When this article was reprinted on the Common Dreams platform, it was re-titled “Kamala Harris Must Correct Course Before She Blows This Election” . . . something many of us have been saying for some time now.
Following is an excerpt from Kampf-Lassin’s article.
Trump is a uniquely flawed candidate and his dismal record in office is easy to excoriate, as Harris demonstrated during the September debate. His presidency showered the rich with tax cuts, squeezed working people, offshored jobs, terrorized immigrant communities and failed to respond to a pandemic that led to mass preventable death and turned the economy upside down. The Supreme Court justices he appointed have curtailed reproductive rights and targeted the entire regulatory apparatus. And the far Right’s Project 2025 playbook promises to roll back decades of progressive reforms, from voting access to LGBTQ rights.
What’s more, Trump has promised a regime of vengeance that would directly target journalists, organizers and anyone considered a political enemy.
Still, Harris has not yet rebuilt the fragile coalition that pushed Biden over the finish line four years ago. Compared with Biden in 2020, polls show Harris underperforming with voters of color, younger voters and seniors – all key for Democrats. And when it comes to lower-income voters and those with less formal education, Harris is being outrun.
A second Trump term would mean economic mayhem for the working class and a disaster for the labor movement. Yet, according to CNN political analyst Harry Enten, “Trump has more working-class support than any GOP presidential candidate in a generation,” while Harris is poised to have the worst Democratic performance among union voters in decades.
Among Arab American voters, support for Harris has cratered as the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza continues, with Israel expanding its assault into Lebanon. A mid-September poll from the Arab American Institute (AAI) shows that, among likely Arab American voters, Trump leads Harris 46% to 42%, a far cry from 2020, when Biden won nearly 60% support. Many of these voters say the war on Gaza is a top priority – and they could be won over with a change in policy.
In Michigan, home to a significant Arab American population including Palestinian and Lebanese families, internal polling shows Harris is “underwater,” according to Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). Based on publicly released polls, the state is a toss-up at best. The Uncommitted National Movement, which drew more than 100,000 voters in the Michigan Democratic primary, has refused to endorse Harris due to her continued support of “unconditional weapons” for Israel’s campaign of annihilation. (Hillary Clinton lost Michigan by around 10,000 votes in 2016; Biden won it by 150,000.)
These underlying dynamics should ring alarm bells for a Democratic campaign entering the final stretch of a cardinal race with potentially catastrophic consequences. If Democrats take the authoritarian threat posed by Trump as seriously as they profess, they need to change course in order to cobble together a cross-section of voters who can vault Harris into the Oval Office.
That change should start with promising a shift away from unflinching sponsorship of Israel’s military offensives. Seven in 10 likely voters want to see a ceasefire in Gaza, which will require forcing the hand of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including by conditioning arms in line with international and U.S. law. Polling from AAI suggests that backing these restrictions would make 56% of Arab American voters more likely to support Harris.
. . . [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has proven time and again he is unwilling to reach peace; Harris can promise to use U.S. leverage to make him. This move, backed by a majority of Americans, would help make inroads among a vast stratum of voters — including those in Michigan, Wisconsin and other swing states – eager to support the Democratic nominee if the party would simply stop underwriting a genocide. It’s also the morally correct position – tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children have already been slaughtered by American weapons, and the Netanyahu government appears dead set on not just continuing but expanding its onslaught.
On the economy, Harris could depart from her recent approach of cozying-up with crypto financiers and wealthy business interests by instead leaning into the populist, class-war rhetoric and policy planks Democratic voters have responded to in the post-Obama era. Harris has embraced good policies like reviving the expanded child tax credit, building millions of new housing units, continuing to invest in green manufacturing and going after price-gouging companies. But with a majority of the population living paycheck to paycheck, working-class Americans are in desperate need of a bold redistributive agenda that would materially improve their lives right now. Targeting the elites and billionaires is an effective strategy to win over lower income voters, and while Harris has adopted appeals in this direction to acknowledge economic grievances, there’s more runway left to address them.
Harris can take a big swing by doing more to champion the pro-working class policies her party nominally supports—in speeches, ads and voter appeals. Harris could make central in her campaign the extremely popular positions already in the 2024 Democratic Party platform – such as a federal $15 minimum wage; extending Medicare to cover hearing, dental and vision; capping out-of-pocket drug costs while forcing the pharmaceutical industry to lower prices; expanding Social Security; limiting rent increases by corporate landlords; and passing the PRO Act to massively grow union membership.
. . . These progressive realignments by Harris would also help vitalize the get-out-the-vote operations that were pivotal to Biden’s victory four years ago when young voters helped clinch swing states by coming out in droves. This year, youth voter registration is lagging behind 2020, and top Democratic groups are privately fretting that the lack of meaningful outreach to young people of color could cost them the election. In focus groups, younger voters cite concerns about the economy as well as the assault on Gaza as motivating factors in their decision. Compelling them to not just vote but also knock doors, travel to swing states and make calls should be a top priority.
To read Miles Kampf-Lassin’s article in its entirety, click here.
To close, here’s a related segment from Sabrina Salvati’s October 2 Sabby Sabs podcast. In this segment Salvati examines how Kamala Harris has already lost the Muslim and Arab-American vote and is losing working class voters as well as other demographics.
The Democratic Party has lost the working class because the Democratic Party decided to win over Goldman Sachs, Wall Street, the Ivy League-educated crowd. That’s what they wanted, that’s what they got. How do you let the Republican Party bet you with the working class? This is how sad the Democratic Party has fallen. That’s not Jill Stein’s fault. That’s the Democratic Party’s fault. Rather [than Stein] it’s NAFTA, it’s crushing the railway workers’ strike. Remember, the Teamsters didn’t support either [corporate-backed] party this year.
– Sabrina Salvati
October 2, 2024
October 2, 2024
Related Off-site Links:
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)>
Kshama Sawant Triggers Epic Liberal Meltdown with Viral Jill Stein Stump Speech
– Keaton Weiss and Russell Dobular (Due Dissidence, October 9, 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).
Kamala vs. the Black Left: An Interview with Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, September 30, 2024).
War Parties, the Peace Candidate, and the November Election – Jeffrey D. Sachs (Other News, April 23, 2024).
UPDATES: Kamala Harris’s Campaign Is Not in a Good Place – Miles Kampf-Lassin (Jacobin, October 15, 2024).
Kamala Declares War on Jill Stein – Breaking Points (October 14, 2024).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
• 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
• 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
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