If Kamala Harris is ‘middle of the road,’ what is on her left?
By Dr. Harold A. Black
haroldblackphd.com
Nicholas Maduro was reportedly around 30 points down in the polls leading up to the election in Venezuela. After the election Maduro declared himself the winner and moved swiftly to silence widespread protests giving proof to the old adage, “Its easy to vote in socialism but you have to shoot your way out of it.”
Kamala Harris is flip-flopping. That certainly comes as no surprise. She was the most liberal senator in the Senate – even to the left of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Chris Murphy. She favored defunding the police, eliminating private health insurance, the Green New Deal, posting bail for the George Floyd demonstrators, accusing Justice Kavanaugh of rape, reinstating Roe, getting rid of the filibuster, sympathizing with the proHamas crowd, opposed fracking and offshore drilling, open borders, getting rid of ICE, gun control, abortion on demand up until birth, Supreme Court packing, increased entitlements, anti-right to work law and socialized medicine. She was one of only 10 senators who voted against the US Canada Mexico trade agreement saying that it did not contain enough climate control provisions. I probably left out a few.
Trump should ratchet back the “Lying Kamala” rhetoric and just campaign on her record. Remember when the left was branded as “Massachusetts liberals”? Now they are “California socialists.” Lest we forget that as California Attorney General, Harris had the home of a pro-life journalist raided and tried to put him in jail for publishing videos of Planned Parenthood discussing the selling of aborted baby body parts. This from a person that George Stephanopoulos calls “middle-of-the-road.” Obviously, Stephanopoulos is “Lying George.” Again expect the mainstream media to paint her as a moderate or a centrist and pooh pooh her record. By November, they would have her anointed sainthood.
Just to be “fair and balanced,” I don’t like JD Vance either in spite of his being an Ohio State graduate. Vance is fully on board with Trump’s tariffs. Contrary to what both think, evidence supports that tariffs raise prices to domestic consumers and kills jobs. Protectionism doesn’t work. Tariffs shrink economic growth and reduce real income. It is one of those policies intended to get votes by sounding good. As my father used to say “That sounds good – if you are interested in sounds.” Vance sounds like a Democrat in backing unions and demonizing Wall Street. Vance – not Harris – said that it was great visiting the striking auto workers in Toledo. It was Vance – not Harris – who called for a $7,500 subsidy for buying a U.S. made gas-powered automobile. He is for industrial policy. Can’t he see that Biden’s industrial (green) policy is a disaster except for those receiving the funds? It can’t produce electric buses or charging stations despite spending billions. Industrial policy exists only to reward politicians’ friends. Government simply cannot pick winners and losers simply by throwing money around. Maybe Vance just thinks it is just the wrong industrial policy. He may be the only so-called conservative who admires the FTC’s Lina Kahn who seems to be the Biden administration’s most consistent loser in court. Perhaps Trump will keep her on if elected.
Vance (and Trump) are cloaking themselves in populist speak. Yet they have seemingly forgotten about the capitalist engine that has essentially eliminated poverty among the working class. Some illegal once said that he wanted to come to America because only America has fat poor people. Trump and Vance need to extol the virtues of capitalism rather than giving stump speeches that would make Tom Hayden proud. I know that when Trump picked Vance he signaled that it was more important to shore up the working class voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin rather than trying to broaden his appeal to swing voters. But Trump has also picked someone who borders on being an anti-capitalist populist. In so doing, the republican party is deviating sharply from its fundamental principles and is becoming a pandering pitiful caricature of itself. It is becoming a place where free market laissez-faire conservatives – like I am – are no longer welcome.
