Harris introduces a muscular progressivism
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Opinion Harris introduces a muscular progressivism
Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have reset the presidential race, turned the campaign into a joyous crusade and given voters a real alternative to MAGA dystopia. (Those pundits who wanted Biden to dump her from the ticket or thought she was the weakest alternative to him should be eating crow.) Something else is afoot, however.
We might be seeing a shift in the Democratic Party. In the Cold War, there were “Scoop” Jackson Democrats, liberals who were tough on communism. Similarly, Harris and Walz have initiated what might be called “muscular progressivism,” an activist domestic policy aimed at helping the middle and working classes coupled with heightened resoluteness in confronting domestic and foreign threats.
Harris is recapturing issues Republicans have traditionally featured. She touts the eye-popping drop in crime, the tough Biden-Harris border bill and the administration’s vigorous defense of Ukraine against the Russian menace.
Harris, for example, is out with a new tough-on-the-border ad of the type you might see Republicans run (without the fear and racism, of course):
When talking about crime, she leans into her record as a prosecutor. She can herald the administration’s remarkable record in reducing crime, especially violent crime, to near 50-year lows. The “Major Cities Chiefs Association found an overall 6% decline in violent crime among 69 cities during the first six months of 2024 compared to the same period last year,” Axios reported. “54 of the 69 major cities in the report saw drops in violent crime — defined as homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — in the first half of 2024.” Her campaign emails now come with titles such as: “Crime Down, Border Crossings Down.”
And in contrast to her opponent Donald Trump’s kowtowing to dictators, invitation to Russia to attack NATO countries that haven’t “paid up” and clear willingness to bargain away Ukraine’s independence, Harris is an unabashed internationalist. Fred Kaplan at Slate writes that she did more than superficial protocol when she “visited 21 countries on 17 foreign trips, met with more than 150 leaders, and led the U.S. delegation at three Munich Security Conferences.” She was an active participant in the president’s daily briefings. He shares this nugget:
In February 2022, when the [President’s Daily Brief] revealed new, highly reliable intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin was about to invade Ukraine, officials who were present say that it was Harris who suggested that the intel be shown to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a face-to-face meeting — then made the trip to do so herself. One official recalls, “This was some of the most detailed intelligence sharing, outside of intelligence channels, that I have been party to. And her presentation of it, along with options of what we could do about it, was compelling.” Harris has since met with Zelensky five more times.
Toughness against threats to Americans’ security certainly does not detract from the Democratic ticket’s embrace of center-left policies to reduce income inequality (e.g., raise taxes on corporations, lower them for service workers), help working-class families (e.g., subsidized child care, restore the child tax credit) and advance social justice (e.g., protect reproductive, voting and gay rights). Democratic policies are broadly popular. “What a monster,” Walz wisecracked, touting his free school meals program. “Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own health-care decisions.”
Harris has embraced economic populism and a strong defense of personal freedom. (“Mind your own damn business” might be the most effective retort to the right-wing cultural wars yet.) The old complaints about “big government” do not hold water, especially when Republicans seek to intrude upon our most intimate decisions. The Democratic campaign understands that not even Republicans really want to shrink government. (Trump failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act or shrink domestic spending.) The administration’s ifrastructure plan, chips investment and prescription-drug cost controls are widely embraced beyond the progressive base.
People like government doing things to improve their lives. Indeed, center-left domestic policies command supermajorities, as I have pointed out.
The contrast with the MAGA Republican Party could not be more stark. After a brief flirtation with populist economics, Republicans have doubled down on trickle-down tax policy, attacks on regulation and even aversion to an independent Federal Reserve. The extreme Project 2025 would savage government programs that help working families (e.g., end Head Start), replace experts who protect health and safety with partisan yes-men and starve the states of needed funding on everything from education to Medicaid. Republican vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) suggested repealing the Affordable Care Act is still on the table.
Since that offers nothing to middle- and working-class Americans, Republicans have resorted to ever-more-extreme cultural fights — depriving women of bodily autonomy, censoring teachers, banning books, harassing LGBTQ+ Americans and attempting to Christianize government.
And when it comes to Americans’ safety and security, Republicans have lost the high ground. On crime, their infatuation with guns has led to higher homicide rates in red states with lax gun laws; had they prevailed in opposition to the American Rescue Plan, states and localities would have been deprived of $15 billion in crime prevention funds. Their contempt for the FBI, Capitol Police and the judicial system as a whole undermines their claim to be the “law and order” party. (Having a felon as their nominee does not help either.) Trump’s promise to pardon violent criminals who attacked police on Jan. 6, 2021 should put to rest the notion that Republicans “stand behind the blue.” Likewise, on immigration, Republicans’ willingness to wreck the toughest border deal in decades has undermined one of their key issues.
In sum, Democrats have coupled progressive domestic policies with the sort of muscular stance toward crime, illegal immigration and foreign threats that Republicans once held. This is one election in which no one seriously can claim the parties are alike — or that the Democratic Party neglects national and domestic security.
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This article is the epitome of gaslighting.
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Giving people things so they'll vote for you isn't good for the nation, especially now when government is heavily in debt.
I think Socrates also said something similar.
You're on the wrong article.
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Nah, that's reserved for your 'articles'
The inconvenient truth remains. Both she and Walz are far left radicals at their core and would govern that way. Whatever she has done or said in the past has little relevance as to what she would do as president, with a Dem Congress.
Progress Is Good...
Not to the maga who live in the past where the colored folks knew their place
MAGA don't have a prayer yet they are praying...