I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling more anxious about the outcome of the upcoming election. I’m still nauseatingly optimistic, but the nausea is growing.
Like you, I’m skeptical of polls, but all the polls show the same thing: Kamala Harris’ campaign stalled a few weeks ago, but Donald Trump’s approval ratings are up. It’s important to take the polls seriously if they show that they are continuing to rise.
The US vice president is scheduled to deliver his final message to the American people on Tuesday at a rally on the Ellipse on the Washington Mall.
In recent weeks, she has focused on women’s rights to their bodies and every American’s right to democracy. Clearly, Trump is threatening both.
But on Tuesday night, she will need to respond forcefully to the issue that remains top of mind for most Americans: the economy.
She must simply and clearly tell Americans why they continue to have such a difficult time, despite all economic indicators to the contrary. That’s because large corporations and a handful of wealthy individuals have the power to siphon most of the economic profits to themselves.
Most Americans resent continued economic hardship even as billionaires attract more and more wealth. Most people know that they pay a lot of money for housing, gas, groceries, and necessary medications. They also know that the main cause is the market power of large corporations.
They want someone who will stand up to big business and the Washington politicians who serve them.
They want a president who is on their side. A president who will crack down on price gouging, destroy monopolies to restore competition, fight to limit the cost of prescription drugs, and stop legalized bribery from taking big money out of politics and rigging markets for the wealthy. And who will ensure that corporations pay their fair share and eliminate tax breaks for billionaire fraudsters?
A president who puts working families first over big corporations and the wealthy.
Harris needs to say she’s going to be president.
Her policy proposals suggest that. She focuses on strong antitrust enforcement, cracking down on mergers and acquisitions that give big food companies the power to jack up the prices of food and groceries, prosecuting price fixing, and prohibiting price gouging. She needs to remind voters of this.
She also announced increased taxes on the wealthy and $25,000 in down payment assistance to help Americans buy their first home, expanded to help more than 100 million working Americans. He also said he would restore the child tax credit to $3,600 and introduce a new $6,000 tax. The cuts are made to help families pay for the high costs of a child’s first year of life.
All of this will be part of her speech this Tuesday, which will talk about why she’s an advocate for workers.
She wants to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, make stock buybacks more expensive, and expand Medicare to cover home health care, paid for by expanding Medicare price negotiations with drug companies. It is covered by savings.
She needs to frame all of this as a response to the power of big business and the wealthy, and she needs to say in clear terms that she is on the side of the people, not the powerful.
If she fails to do this in her closing argument, the only thing the nation will hear is President Trump’s inflammatory response – the average worker is an undocumented worker, a Democrat, a socialist, a Marxist. It may be said that they are having a hard time because of their “internal enemy,” which includes people who are under attack, and “conspiracies.” state”.
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Ms. Harris should incorporate her message about democracy into this economic message. If our democracies were not dominated by the wealthy and big corporations, they would be less likely to siphon off economic profits. The average worker would have better wages and more stable work, and would be able to afford a home, food, fuel, medicine, child care, and elder care.
A large portion of the population no longer believes American democracy is working. According to a new New York Times/Siena College poll, only 45% believe our democracy does a good job of representing ordinary people. An astonishing 62% say their government primarily acts to serve their country and its elites rather than the common good.
In her closing argument, Harris said she should work to reverse this and force the government to work for the common good.
Harris began her campaign in July and early August by emphasizing these economic and democracy themes. But in recent weeks, she has focused on President Trump’s threat to democracy. His campaign appears to have decided it could draw more voters from moderate Republican suburban women angry at Trump’s role in inciting the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
That’s why she’s campaigning with Liz Cheney and rallying Republican leaders to support her. And why did she choose to deliver her closing message on the Ellipse, where President Trump called on his supporters to march to the Capitol on January 6, 2021?
But Harris’ campaign stalled as she shifted gears into Trump’s attack on democracy. I think it’s because Americans continue to focus on the economy and want answers as to why we continue to have economic difficulties.
If Trump gives them an answer, albeit unsubstantiated and inflammatory, but Harris doesn’t, they may be sailing toward victory on November 5th.
So in her final message, she must speak clearly and openly about the misallocation of economic power in America, which is skewed toward big corporations and the wealthy rather than average Americans, and her determination to correct it. Must be.
Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His latest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a columnist for the US edition of the Guardian. His newsletter can be found at robertreich.substack.com.
