Kamala Harris speaks before 10,000 in Atlanta

Yesterday I signed up for and attended an online meeting of the Kamala Harris for president campaign. I did so for a couple of interrelated reasons: I think it’s extremely important to keep Trump/Vance out of the White House and Harris is the only candidate who can do so. In relation to that, I wanted to see what is happening in her campaign, which anyway seems to be developing into a bit of a phenomenon, and it’s important to get a grip on it if for no other reason than that.

The meeting actually started with Harris’s election rally in Atlanta, GA. The media reported it as “boisterous” and “raucous”. CNN reported that 10,000 attended. Georgia, of course, is an important swing state, and black voters – who compose one third of the state’s registered voters – are the Democrats’ base in that state. Central to that base is Atlanta, which has a large and powerful black middle class. It is no accident that Atlanta is also home to the historically black Atlanta University Complex, composed of Spellman, Morehouse and Clark colleges and universities. If Harris is to have any chance of winning the state, she must drive the turnout in and around Atlanta. Those universities are central to that. What I saw and heard yesterday gives me the impression that she may well do that. It also gives a glimpse of a future possible Harris administration.

Harris’s qualities and strategy
I came away seeing her as a more talented politician than I had previously thought. As the commentators in the media say, she has apparently “grown into” her job. And whereas in the past I had thought that Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer would have stood the best chance of defeating Trump, I don’t think so any longer. That’s because while Whitmer might have broader appeal, I think Harris is generating an excitement that Whitmer cannot, and excitement translates into voter turnout, which is crucial.

Harris has to appeal to a largely black audience without offending white voters. I think she largely succeeded in doing this.

The Harris rally

Megan Thee Stallion. Her performance would be attractive to almost all young people but I doubt Whitmer could have put on something like her and her group.

The rally started with a black female hip hop performance by Megan Thee Stallion which had great appeal to a youthful and especially a black audience. I don’t think Whitmer would have had such a group perform and, in fact, I think it would have seemed out of place if she had. Two men then made short presentations. First was a young rapper named Quevo. Among other things, he talked about the need to end gun violence in the black community. This appealed to the black community while at the same time making a broader appeal for some form of gun control, which is supported by the majority of Americans of all races. Quevo was followed by a student at Morehouse, who introduced Harris. Before doing so, he talked about black entrepreneurship but also about Project 2025, on which the Harris campaign is really focusing, and for good reason. He also talked about reproductive freedom.

Harris then came on and spoke for a little over 15 minutes – just the right amount of time to keep the audience interested while covering many major topics.

• She hit on her past role as a prosecutor. “I know Donald Trump’s type and I have been dealing with his type for my entire career,” she said. In that regard, she reminded the audience of how Trump University had defrauded students, of his history of sexual abuse, of his conviction on 34 counts for business fraud – to which the audience responded by chanting “lock him up”. (Harris seemed slightly uncomfortable with that.)
• Harris talked about “border security”. She talked about having “walked the underground tunnels” between the California-Mexico border. “Donald Trump talks a big game about securing our border but he does not walk the walk or as my friend Quevo would say he does not walk it like he talks it.” She then attacked Trump for having “tanked” the bipartisan border security bill. All of this is an attempt to steal the Republicans’ thunder over this issue, and it seemed largely successful.
• 

  Kamala Harris: “When we fight, we win.” She adopted a union slogan.

  Harris then hit on another theme of her campaign: “There are two different visions for our nation,” she said. “One is focused on the future, the other is focused on the past.” She then continued by raising two different themes. The first was the aspiration to become an “entrepreneur” – to own a business or move into corporate management. In this regard, she referred to opportunity to own a business, own a home, and build intergenerational wealth. She talked about “building up America’s middle class, because when the middle class is strong, America is strong.” But she also talked about such issues as paid family leave, which has a working class appeal. She also said that “prices are too high” and attacked “price gouging” by corporations. In this regard, she said she’d ban hidden fees by banks, and take on corporate landlords who unfairly raise rents by taxing “unfair” rent increases. She again raised Project 2025’s plans for tax breaks for billionaires, cutting social security and medicare, enabling health insurance companies to exclude people with previous medical conditions, etc. All of this was greeted by chants of “we’re not going back!”

• Harris then appealed to the traditions of the civil rights movement. “Generations before us fought for freedom,” she said. “Now the baton is in our hands.” These past struggles in the streets translate today into passing legislation and mobilizing to get her and fellow Democrats elected.
• Harris concluded with an appeal to get active in her campaign. She also challenged Trump, who seems to be backing out of a debate with her. “Well, Donald,” she said, “I do hope you reconsider and meet me on the debate stage, because as the saying goes, ‘if you got something to say, say it to my face!’”

As with her quoting of Quevo, the challenge to “say it to my face” sounds just slightly like street talk.

Nancy Pelosi intimidating Trump.

Not enough to put off white middle class voters, but just enough to make her appear bold and challenging. I also think that her challenge to Trump to debate puts him in a no win situation. If he backs out, he will appear afraid of her. If he ends up doing so, he will appear to be buckling to

Harris’s pressure. Either way, he will appear weak, which is the polar opposite of the image he projects to his supporters. (In fact, I think Trump is intimidated by strong women, as he showed in his relationship to Nancy Pelosi.)

Harris campaign seems to have momentum.

Organizers meeting
After Harris’s rally, the zoom meeting shifted to encouraging and organizing Harris’s supporters. They emphasized that they are “the underdogs” in this race while, at the same time, they have the momentum. As we can see, they do seem to have quite a bit of enthusiasm and I do think there is a good chance she can defeat Trump. In fact, even before her campaign got under way, polls showed her basically even with Trump both nationally and in some key swing states.

MAGA threats not mentioned
One major shortcoming of her entire campaign is the complete absence of a warning of the serious dangers of the MAGA Republicans stealing the election. There are several threats in this regard. One is the threat of right wing terrorism at predominantly black polling stations. Another is the threat of runaway Republican state legislatures rejecting the actual vote results where Harris wins and instead sending the Trump electors’ votes to Washington. This would be different from what happened in 2020, when all state legislatures accepted the actual results and then the Republican would-be electors falsely claimed they were the official ones. In this case, a Republican legislature would falsely recognize the Republican electors. The Democrats’ plan to meet that is to file lawsuits just as they did in 2020  and before that in 2000. Already the US Supreme Court MAGA majority is showing openness to allowing state legislatures do whatever they like regarding the running of elections. This is through the legal theory of “independent state legislatures”. Oaklandsocialist explained this in our article on how even Supreme Court Chief (in)Justice John Roberts has now dropped the pretense that the court is apolitical and upholds the Constitution. 

Perspectives for a Harris presidency
What are the prospects of a Harris presidency? The sectarian left (which is the great majority of the left today) is wrong when it claims that Biden’s policies were neoliberal. That term means liberalism regarding social policies and cuts in social spending and government involvement in the economy. The left sectarians are stuck in this past, when in fact Biden did support neoliberalism. But today Biden and others realize they have gone too far. From Biden’s infrastructure spending bill to his more recent cut in the cost of insulin, Biden has reversed course. His is not the “Great Society” of LBJ nor the “New Deal” of FDR, but it is more in that direction than the neoliberalism of Carter, Clinton and Obama. Harris will almost certainly try to follow in Biden’s direction. The question is whether the economic contradictions that are piling up will allow her to do so. Overall, the economic program she proposed in her speech was just nibbling around the edges.

On foreign policy, there is no reason to think she won’t continue helping Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion, but also no reason to think she won’t continue Biden’s limitations on that aid. As far as Israel/Palestine, she will of course continue supporting Israel, but if her statement after meeting with Netanyahu is any indication, she is likely to push Netanyahu (or whoever follows him) to somewhat moderate Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Overall, this is why according to AL Monitor, Palestinians in Gaza much prefer Harris over Trump. US capitalism will not abandon its only truly reliable ally in the region. Harris’s call for an independent Palestinian state is not a possibility, but then neither is a single, democratic state with equal rights for all “from the river to the sea” possible on the basis of capitalism. She and the Democrats have no solution.

Update: We are just now reading about Israel’s terrorist assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh which was carried out just outside of Tehran. This was a conscious provocation, intended to ensure that no peace deal or temporary cease fire is achieved. Iran will have to respond, leading to the very real possibility of a wider war. That would directly affect the U.S. elections in several ways. First of all, if any sort of cease fire were achieved, it would enormously help Harris. The opposite will help Trump in several ways. First of all he will claim that a war is a result of Biden’s weakness. Second, the whole Israel/Palestine crisis hurts Harris. If she continues to support Israel, much of her base – especially black youth – will tend to turn away from her. On the other hand, if she becomes openly critical of Israel, then she will lose white, middle-of-the-road voters. In addition to keeping himself in office, Netanyahu has an interest in helping to secure a Trump victory by keeping the war going. That is what he is doing.

There is also the immigration issue. As global warming hits harder, and as economic and political crises mount in Central and South America, this issue will not go away. Harris will continue to crack down on immigration. Also, as the climate crisis accelerates, her policies will prove to be nowhere nearly adequate.

The Democrats connect stopping racism, sexism and homophobia with “entrepreneurship” meaning becoming a corporate executive or a business owner. That’s what we saw in Harris’s speech, and it has been a failure. The only alternative is linking up the struggle against repression with the class struggle. That means taking the position that if workers wish to solve our own problems, we must also help the fight against the particular problems of any and all repressed groups in the country. As the only mass working class organizations in the United States, the unions are central to such a campaign. However, they cannot play such a role as long as their leadership is tied at the hip to the Democratic Party. The entire Democratic Party apparatus will do its utmost to ensure that continues. Some Republicans are trying to bring the unions into their fold, which would be even worse in every way.

A central issue will be stopping the MAGA controlled Supreme Court from ruling the country in its own right. Biden’s recent proposals cannot succeed, if for no other reason than that most of them would require Constitutional amendments. The only immediate alternative is for a Democratic president to appoint at least three if not five new Supreme Court (in)Justices. But since the Democrats are committed to maintaining the myth of judicial independence, a Democratic president will not do that.

Stopping MAGA
We must do what we can to stop MAGA. Immediately, that means keeping Trump/Vance out of the White House and out of congress. The only candidates who can do so are the Democrats. Any support for either Stein or West only adds to the disastrous idea that it doesn’t really matter if Trump/Vance are elected. It plays right into the MAGA Republicans’ hands.

But in the longer run, we should see a Harris administration (if there is one) in a similar light to the Labour government in Britain or the new French government. These will be governments of turmoil and crisis under which Farage’s “Reform UK” in Britain and “National Rally” in France will continue to grow. It will be similar here. Putting Harris in the White House is a necessary but only stop-gap measure. Win or lose in this election, MAGA will not go away. The question is how, through what channels, can an independent working class-based movement develop as an alternative? The answer to that question is extremely unclear, partly due to the miserable and utter failure of the overwhelming majority of the left, socialist and otherwise, to grapple with reality. It is also unclear because of the crisis that grips the working class. The task of working-class socialists is to struggle to discern any signs of a working class revival, understand these signs, and help build them and clarify the way forward.

Kamala Harris: “When we fight, we win.” She adopted a union slogan.