Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’ Faltering Presidential Campaign

Okay, this will be my last political post ahead of next Tuesday's presidential election here in the U.S.

I intend spending any spare time I have between now and then being outside and making the most of the beautiful autumn weather we’re currently experiencing here in the Twin Cities of St. Paul/Minneapolis. I also intend to cultivate times of silence and prayer so as to prepare for whatever eventuates, politically, next week. And to pray for an election process – and an election result – free of violence and chaos.


My hope

Yet before I begin spending my time on these things, I want to share some thoughts that are weighing on my heart and mind regarding the 2024 presidential race. First, about next week’s election specifically, I’m very much aware that an increasing percentage of the U.S. population is fed up with both corporate-backed major parties. In relation to the Democrats, people are fed up with how, election cycle after election cycle, the Democratic establishment unfairly manipulates the primary process and undemocratically selects and coronates its preferred presidential candidate. Again and again, we’re put in the situation where, for all intents and purposes, we’re told we must vote for the lesser evil, a process that has lowered the caliber of candidates so that in recent years the choice presented has included some of the most unpopular and uninspiring presidential candidates in U.S. history. We’re being gas lit constantly, and it’s only a matter of time before people say enough! We’re already seeing this in the increased interest in and support for the people-powered Green Party. Also, the fact that Kamala Harris is still neck-and-neck with a fascist like Donald Trump shows what a weak candidate she is, and one who (like Trump) supports genocide. For many, many Americans, myself included, that is a real problem

The Democratic establishment is constantly stressing the danger to democracy that Donald Trump poses. And, for sure, Trump and his brand of fascism is a threat. Yet here’s how many of us who identify as progressive see what Democrats and “liberals” declare as the “clear choice” before us: not as fascism vs. democracy but as one corporate-back party that represents a nose-dive for democracy vs. another corporate-backed party that represents a managed decline of democracy. Either way we’re eventually screwed. People intuitively sense this, which accounts in large part for the lack of enthusiasm across the board for this presidential race, apart from the MAGA crowd and the Vote Blue No Matter Who crowd, both of which are capable of displaying cult-like attitudes and behaviors.

The bottom line for many of us is that until we break the corporate-backed Republican/Democratic duopoly and its corrosive effect on our democracy, the threat of authoritarianism will never be vanquished. A Harris electoral victory may keep it at bay for another four years, but if the corporate-backed duopoly continues so will the economic inequality that it generates. It will, therefore, be only a matter of time before a more polished and effective authoritarian populist emerges to replace the increasingly hapless Trump in peddling false hope and racist tropes in response to the legitimate anger and hardship caused by this ever-widening economic inequality.

As a Green Card holder, a “legal alien,” I can’t vote in U.S. elections. Nevertheless, my hope is that Trump is defeated next Tuesday – but only just. I say this because I don’t want the Democrats to be let completely off the hook. I want their narrow (but clear) victory to wake them the hell up to the fact that they can no longer be the neoliberal, Republican-lite, and, in many ways, un-democratic party they’ve chosen to become these last few decades. I also hope the Green Party earns over 5% of the national vote so that it gains minor party status and can finally move forward electorally and help both break the duopoly and begin the vital work of dismantling the American empire. To my mind, the achievement of these two tasks is the only path forward into a safe, prosperous, and truly democratic future for the U.S., and in many ways the world. I therefore hope and pray that the results of the November 5 election put us firmly on this path.


Pushback

I recently received pushback from some liberal friends for not being sufficiently vocal in my support of Kamala Harris and for highlighting on social media the Green Party ticket of Jill Stein and Butch Ware. I responded to one of these friends by noting that I’ve long felt called to vocalize and share a politically progressive perspective, one that’s to the left of the centrist Democratic party and its selected presidential candidate. As such, I well understand that if you want to pull the major party that’s closest to your way of thinking TO what you’re thinking, you MUST be willing to be an informed and relentless critic AND show that you’re capable of not voting for them. As Frederick Douglass famously said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

I do not consider this type of informed criticism and demand-making as anti-Harris “disinfo” or “propaganda,” as one friend opined. I think for actual propaganda one only needs to look at the corporate “liberal” media outlets and the way they uncritically tout Harris, papering over her pro-genocide stance, her weak and uninspiring rhetoric and platform, and her willingness to pursue Dick Cheney supporters rather than Jill Stein supporters (who are much closer to the traditional Democratic base). Again, informed criticism and the placing of expectations and demands on candidates closest to one’s way of thinking in order to push them towards and into this way of thinking, is not “propaganda.” It’s a strategy – and, for many, a calling.

The last thing I’ll say before sharing the “progressive perspectives” of others is this: Kamala Harris could have this election in the bag if she took the actions necessary to earn the votes she needs to win, especially around the issue of Israel’s ongoing “genocidal project” in Gaza. That she’s not doing this is solely on her. Accordngly, if she losses to Trump because of this, it will be on her – not on Jill Stein, not on Black men (as Barack Obama has scoldingly implied) and not on the voters. . . . Kamala Harris, her operatives, and her campaign need to remember that votes are earned, not owed.

_____________________

When Kamala Harris went in a populist [i.e., progressive] direction in the beginning of her campaign, and picked Tim Walz and proposed an economically populist agenda, we [at The Young Turks] said her numbers would rise. And they did, spectacularly.

When she went in an establishment direction and started saying how friendly she was going to be to big business and the military industrial complex (through the embrace of Dick Cheney and more militaristic speeches), we said she would go down in the polls. And she did.

Yet no one in mainstream media or the Democratic Party recognizes that populism is what’s moving the numbers. They barely even know populism exists. You can’t win a battle if you have no idea what battlefield you’re on.

– Cenk Uygur
via social media
October 21, 2024

The Democratic Party is not an obstacle to Trump’s [fascist] plots, but an accomplice. The Democratic Party articulates the interests of the same financial elite, as well as the most affluent sections of the middle class, and has been “winning” the money battle from rich donors. . . . The very conditions that have strengthened fascism – endless war abroad, malignant levels of social inequality and police state repression – are nurtured by the Democratic Party.

Fascism is not the mistaken policy choice of capitalist parties, much less individuals. As Trotsky explained in a series of brilliant writings in response to the rise of Nazism, fascism is a manifestation of the breakdown of bourgeois democracy under the weight of the contradictions of capitalism.

Mobilizing a mass movement based on the most reactionary sections of the middle class and backward sections of demoralized workers, fascism is the crudest distillation of capitalism – the nakedly violent domination of the working class at home and abroad for profit. The American experience bears this out. There have been other fascist political formations over the last century, for example, the Ku Klux Klan, the Silver Shirts, the German American Bund, the America First Committee and the John Birch Society. . . . The emergence of fascism in America owes something to these notorious right-wing pioneers and the toxic antisemitic, anti-immigrant and racist politics they espoused. It owes at least as much to American liberalism and the trade union bureaucracy.

. . . The Democratic Party offers nothing but austerity and war – and indeed, pays and arms fascists all over the world who serve as the long, blood-drenched talons of American imperialism, including those of the Azov battalions in Ukraine and the Israeli forces carrying out the “final solution” of the Palestinian “problem” in Gaza and the West Bank.

The fatal combination of financial-economic crisis and the global imperatives of U.S. imperialism drives the ruling class toward war on the working class. The ruling class, which has acquired the character of an oligarchy, is compelled to intensify its assault on the living standards of the working class.

The Democrats’ main concern with Trump is that his victory might interfere with far advanced plans for war with Russia. They fear the breakdown of the two-party system, that the framework of the bipartisan capitalist state is being undermined. And they are concerned that the exposure of the danger represented by Trump will produce a mass movement from below.

. . . To speak of a “lesser evil” in this situation is politically meaningless.

– Tom Mackaman
Excerpted from “Trump’s Fascist Rally
at Madison Square Garden”
World Socialist Web Site
October 28, 2024

Instead of enticing voters with progressive policies that they desperately want, the Democrats are using the specter of another Trump presidency to try and get away with becoming full blown neo-cons. Don’t really see how that's Jill Stein’s fault.

– Eve6
via social media
October 9, 2024

Neither the Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton campaigns ran attack ads against Jill Stein, even though her campaigns in 2012 and 2016 drew comparable support. Nor did Joe Biden bother attacking Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins in 2020. Kamala Harris’s unprecedented move is hard to interpret as anything but a sign of desperation, especially in the context of other developments in the campaign.

Harris seems to be adopting a gimmicky new strategy every day, from embracing cryptocurrency to announcing that as president she’ll run all policy through a bipartisan council of advisors. She’s throwing everything against the wall, hoping that something, anything, will put her over the edge. There’s one tactic Harris doesn’t seem keen to try, though. She won’t embrace the kind of antiwar sentiment and economic populism that might appeal to many currently unenthusiastic voters, but which would infuriate the Democratic establishment and the donor class.

– Ben Burgis
Excerpted from “The Strangely Empty Politics of Kamala Harris”
Jacobin
October 18, 2024

The genocide in Palestine is the great moral litmus test of our age. It has divided humanity into those who oppose genocide, those who support genocide, and those who can’t be bothered to care. Only the first group will emerge unstained. The shame of the last two will carry on for generations.

– Craig Mokhiber
via social media
October 26, 2024

Kamala Harris should call for an arms embargo on Israel, not just because it will help her with voters, not just because it’s in accordance with U.S. law, but because it’s the right thing to do. She must separate herself from genocide.

– Nina Turner
via social media
October 21, 2024

Fascinating to see a meltdown of liberals in America who, despite freaking out about a potential Harris loss due to conscience voters, would still rather berate those voters than call on their candidate to commit to ending arms trade to Israel. I saw a comment the other day saying the only thing liberals seek is the stabilization of empire. . . . The veneer of their progressive values has come crashing down, and in its place remains only their self preservation.

– Clementine Ford
via social media
October 15, 2024

If Harris wants the progressive vote, she has to support an arms embargo on Israel and stop funding the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This is a red line for many of us who have not bought into her liberal cult of personality.

. . . At a rally in Detroit on August 7, Harris was met by a group of anti-genocide, pro-Palestine protesters chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide! We won’t vote for genocide!” In a democracy, this is a perfectly reasonable and acceptable (if not necessary) action. Politicians serve the people, and the people have the right (and the responsibility) to make demands on their political leaders, especially when the latter are asking for their votes and campaign donations.

Yet Harris decided to respond: “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”

What purpose does this attitude serve? The protesters were merely expressing their demand that Harris pledge to stop arming Israel amid its genocidal war on Gaza. A war that has brought the official death toll in Gaza to more than 40,000; some estimates project that number to reach 186,000 or even higher. A war that has put one million children at risk of famine, according to the international nonprofit organisation Save the Children. A war that has decimated Gaza’s health sector, bringing back polio infections for the first time in 25 years.

Many of us spend our days scrolling through the most horrific images imaginable – toddlers beheaded by Israeli air strikes, people burned alive in their tents, emaciated children who die of starvation, political prisoners brutally raped by Israeli soldiers. The atrocities go on and on. My days and nights are haunted by these images, and none of this would be possible without U.S. aid, without our tax dollars.

But Harris doesn’t want to engage these very reasonable demands – to stop funding this slaughter, this genocide, this horrific violence. Instead, she wants to be celebrated for being charismatic, for her affect, for her vibes.

. . . Harris may be the lesser of two evils when it comes to Donald Trump, but the lesser of two evils is still evil. If she wants to win in November, she needs to give us more than vibes and celebrity culture – she needs to make a real commitment to ending the genocide in Gaza, first and foremost by not funding it. Anything less than this will lose her the progressive vote and, quite possibly, the presidency. If this happens, the liberals across the country will likely blame a nebulous “leftist-progressive” block, but in the end, this loss will be on Harris herself.

– Maura Finkelstein
Excerpted from “Why I Am Not Voting for Kamala Harris”
Al Jazeera
August 19, 2024

You can’t claim to oppose fascism, authoritarianism and an ethno-nationalist theocracy and at the same time back a U.S. regime that’s arming, financing, and politically backing a foreign state that is all that – and actively engaged in the horrific ethnic cleansing of its native population. The hypocrisy is staggering. And just as we witness with MAGA, there is no bottom. The horrors will not stop until we stop them. As the primary sponsor, the USA must stop backing it. Americans must not stand for it.

– Matthew Cooke
via social media
October 20, 2024

[Sarah van Gelder’s recent Common Dreams op-ed, “A Note to My Fellow Progressives Hesitant to Vote for an Imperfect Kamala Harris” is] more propaganda bullshit. So, we should vote for genocidal maniac Harris because she is Black? . . . “[O]rdinary people can be heard,” [writes van Gelder]. You mean like we Greens you undemocratic pro-Democrat fucks managed to keep off the ballot in some states and worked so hard and spent so much money to keep off the ballot in other states? You mean like the anti-genocide protesters on college campuses? But we hear you Democrats! We hear your White supremacist KKK Democrat operative endorsing Dr. Jill Stein, a woman of Jewish heritage, as part of your dirty tricks. You did the same thing to an African American, Charles Barron, in the 2012 election for New York’s Congressional 8th District. Democrats “own” the vote of African Americans and don’t do shit for them. Harris’ policy for African Americans is a vacuous, cruel joke. Compare it to Dr. Jill Stein’s [see below]. A vote for Harris or Trump is a vote for genocide!

– Greg Scott
via Common Dreams website
October 29, 2024

It’s absurd to blame Jill Stein for getting Trump elected; this is 100% Kamala’s and Biden’s fault. They have refused to listen to the voters, instead choosing to listen to the foreign government of Israel. Harris and Biden are completely under the influence of foreign campaign funding; clearly Israel or AIPAC or JDL are calling the shots. . . . If fascism takes hold in America, it won’t be all Trump’s fault. Harris owns the blame equally. She could win easliy, if she changed her policy on the Middle East, stand for International Law and the U.N. She could make an announcement today . . . but nope! She puts Israel first and Americans second.

– Sam Bee
via social media
October 26, 2024

When a human rights issue could cost your candidate the election, you appeal to or pressure your candidate to correct course, if you value human rights as universal. You don't tell millions of people to fall into line regardless. Hope that makes the situation clear for you.

– Dana White
via social media
October 20, 2024

In order to win, Harris should talk a whole lot less about Trump and a whole lot more about ways she’s going to make life better for the average American.

For people who are skipping meals to pay the rent, who are one paycheck away from living in the streets, who are without health insurance, who can’t live on just one job, who are worried about climate change, who can’t stand the forever wars, there’'s not much to laugh about or to be “joyful” about.

When Trump says “Make America Great Again,” while to millions of us that’s a total crock, to millions more it’s a sign of hope. False hope, yes, but people prefer false hope to no hope at all.

It’s not enough to say Trump will turn America into an authoritarian dystopia; Harris needs to say how she will turn it in the direction of something much much better for everyone.

– Marianne Williamson
via social media
October 23, 2024

Last Friday, October 25, author, activist, and progressive former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson appeared on NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live where she shared her thoughts on how Kamala Harris can defeat Trump.

“Ameria is too expensive for Americans.” Marianne Williamson is once again saying it like it is. The Harris campaign would benefit greatly from Williamson’s timely advice while strategizing a successful path forward during this final stretch towards the White House.

– Sandy Fisher
via social media
October 25, 2024

The Democrats are functionally incapable of combating Trump and Trumpism. They’re more accountable to their corporate and AIPAC donors than they are to the electorate. Harris has signaled that she’d rather lose the election by hemorrhaging Arab-American voters than defy her corporate sponsors by calling for a weapons embargo on Israel. Ditch the Democrats as if your lives and future depend on it – because they do. Fight for an independent, working class alternative – beginning (but certainly not ending) with a vote for Jill Stein in 2024.

– Ben Levy
via social media
October 25, 2024

[This election is close] because voters know they’ve been screwed over by both parties for the last 30 years, and can’t figure out what to do to change things. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and getting the same result, then voting for Democrats and Republicans is sheer madness. They are both owned by Zionist, billionaire elites who don’t give a damn about you and me and flood the airwaves every four years with lies to gaslight the American people about how much they are for us, but the other guys are not. We are not that dumb, and it’s time to rise up, call BS on their lies and vote for the one party that is not and cannot be bought by the rich – the Green Party as represented by Jill Stein and Butch Ware. . . . Vote for them next week, if you haven’t already.

– Gene Debs
via Common Dreams website
October 29, 2024

No, I won’t support the slaughter in Palestine as some sort of deal with the devil. I may live in a country where both the Republican and Democratic parties, both Trump and Harris, support genocide and apartheid, but I don’t have to participate in those crimes. I’m voting for Jill Stein and Butch Ware. And if Trump or Harris win, I will continue to resist them and their violent, racist parties with all that I have.

– Craig Mokhiber
via social media
October 13, 2024

Related Off-site Links:
Poll: Harris and Trump Remain in Tight Race in Minnesota as Finish Line Nears – Ana Radelat (MinnPost, October 28, 2024).
Kamala Harris’ Complete Inability to State Real Beliefs Exposed – Glenn Greenwald (System Update, October 25, 2024).
In CNN Town Hall, Harris Refuses to Place Conditions on Israeli Military Support and Pledges to Work with Republicans on Border Wall – Jacob Crosse (World Socialist Web Site, October 24, 2024).
Swing State Polls Show Harris “Must Change Course” on Climate and Gaza – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, October 16, 2024).
Kamala Harris’ Campaign Is Not in a Good Place – Miles Kampf-Lassin (Jacobin, October 15, 2024).
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris Locked in Close Election Race: WSJ Poll – Al Jazeera (October 11, 2024).
Can Kamala Harris Beat Donald Trump? Latest Poll Updates – Alicja Hagopian (Independent, October 11, 2024).
Is Kamala Harris Crumbling in the Polls? Digging Into the Data – Martha McHardy (Newsweek, October 11, 2024).
Trump Passes Kamala in Michigan – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, October 11, 2024).
Kamala’s Word Salad 60 Minutes Interview – Breaking Points (October 8, 2024).
Ta-Nehisi Coates Delivers a Dire Warning to Kamala Harris – Kyle Kulinski (Secular Talk, October 8, 2024).
An Interview with Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein – Breaking Points (October 3, 2024).
“Voting for Democrats is Wasting Your Vote”: An Interview with Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, October 3, 2024).
Will Trump Try to End Democracy? Yes – But These Scholars Claim He Can't Pull It Off – Émile P. Torres (Salon, September 29, 2024).
Chris Smalls Blasts Biden/Harris So-called “Pro Union” Administration – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, September 12, 2024).
“Neoliberal Capitalism” Has Contributed to the Rise of Fascism, Says Nobel Laureate – Gareth Hutchens (ABC News, August 11, 2024).
Blue MAGA: We Need to Talk About the Cult-like Turn of the Democratic Party – Mehdi Hasan (The Guardian, July 15, 2024).
War Parties, the Peace Candidate, and the November Election – Jeffrey D. Sachs (Other News, April 23, 2024).
Support for Third U.S. Political Party Up to 63% – Jeffrey M. Jones (Gallup, October 4, 2023).


UPDATES: “We’re in Crisis Regardless of Who Wins”: Noura Erakat on Not Voting for Harris and Why She Declined to Run with the Green Party as VP – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, October 28, 2024).
“Zombie-like”: The U.S. Trade Agreement That Still Haunts Democrats – Steven Greenhouse (The Guardian, October 28, 2024).
World on the Brink Under Biden’s “Leadership” – Anatol Lieven and Ted Snider (Responsible Statecraft via TruthDig, October 28, 2024).
Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Trump’s Dehumanizing Rhetoric Is Adopting Franco’s Language of Fascism and Violence – Democracy Now! (October 29, 2024).
Is There a “Red Line” for Supporting Democrats? – An Interview with Nathan J. Robinson – Glenn Greenwald (System Update, October 29, 2024).
Marianne Williamson and Matt Taibbi on Censorship, Authority, and the 2024 Election – Interview (October 29, 2024).
Yes, They’re Really Voting for Jill Stein – Aymann Ismail (Slate, October 30, 2024).
Marc Lamont Hill on Harris’ Closing Speech and Dangers of a Trump Victory – Democracy Now! (October 30, 2024).
On the Voting Dilemma for Those Who Want Peace and an End to Genocide – Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies (Common Dreams, October 31, 2024).
Veteran Radio Commentator and Author Tavis Smiley Speaks Out on Democratic Party Attempt to Influence His Recent Interview with Jill Stein – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, October 31, 2024).
Democrats Start to Point Fingers Even as They Hope for Harris Win – Amie Parnes (The Hill, October 31, 2024).
Is Voting Third Party a Vote for Trump? – An Interview with Jill Stein – Let’s Just Talk with Hammi (October 31, 2024).
Harris Has 4-point Lead Over Trump in Final PBS News/NPR/Marist Election Poll – Matt Loffman (PBS News, November 4, 2024).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Jeffrey C. Isaac: Quote of the Day – October 28, 2024
• “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”: An Interview with Jill Stein
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• Jill Stein in the Twin Cities
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
• Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”
• “A Year of War Against Children”
• The Lone Anti-Genocide Presidential Candidate Reflects on the First Anniversary of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
• Progressive Perspectives on the Harris–Trump Presidential Debate
• “People Are Sick of the Bullshit”
• Yousef Munayyer: Quote of the Day – August 30, 2024
• Breaking Down Kamala Harris’ DNC Speech on Gaza
• Progressive Perspectives on the Presidential Nomination of Kamala Harris
• Progressive Perspectives On an American Coronation
• Marianne Williamson: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is Not Enough to Win”
• “Let the People Decide”: Marianne Williamson on the DNC’s Efforts to Deny and Suppress the Democratic Process
• Marianne Williamson on How Centrist Democrats Abuse Voters with False Promises
• Cornel West: Quote of the Day – December 3, 2020
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump