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IT’S NOT ABOUT HARRIS “MOVING TO THE CENTER”  
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Robert L. Borosage
August 13, 2024
The Nation
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_ Mobilizing and energizing the base is the priority, not to be
scorned. _

From left, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Vice President Kamala
Harris, Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Democratic
vice-presidential nominee, and his wife, Gwen Walz, during a campaign
event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, August. 6, 2024.,
Hannah Beier / Bloomberg / Getty Images

 

The kickoff of Kamala Harris presidential campaign has been a stunning
success. The Democratic Party base has been reenergized; young people
are engaged. Raucous crowds greet the ticket across the swing states.
Money and volunteers are pouring in. Harris’s relative youth and
energy contrasts sharply with Trump’s cankered venom. The selection
of Minnesota Governor “Coach” Tim Walz—a Midwestern white guy
from central casting—turbocharged the takeoff. Everyone from Joe
Manchin [[link removed]] to Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez is applauding. Democrats, as AOC posted, are
demonstrating “ disconcerting levels of array
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Despite having served as a senator and vice president, Harris has only
begun to introduce herself to the American people. The opening stage
will culminate in her speech accepting the nomination at the
Democratic Convention in Chicago next week—and that will lead to the
final two-month sprint to the election.

For all the early unity, Harris is already getting pressure from
conservative Democrats, big-business interests, and the carriers of
conventional wisdom to “move to the center.” The choice of Walz is
presented as “caving” to progressives—a “missed opportunity
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the _New York Times_ political analyst Nate Cohn says, to define
herself as more centrist. Early polls suggest that many see her as
very liberal. Trump and Republicans paint her as an extreme radical, a
female Trotsky.

The conventional commentariat echoes the refrain. _The Washington
Post_ editorialized
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the addition of Walz “gives her opponents a clearly defined target:
a ticket that leans toward out-of-touch liberalism…. With Mr. Walz
on the ticket, she should feel freer to reach to the center, rather
than keeping a wary eye trained on her left.”

_New York_ magazine’s Jonathan Chait, the relentless Javert on the
hunt for any progressive stirring, argues
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to make up for Walz, Harris needs to adopt positions “that will
upset progressive activists” and “understand that the likelihood a
given action or statement will create complaints on the left is a
reason to do something, rather than a reason not to.”

Chait doesn’t deign to reveal how Harris should rile her base.
Instead, he invokes Trump as a model, arguing that the Donald’s
“softening” of the abortion plank at the Republican convention
“was a smart move to reduce the party’s exposure to unpopular
positions” and didn’t cause a fracturing of the party, despite
grousing from anti-abortion zealots.

Really? It takes a fervid imagination to believe that Trump’s
cynical repositioning on abortion makes a whit of difference to voters
concerned about the reversal of _Roe v. Wade_. The only thing Trump
gained was the admiration of pundits like Chait who consider such
political posturing to be sophisticated.

When commentators urge Harris to “move to the center,” they seldom
detail how she should do that without sacrificing integrity. She is a
mixed race, pro-choice, feminist, socially liberal presidential
candidate from California. She can’t attempt to mask that without
looking utterly disingenuous.

Moreover, this is a deeply polarized country. Over the past wink of
time, we’ve suffered a catastrophic presidential debate, an
attempted assassination, a president withdrawing from the race, the
debut of Harris and her new running mate—and the polls have barely
budged. In this context, mobilization and energy of the base are first
priorities, not something to be trifled with. If there is any lesson
to be drawn from Trump’s campaigns, it is his discipline in feeding
red meat to his MAGA base to keep them aroused.

Ironically, Harris has never been a progressive leader in the mode of
Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. She’s already jettisoned the
signature progressive policies that she donned in her brief,
ill-defined 2020 presidential run. Medicare for All, the Green New
Deal, opposition to fracking are all on the cutting-room floor. As
major donors push her to back away from Biden’s anti-trust
offensive, her ally Maryland Governor Wes Moore suggests
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she’s not averse. She’s already reached out
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the gimmietarians in the cryptocurrency crowd.

The real challenge for Harris is not how she insults the left but how
she makes herself into a credible champion of the economic concerns of
working people. Trump has consolidated a base among white working
people (and growing numbers of black and Latino voters as well) by
combining social reaction—assailing immigrants, Muslims, liberals,
the LGBTQ community—with an America First populism that is
protectionist for muscular jobs in industries like Big Oil (“liquid
gold”). Harris can’t and shouldn’t compete with those moved by
Christian nationalism or racial division, but she can and should seek
to cut away at his support by making a more compelling argument on
what produced the economic distress and growing despair among working
people, the obscene inequality that eviscerated the middle class—and
what can be done about it.

In her first weeks, Harris has started this effort. Her early ads and
rallies invoke [[link removed]] her
background as a prosecutor in contrast with Trump: having prosecuted
“the predators, the fraudsters, the cheaters, I know the Donald
Trump type.” She ties
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daughter of a single mother, working at McDonalds, with her commitment
to working families—lowering healthcare costs, making housing more
affordable—again in contrast to Trump’s silver-spoon childhood and
agenda of tax cuts for the rich. She’s made clear
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commitment to unions and to workers fighting for a decent contract.

Her stump speech highlights her commitment to “an economy that works
for working people” with a practical agenda—paid family and
medical leave, affordable childcare, taking on Big Pharma to lower
drug prices, making healthcare more affordable. Walz reinforces that
message because he’s actually passed
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measures in Minnesota. And much of this agenda was passed by the
Democratic House in Biden’s first two years, only to be blocked in
the Senate by Republican opposition. As to “moving to the center,”
these are all incredibly popular programs, supported by the vast
majority of Americans.

In this context, the contrast
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the Trump and the Biden-Harris administration adds to the case. Under
Biden, there’s been a manufacturing revival, a sharp contrast to
Trump’s term. Under Trump, the share of population without health
insurance rose; under Biden, more are covered than ever. Trump’s
“infrastructure weeks” were a running joke. Biden actually got the
rebuilding started.

For this to bite, Harris must become more populist, not less. She must
be clear that she will raise taxes on the rich to pay for affordable
childcare, that she will take on Big Pharma to lower drug prices,
break up corporate monopolies to lower prices, take on Big Oil and
invest in renewable energy, addressing the accelerating climate
catastrophe and capturing what already are the growth industries of
the next decades. Again, the contrast with Donald Trump’s promising
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executives that he’ll do their bidding if they’ll ante up $1
billion for his campaign is telling.

It’s less than three months to the election—an eternity in
political time. Much can and will happen to transform the campaign:
The Middle East could blow up; the economy could turn down; Trump’s
age and declining capacity could become a central issue. What’s
clear is that Harris and Walz have roused the Democratic base. Now
it’s time to reach out, not push off.

_ROBERT L. BOROSAGE is a leading progressive writer and activist._

_Copyright c 2024 THE NATION. Reprinted with permission. May not be
reprinted without permission
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Distributed by PARS International Corp
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* Kamala Harris
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* electoral campaigns
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* mass mobilizations
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