Political Signals from Chicago

by Joachim Bischoff

Democratic Party Convention in the USA

[This article posted on 8/22/2024 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.sozialismus.de/index.php?id=8087&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=20607&tx_ttnews[backPid]=6580.]

The Democrats' new campaign slogan “We're not going back!” is one result of the party conference in Chicago: not back to the hatred and anger of the era of Donald Trump, who is fighting for re-election as president in just under three months. The fact that this slogan is catching on, and not only among the party conference attendees, is also the achievement of the campaigning of the candidate team Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Walz's coaching role and Harris's laughter are the ingredients for the good-mood campaign, the “good vibes” around which almost everything revolves. Not that there is a lack of serious problems in the US and for this presidential campaign. Quite the opposite. [1] But the politics of good humor lives and is nourished by its dark counter-image, Trump.

If he were not the opponent, if he were more skillful and moderate, the good mood that Harris and Walz radiate would probably quickly evaporate. While Trump insults and threatens his opponents and has trouble dealing with people in need, as events at the White House during his presidency have shown, Harris and Walz exude empathy and humanity.

Walz also addressed controversial campaign issues in his speech at the party conference. The previously little-known governor of the state of Minnesota looked back on stages in his life. Speaking of his childhood in a small town in Nebraska, he said, “you learn to take care of each other.” The 60-year-old also talked about his career as an American football coach. Walz conveyed everyday optimism and casual criticism of Republican presidential candidate Trump.

He said that he and Kamala Harris stand for an America in which everyone can love whoever they want, and for a country in which people have access to artificial insemination and abortions. Republicans, he said, want to restrict these freedoms and, for example, ban abortions nationwide. Walz's crowning achievement was the “disenchantment” of Trump as a would-be autocrat, as a fighter against the “deep state” and American democracy.

It was not for the first time that he characterized his political challenger simply as a “weird,” as a weird guy far outside the “mainstream” who wants to rob women of their freedom over their own bodies and leave children defenseless to gunmen running amok with rapid-fire rifles. “Weird” is Walz's political disenchantment formula. All of a sudden, Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance are just strange birds – people who have no joy or friends, only bleak visions of America. Like the somewhat peculiar guys at school who often misbehave and talk nonsense. For example, when Vance talks about childless “cat women” who supposedly rule America. Or when Trump declares that he would rather die by electrocution than be eaten by a shark.

This is how the Democrats appear normal – and as the mainstream. They are no longer the club of coastal elites and missionaries of wokeness, but those who represent quintessentially American values. This mixture of “Minnesota Nice” – the kindness that is still typical of residents of the Midwest – and a casual willingness to attack inspires both Harris's and Walz's election campaigns. The message to everyone is: you don't need to be afraid of the future. We're all in this together and can live together in a diverse society.

However, the political professionals at the party conference, starting with the team of candidates, also warn that “good vibes” are just moods that can change. Many Americans currently have little reason to be in a good mood. The social background to the Republicans' political rhetoric is dissatisfaction and fear for the future. A weakening labor market, the high cost of living and growing insecurity in everyday life are causing many people trouble. The feel-good duo of Harris and Walz could only come second in the upcoming election campaign and the final vote.

The program of the Democrats

Kamala Harris was a prosecutor for a long time and was known and controversial for her constitutional toughness. In the eyes of the Democratic base, this professional background is no longer a shortcoming, but rather looks like an advantage in view of the multiple criminal convictions of Trump. “Vote for the prosecutor, not the criminal,” reads one bumper sticker distributed by the party. The rule of law also applies to voting. The outgoing president, Joe Biden, has raised the specter of not recognizing a defeat by the losing Republican candidate.

Harris and Walz advocate continuing the Biden administration's program: Harris embodies the continuity of Democratic policy. She cast the decisive vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, so she is part of the Bidenomics program. Harris is a centrist within the party, but on certain issues, especially gender, abortion and the service economy, she is decidedly progressive.

The Biden administration's original plan to improve maternity leave and childcare as part of a care-centered economic and social program has been undermined by negotiations, particularly in Congress. What remains is primarily infrastructure and industrial policy. Harris is fighting for a different focus, and it is to be hoped that with her, the care orientation can be implemented.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, immigration has exploded, and at the same time, misery along the southern border of the United States has increased. Managing and coping with unregulated migration is an unsolved problem in the U.S. and Europe. After all, Biden had once promised to let millions of new immigrants into the country – thus motivating millions of Latin Americans to try their luck at the border.

But it is also a fact that the administration under his presidency and Harris's vice presidency never revised several controversial border regulations from the Trump era, including the “Remain in Mexico” directive, according to which asylum seekers in the southern neighboring country have to wait for their decision. A President Harris will probably also stick to this.

In addition to the refugee crisis, the slowdown of the US economy is the biggest concern for American voters. Whether the bad news will accumulate in the coming months or even trigger a downturn in the election year could still be decisive for the outcome of the election. The word “recession” is being heard more and more frequently these days, although the growth rates for US gross domestic product (GDP) had recently surprised on the upside, coming in at a year-over-year rate of 2.8%.

As in the pandemic era, exacerbated by a recessionary trend in capital accumulation, the Democrats want to try again to boost the economy and cushion social hardships through government intervention – such as the Green New Deal. These interventions are a political tightrope walk given the high level of debt in the US economy and the tough debates over the debt ceiling and the restructuring of public finances.

According to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the measures proposed by the Democrats to improve revenues are likely to be far from sufficient to stabilize the US's huge budget deficit at a sustainable level. The third serious problem, in addition to migration and recession fears, is the precarious state of public finances. At least Harris addressed the deficit, which has so far hardly featured in the election campaign.

Under a President Harris, the social systems in the US are to be further expanded. As Vice President, she specifically advocated for the “care economy,” i.e., affordable childcare and assistance for seniors in need of care. Her campaign team has also confirmed that she wants to stick to Biden's promise not to raise taxes for people earning less than $400,000 a year. As a senator, Harris had already advocated for tax credits for low-wage earners. She also wanted to increase teachers' salaries and finance this with tax increases for higher earners.

Despite the combative rhetoric, some of the Democrat's proposals are moderate. In particular, the “tax credits” have many supporters. The Republican candidate for vice president, Vance, is also proposing higher child deductions. And in response to Harris's proposals, Trump writes that if she enforces “her communist price caps” as president, there will be hunger and poverty from which America will never recover.

This fear- and resentment-fueling rhetoric is juxtaposed with the optimistic message of the Democratic ticket team. The basic themes of the Democratic Party conference are: tolerance, respect, solidarity and freedom. People take care of each other, but at the same time everyone has the right to mind their own business. Freedom, Walz says, means being able to realize your dreams, and not the freedom of the government to control the private lives of its citizens.

“We are all here tonight for one simple reason: we love this country,” the governor of Minnesota called out to the cheering Democrats. ‘We're not going back’ is the central anti-conservative slogan that Walz also called out to the crowd. Not least, the battle cry alludes to the right to abortion, one of the most important issues in the Democratic election campaign.

Notes

[1] A detailed assessment of the economic and political situation as well as the disputes in the US will appear in the September issue of Sozialismus.de: Joachim Bischoff, Conservative Revolution or the Future of Liberal Democracy?
[2] The article mentioned in note 1 deals with the pressing problem of public finances in the US in more detail.