Harris' closing message: Why it must focus on anti-elitist economics

WASHINGTON – I don’t know about you, but I’m more concerned about the outcome of the upcoming election. I’m still sickly optimistic, but the nausea is growing.

I’m as skeptical of polls as any of you, but when they all show the same thing — that Kamala Harris’ campaign stalled a few weeks ago, but Trump’s continues to rise — it’s important to take the polls seriously.

Harris will deliver her closing message to the American people tomorrow at a rally on the Ellipse of the National Mall in Washington.

In recent weeks, she has focused on Trump’s threats against a woman’s right to her body and the rights of all Americans to a democracy.

But tomorrow night she must respond forcefully on the one issue that remains top of mind for most Americans: the economy.

She must tell Americans simply and clearly why they continue to struggle, despite all official economic indicators to the contrary: it is the power of big corporations and a handful of wealthy individuals to siphon away most of the economic profits for themselves.

Most Americans are outraged that they continue to struggle economically while billionaires rake in more and more wealth. Most know they pay too much for housing, gas, groceries and the medications they need. They also know that a major cause is the market power of large companies.

They want someone who will stand up to big corporations 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, who will break monopolies and restore competition, who will fight to keep prescription drug costs down, who will take big money out of politics and an end to legalized bribery who manipulates the market for the rich, and who will make sure corporations pay their fair share and end tax breaks for billionaire scammers.

A president who puts working families first – before big corporations and the wealthy.

Harris needs to say she will be this president.

Its policy proposals support this. She is committed to strong antitrust enforcement: cracking down on mergers and acquisitions that give major food companies the power to drive up food and grocery prices, prosecuting price fixing, and banning price gouging. She needs to remind voters of this.

She also says she will raise taxes on the wealthy, provide $25,000 in down payment assistance to help Americans buy their first home, restore the Expanded Child Tax Credit to $3,600 to help more than 100 million working Americans, and create a new will impose a tax of $6,000. cuts to help families meet the high costs of a child’s first year of life.

It should all be part of her speech tomorrow about why she will be the champion of working people.

She wants to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, make stock buybacks more expensive and expand Medicare to include home health care — paid for with savings from expanding Medicare price negotiations with drug manufacturers.

She must see all of this as a response to the power of big business and the wealthy – and say in no uncertain terms that she is on the side of the people, not the powerful.

If she doesn’t do this in her closing argument, Trump’s demagogic response will be the only one the public hears — that the average working population is struggling because of undocumented workers and the ‘enemy within’, including Democrats, Socialists, Marxists and the “deep state.”

Harris should fit her message about democracy within this economic message. If our democracy were not dominated by the rich and big corporations, less profit would be transferred from the economy to them. The average working population would get better wages and safer jobs and be able to afford homes, food, fuel, medicine, childcare and elder care.

Much of the public no longer thinks American democracy works. According to a new New York Times/Siena College poll, only 45% believe our democracy is doing a good job representing everyday people. An astonishing 62% say the government works primarily to benefit itself and elites, rather than the common good.

In her closing argument, Harris should commit to undoing this so that government works for the common good.

Harris began her campaign in July and early August by emphasizing these themes about the economy and democracy.

But in recent weeks she has focused on Trump’s specific threat to democracy. Her campaign appears to have decided she can draw additional voters from moderate suburban Republican women appalled by Trump’s role in inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

That’s why she’s campaigning with Liz Cheney and rallying Republican officials as supporters. And why she chose to deliver her closing message on the Ellipse – where Trump called on his followers to march to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

But when she shifted from the economy to Trump’s attacks on democracy, Harris’ campaign ground to a halt. I think that’s because Americans continue to focus on the economy and want an answer to why they are still struggling economically.

If Trump gives them an answer – albeit baseless and demagogic – but Harris does not, he can sail to victory on November 5.

That’s why she must speak clearly and candidly in her closing message about the misallocation of economic power in America—placed in the hands of big corporations and the wealthy instead of average Americans—and her commitment to correcting it.