With the 2026 midterm elections on the horizon, Democrats are once again training their fire on President Donald Trump — a man who isn’t even on the ballot. That strategy makes sense, argues conservative author Blaine L. Pardoe in a recent American Thinker piece, because running on their own record is a harder sell. But Pardoe suggests a more useful exercise for voters: imagine what the country would look like if Vice President Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election.
In “The Bullet Dodged,” Pardoe sketches a counterfactual landscape that is unsparingly dark. His piece is less a prediction than a warning — a reminder, as he puts it, of what the nation and world might have become under a Harris administration. For readers who lean right, this is a rallying cry. For everyone else, it’s a provocative thought experiment that sharpens the stakes of the current political moment.
Open Borders and a Nuclear Iran
Pardoe starts with the border, arguing that Harris, who notably declined to name any Biden administration policy she would change, would have kept the nation’s doors wide open. He envisions caravans of migrants seeking asylum, drawn by the promise of amnesty and government-provided food, shelter, and phones — a continuation of what he calls the scenes playing out along the Rio Grande.
The foreign policy picture is even grimmer in his telling. Iran, he asserts, would have continued enriching uranium and would by now possess an atomic bomb. The question, he suggests, is not whether Israel would have felt compelled to launch a preemptive nuclear strike, but whether it could have resisted. Without the deterrent effect of U.S. action under President Trump — which Pardoe refers to as “Operation Midnight Hammer” — the Middle East might have spiraled into nuclear conflict.
He also points to Venezuela, where Nicolás Maduro would presumably still be in power, with drug boats moving freely to U.S. shores and tens of thousands of Americans dying from overdoses. Under a Harris administration, he argues, the Biden administration’s hands-off approach would have continued.
Economic and Domestic Consequences
At home, Pardoe paints a picture of economic stagnation and social decay. He predicts 401(k) accounts would be worth considerably less, grocery prices would be even higher, and the Inflation Reduction Act would still be driving up costs “in pursuit of bogus science.” Rents would keep climbing as a massive influx of undocumented immigrants created a shortage of low-cost housing.
The nation’s capital would remain crime-ridden, he writes, because the National Guard would not have been deployed there. Homelessness would stay high, making visitors to the nation’s 250th birthday celebration “easy pickings.” And that celebration itself, Pardoe argues, would have been less a tribute to American greatness and more a platform for every fringe group to air grievances — an event he contrasts with the “debauchery” he says Biden and Harris allowed at the Easter Egg roll.
Censorship and Government Bloat
Pardoe is equally concerned about civil liberties. He describes a Harris administration as one that would have embraced censorship, pointing to her support for cracking down on “disinformation.” Drawing a comparison to Britain, he warns that Americans could have been arrested for sharing memes or expressing conservative views, with identifying as a conservative landing you on a government watch list.
The federal government would have remained bloated, he says — no DOGE-style effort to trim jobs and save taxpayer money. USAID, he alleges, would still be a “money laundering operation” for the Democratic Party, and tax hikes would have been necessary to support left-wing spending. Corporate taxes would have soared, forcing businesses to close and pushing their employees onto welfare. Military recruitment would still be struggling, and eight conflicts around the globe would still be raging because a President Harris wouldn’t have been in a position to end them.
Culture, Rights, and Foreign Policy
The cultural imagineering continues: toxic dyes and chemicals remaining in our food, statues of Dr. Anthony Fauci appearing, and Second Amendment rights “illegally curtailed” through bans on high-capacity magazines and “assault-style” weapons. A federal abortion law would have been a top priority, and Social Security and Medicare would have been expanded to serve the influx of undocumented immigrants. And Ukraine would still be receiving free weapons and billions in aid, emboldening Putin to the point of possibly using chemical weapons.
Notably, Pardoe concedes a couple of silver linings in a Harris world — though they come with a smirk. The box wine industry would be prospering, he jokes, and there would be far fewer presidential assassination attempts, given that Tim Walz would be serving as vice president.
A Call to Remember What Was Avoided
Pardoe’s essay, published in August 2026, is not shy about its intent. He closes by urging readers to counter criticisms of Trump by reminding people of the alternative reality they’ve been spared. “When people attempt to tell you how bad things are with Trump,” he writes, “remind them of what the nation and world would look like if the Queen of Cackles had won.”
For readers in the middle, Pardoe’s piece is less an argument than a thought experiment rooted in assumptions they may not share. But as the midterm season heats up and Democrats focus their energy on Trump, it’s a reminder that the 2024 election continues to shape the political conversation — even from the wrong side of the ballot.
Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/08/the-bullet-dodged/