Trump’s team tried to pull a stunt like this, you can bet every mainstream news outlet would be frothing at the mouth. We’d have a media meltdown and wall-to-wall coverage dissecting his “undermining of democracy” or whatever new headline they could cook up. But since it’s Harris’s team, we’re getting a whole lot of silence. Turns out, the mainstream media just doesn’t find Harris’s Reddit takeover all that interesting. Or maybe it’s that they find it too interesting and would rather just…not mention it.
But the fact that Harris’s campaign is even bothering with this says a lot about where they’re at. If her support were truly as solid as they like to claim, there wouldn’t be any need for Reddit’s behind-the-scenes boost. But with Trump nipping at her heels, it seems she’ll take any advantage she can get, no matter how shaky the ethical ground. A spreadsheet of Reddit propaganda? It’s like something out of a political comedy sketch, only no one’s laughing.
The truth is, Harris can pepper Reddit with as many glowing posts as she likes, but it’s not going to make voters forget the last four years. That’s a tall order when the nation’s been dealing with record inflation, rising crime, a chaotic border, and a shaky economy under her watch as vice president. The digital love-fest on Reddit is nice and all, but it’s hardly going to overshadow the very real struggles that Americans have been facing since the start of the Biden-Harris administration.
With Trump surging in early voting turnout, especially in key states like North Carolina, the desperation in the Harris camp is starting to feel a little bit like grasping at straws. Reddit “astroturfing” isn’t exactly the mark of a confident campaign—it’s more like the digital equivalent of spray-painting a rusted-out car and calling it new. Voters are far savvier than Harris’s team seems to think, and this latest ploy might just end up backfiring.
In the end, these desperate Reddit tactics aren’t likely to sway anyone who hasn’t already bought into the Harris brand. Voters aren’t looking for manufactured popularity; they’re looking for someone who can actually deliver solutions. And if Harris’s biggest claim to grassroots support is a spreadsheet full of “pro-Harris” Reddit posts, it might just end up being another footnote in her collection of campaign blunders.
With the clock ticking down to Election Day, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Both sides are throwing everything they’ve got into these final days, but sometimes the real game-changer is a candidate’s willingness to trust the voters rather than micromanage the narrative. Harris’s latest move, though? Let’s just say, it feels less like a well-planned strategy and more like a Hail Mary.