To win, Harris should talk more about working-class needs and less about Trump | Dustin Guastella
www.theguardian.com
Our polling shows that the best way to defeat Trump is offer a compelling economic platform that puts working families first

To win, Harris should talk more about working-class needs and less about Trump

Dustin Guastella

Our polling shows that the best way to defeat Trump is offer a compelling economic platform that puts working families first Tue 22 Oct 2024 06.00 EDT Last modified on Tue 22 Oct 2024 17.13 EDT 252

The 2024 campaign has entered the final stretch and, as polls tighten, it seems Kamala Harris plans to lean into attacking Donald Trump as a threat to democracy.

Over the past week the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the New York Times and even the conservative National Review have all reported or commented on the messaging pivot. In a newly unveiled official campaign ad, a disembodied voice warns gravely that a second Trump term “would be worse. There would be no one to stop his worst instincts. No guard rails.” At a recent rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Harris reminded her supporters of Project 2025, the “detailed and dangerous plan” that she believes an “increasingly unstable and unhinged” Trump will follow to cement “unchecked power”. She sounded the alarm about the dire threat Trump poses to “your fundamental freedoms” and how in his second term he would be “essentially immune” from oversight.

  • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
    193·
    25 days ago

    Bernie was great about getting a random question and saying “I don’t wanna talk about that, I wanna talk about how the top 1% yadda yadda yadda.”

    Trump gets plenty of play in the media, it would be nice to hear something different.

  • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
    12·
    25 days ago

    If it’s this close, two weeks before the election, with all the experience the country suffered under the last Trump administration, and the active threat Donald Trump poses to all life on earth, much less our entire Democratic system of government, I’ve got some very bad news for y’all

    • LucidNightmare@lemm.ee
      3·
      24 days ago

      To provide a different view, it’s actually reassuring to know that a lot of people who never voted before or cared to vote in the first place are out voting for her now because their rights were taken away (Women). At my early voting location, it was PACKED. I assume a lot were Trump, but I felt good seeing so many women there, alone. It might be that their rights and autonomy being taken away were good enough reason to get them out there to help bolster her campaign. They could’ve also voted for Trump, but that goes to show they’re either malicious (against women, even if they think they’re not), or they didn’t bother to pay attention to the world around them for the last 8 years now. Those types of people will never be converted or helped, so they’re a lost cause. It’s good to feel hopeful though, and I am hopeful.

      As a side note, I got two of my friends to vote for the first time in their lives, and it was good to see them get excited. All of us don’t want another Trump presidency, because unlike most people here in my state around us, they actually remember how fucking terrible it was under his awful “administration”.

      • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
        3·
        24 days ago

        I am not reassured that after allowing Trump to assume office, with all the checks and balances inherent in our Democratic institutions, the least of which not being the Electoral College confirming an obviously unqualified and dangerous President Elect, two weeks out, from a Presidential election, it is now a statistical tie between the destruction of Democracy, and salvation in the form of anyone fucking else as President. I don’t know if I will ever trust our elections or form of government again, ever. But I’m glad you’re reassured. You know who doesn’t have that privilege any longer? The over 1 million Americans who died from COVID during the last Trump presidency, due to a purposefully sandbagged and inept global pandemic response. But again, overwhelmed with joy that you’re reassured.

        • LucidNightmare@lemm.ee
          2·
          24 days ago

          I understand your frustration, but that was due to people becoming complacent, running a candidate that really had no personality and basically came off as “I don’t have to try so hard, look at this fool. I’ve got this in the bag!” which in turn left a lot of potential voters at home, because they may have also felt like she “had it in the bag”, or turned off potential voters because her personality dripped with “I deserve this term!”. Our system is broken, don’t get me wrong. I know this. That’s why I tried my hardest to provide people with information, show them the way that Trump uses language that sounds smart but isn’t anywhere near so, and how that can be used to manipulate emotions to overwhelm logic.

          Needless to say, there were a lot of reasons we got Trump in the first place. The best we can do now is educate people, call out traitors who support him and/or his ilk, and try to get others to see logic instead of headlines and fake polls or statistics.

          They also said a “red wave” would happen in 2022, and it did not. Don’t lose hope just because the news wants you to think it can’t be anyone but Trump, as that’s what the billionaires that own those stations want you to think so you lose out on hope! Hope is dangerous to authoritarian governments!

  • ravhall@discuss.online
    53·
    24 days ago

    Kinda disagree. People don’t believe what anyone says nowadays. Just make trump look like a moron.

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
    221·
    25 days ago

    She’s on CNN right now, taking questions in a town hall that Trump shit himself to get out of talking about her policies.

  • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
    674·
    25 days ago

    She is. It’s just that the media can’t get profit-generating eyeballs and clicks from her policy speeches, so they amplify only the salacious things.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
    1083·
    25 days ago

    Good adivce. Kamala does talk a lot about working class people already. Take a wild guess at what parts of Kamala’s tens-of-minutes-long rally speeches are most covered by news headlines.

    • The Assman@sh.itjust.works
      14·
      25 days ago

      Poopy diaper boy makes them money. It’s the same reason they haven’t been saying “republicans tried to overthrow the government” every day since 1/6/2021.

    • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
      563·
      25 days ago

      Ain’t that the truth. I’ve watched her live, she talks about middle class needs so much people literally make fun of her for trying to connect over her middle class upbringing. But the news runs the Trump stuff.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
    616·
    24 days ago

    She doesn’t care about you, though.

    She’s made that abundantly clear. She’s a capitalist.

    • auzy@lemmy.world
      83·
      24 days ago

      What are you talking about? Lol

      Most of her talking is about how she’s going to help workers. But the media only focuses mainly on her focus on Trump, and that’s fair because Trump is dangerous and it’s more exciting

      In Detroit in particular, she told people how she was going to help, whereas Trump was there telling the residents it was a craphole (but I don’t recall him saying why, or how he’d fix it. He was basically just telling them they’re useless). Once Trump is gone, we’ll likely return to normal politics (even JD you can tell is trying to act normal, but he’s stuck defending Trump)

      The fact she got Walz as a running mate says a lot too.

      She is saying lots. Watch her second “debate” as an example (the one Trump didn’t show up at). You can tell that the people who asked questions were impressed with the answers.

      And unlike Trump’s rallies, it wasn’t stacked with kamala supporters