No, Kamala Harris is not a Communist
Trump, Musk and their minions can repeat the lie all day, but the VP promotes an enlightened capitalism
In his confused ramblings, Trump now repeats that Vice President Kamala Harris is a communist, a Marxist and (confusingly) also a fascist. The wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, promotes falsely to his millions of Twitter followers that Kamala has supposedly vowed that she will be “a communist dictator on day one”, and adds “Can you believe she wears that outfit!” (referring to a fake image of a red Communist uniform).
Of course, in this campaign, the only candidate that has vowed to be a “dictator on day one”, to disregard the Constitution, to govern in an authoritarian manner, to disregard the elections, and to remain in power indefinitely has been Trump.
Nicaraguan-American Ana Navarro, who fled from communism, said at the DNC “Let me tell you what communist dictators do, and it's never just for one day. They attack the free press, they call them the enemy of the people, like Ortega does in Nicaragua. They put their unqualified relatives in cushy government jobs so they can get rich of their positions, like the Castros do in Cuba. They refuse to accept legitimate elections when they lose and call for violence to stay in power, like Maduro is doing right now in Venezuela. Do any of these things sound familiar? Is there anyone running for President who reminds you of that?”
But let’s get back to Kamala Harris. The Biden-Harris administration has been very successful in promoting a broad-based capitalist growth, which has benefitted everyone, including wealthy investors, but also working-class people. Among other achievements:
- GDP growth has been the highest among G-7 advanced nations, by a large margin (like all indicators below, this is real GDP, adjusted for inflation). Accumulated growth since Q3 2019 has been 10.1 %; Canada comes in second, at 5.8 %, while Japan and Germany have not grown.
- Real GDP per capita has reached the highest level ever, 9.2 % higher in Q1 2024 compared to Q2 2019.
- Real wages have reached the highest level ever. Average weekly earnings reached $1,200 in June 2024, and real average hourly earnings increased 0.8 % from June 2023 to June 2024. For lower income workers (“production and nonsupervisory employees”) the increase was even greater, 1 %.
- Median usual weekly real earnings in Q2 2024 were 2.8 % higher than in Q2 2019 (before the pandemic).
- The stock market under Biden-Harris has broken all records. The real net worth of the bottom 50 % of the wealth distribution increased by 123 % between Q1 2019 and Q1 2024, much higher than the accumulated inflation (22 %). For all households, the real net worth has risen by nearly 15% since the end of 2019.
- Under Biden-Harris nearly 16 million jobs have been created. Trump was the first President since Hoover (1932) to lose jobs, nearly 3 million.
- 800,000 manufacturing jobs have been created (vs. a loss of 170,000 under Trump)
So, overall, the Biden-Harris economic policies that have grown the income and the wealth of the American people – the opposite of communism.
But what is Kamala Harris proposing for the future?
- Providing a subsidy of $25,000 for first-time homebuyers (helping middle income people to accumulate wealth). Providing support to builders to construct low- and middle-income housing.
- Providing a subsidy of up to $7,500 to purchase North American assembled electric vehicles (helping the middle class to accumulate wealth)
- Continuing to implement the CHIPS act, the Infrastructure Bill, the Inflation Reduction Act which promoted green technologies and renewable energy, and other policies to help the private sector grow the economy (the opposite of communism).
- Let the Trump tax cuts on billionaires and corporations lapse (while keeping tax cuts for anyone making less than $400,000).
- Renew the child tax credit (which some Republicans including Vance claim to support, even though the Republicans in the Senate just voted it down).
So, overall, her policies are the opposite of communism; however, they are not unbridled or savage capitalism either. The tax policy will redistribute income from billionaires to the middle class and low-income families; the subsidies for green technologies and renewable energy will nudge a more sustainable growth model.
In European or Latin American terms, the Democrats would be considered centrist or moderate; they are to the right of European or Latin American social democrats. Personally, I would prefer more redistributive and climate policies. But progressives in the Democratic Party fully support Kamala’s moderate and centrist policies, as they know that the alternative (Trump and MAGA Republicans) would be much worse for everyone except billionaires.
Source: Joseph Politano