Yesterday, Site owner Kos wrote a piece titled, “Trump won the America that Democrats forgot”.
His argument was largely summed up in the first paragraph. “While Democrats debated Gaza, transgender rights, abortion, and democracy itself, Trump’s message centered largely on economic security”. He argued that although Trump didn’t put forward solutions, he nonetheless gave recognition to people who were struggling.
Democrats from Bernie Sanders to Third Way have also put forward this argument. They argue that by focusing on social rather than economic issues, Kamala Harris and Democrats ignored the working class who are only worried about paying their bills and other “kitchen table” issues. The blame for this is put on, depending on who you’re listening to at the moment, the billionaire class, consultants, and elite ivory tower social justice warriors policing pronouns, all of whom apparently took over the party from heart and soul blue collar Americans.
What I hope to show in this diary is that Kos, and those from Sanders to Third Way that continue to put forward this argument, are flat out wrong.
I would go so far as to say they are gaslighting us as to what actually happened during the election.
Because as I read Kos’ diary, I couldn’t help but think that what Kos is saying seems to have no relationship to the campaign I followed. I don’t remember Trump coming up with a Bill Clintonesque “I feel your pain” at any point in the campaign that resonated with voters. Similarly, I don’t recall Kamala focusing her campaign on “Gaza, transgender rights, abortion, and democracy itself” to the exclusion of economic issues.
There are two assumptions from which Kos’ premise is based. First, that Trump, “gave recognition to people that are struggling”. Second, that Kamala was too hung up on “Gaza, transgender rights, abortion, and democracy itself” and ignored the economic hardships faced by Americans.
Seemed to me the easiest way to test the accuracy of Kos’ assumptions is simply to look at what the candidates themselves spoke about on the stump. So I downloaded the transcript of Trump’s speech given on October 27, 2024, in New York City and the transcript of Kamala Harris’ speech given on October 29, 2024, at the Ellipse in Washington.
You can read the full speeches themselves if you like. Now, I’m going to focus more on Kamala’s speech for two reasons. The first is that Kamala is the one who is at the heart of Kos’ argument. The second, is that Trump’s speech is a mess.
Trump’s is here rollcall.com/…
Kamala’s is here theblackwallsttimes.com/…
All quotes in this diary are taken from these two sources.
Highlights are mine.
Let’s start with Trump’s speech. He starts out by talking about the importance of the election and the choice facing voters. ‘In less than four years, Kamala Harris has shattered our middle class. She casted the deciding votes that launched the worst inflation in the history of our country. She cost the typical American family over $3,000 in a short period but over $30,000 over the last three years. She killed 50,000 manufacturing jobs this year alone.”
What he says is a lie, of course, manufacturing jobs expanded during the Biden administration and families did not lose $30,000 in three years. But he is speaking about the economy, so if we ignore the lies, well, good for Trump. This statement happens five minutes into the speech.
He then talks about cutting the price of oil in half, tax cuts and tariffs and then asserts,
“And I will never apologize for defending America. I will protect our workers. I will protect our jobs. I will protect our borders. I will protect our great families, and I will protect the birthright of our children to live in the richest and most powerful nation on the face of the earth. As we rescue our economy, I will also restore our borders.”
Then he moves onto immigration, where he pretty much stays for the rest of the speech. In fact, he asserts that it’s not the economy that is the biggest issue facing the country, but immigration. “And when you look at the polls, and they say about the economy and they have all these different things, the worst nightmare that we're facing is what they've done to us on our borders.”
At this point, things get weird and he rambles about scary immigrants and more scary immigrants, trans people, I’ll solve Ukraine in a day, and then, if I remember correctly, scary immigrants.
Finally, he concludes by talking, I think, about how evil the enemy (Kamala Harris and the Democrats) are.
"It's just this amorphous group of people, but they're smart, and they're vicious, and we have to defeat them. And when I say the enemy from within, the other side goes crazy, becomes a sound. Oh, how can he say -- no, they've done very bad things to this country. They are indeed the enemy from within and -- but this is who we're fighting."
Trump did not give actual recognition to people who are struggling. He didn’t spell out what those struggles look like in a way that demonstrated any understanding. He mentioned that inflation had an impact, but there was no real empathy in his statement, just a rote recitation of untrue statistics.
Trump himself held that immigration is a bigger issue than inflation, and certainly that’s where the focus of his speech was. The focus of this speech, contrary to what Kos asserted, was not the economy or any recognition of economic anxiety. Outside of a few sentences at the beginning of his speech, he barely spoke about the economy at all
Kos’ assumption that Trump gave recognition to the economic plight of Americans, then, is just plain wrong.
Kamala Harris’ speech starts, like Trumps, by outlining the differences between the two campaigns and the importance of the 2024 election. “And this election is more than just a choice between two parties and two different candidates. It is a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division.”
And Donald Trump has told us his priorities for a second term. He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute. He says that one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who insulted those law enforcement officers on January 6.
Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him, people he calls, quote, “the enemy from within.”
America, this is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better. This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power.
Ten months into the Trump administration, hard to argue with anything she said here.
Kamala follows with a brief biography of her history, from working as a prosecutor through to her work as Vice President. The focus of her work, Kamala declared, was, “fighting against bad actors and powerful interests”.
Because for decades as a prosecutor and a top law enforcement officer of our biggest state, I won fights against big banks that ripped off homeowners, against for profit colleges that scammed veterans and students, against predators who abused women and children and cartels that trafficked in guns, drugs and human beings.
And I did this work because for as long as I can remember, I have always had an instinct to protect. There’s something about people being treated unfairly or overlooked that, frankly, just gets to me. I don’t like it.
She’s already highlighted, in this statement, a history of her fight for ordinary people and against powerful interests, against big banks, against scammers and against violent criminal cartels. She reinforces this by adding that her urge to protect people was instilled in her from an early age by her mother,
“It’s what my mother instilled in me, a drive to hold accountable those who use their wealth or power to take advantage of other people, the drive to protect hard working Americans who aren’t always seen or heard and deserve a voice.
In these statements, early in her speech, she is allying herself with hard working people, “who aren’t always seen or heard and deserve a voice”. Trump did not do this. Trump made no attempt to project any empathy for ordinary Americans at any point. Yet we’re being told to believe that he somehow gave voice to the working class.
Kamala Harris then starts to talk directly about the challenges facing Americans, contrasting where the country was in 2020 with the different challenges facing the country in 2024. “Our top priority as a nation four years ago was to end the pandemic and rescue the economy. Now our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic, and that are still too high. I get it.” She then tells a personal story, highlighting her middle class upbringing that she asserts allows her to relate to the economic issues facing working people.
I still remember our mother sitting at that yellow formica table late at night, cup of tea in hand, a pile of bills in front of her, trying to make it all work. And I’ve heard from so many of you who are facing even greater financial pressures.
At this point in her speech, Kamala Harris has already spent more time talking about economic issues than Trump did in the entirety of his, and demonstrated an understanding of what those struggles are that is is beyond what Trump seems capable of.
Kos’ second assumption is starting to look like it’s in trouble.
Kamala Harris’ speech moves into more specific issues, contrasting her economic plans with Trump’s and outlining more policy proposals such as going after corporations who made inflation worse by engaging in price gouging.
Donald Trump’s answer to you is the same as it was the last time, another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. And this time he will pay for it with a 20 percent national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported. Think about it: clothes, food, toys, cell phones – a Trump sales tax that would cost the average family nearly $4,000 more a year. And on top of that, you will pay even more if Donald Trump finally gets his way and repeals the Affordable Care Act – which would throw millions of Americans off their health insurance. And take us back to when insurance companies had the power to deny people with pre existing conditions.
Well, we are not going back. We are not going back.
Because we also know Donald Trump would deliver tax cuts to his billionaire donors. I will deliver tax cuts to working people and the middle class. I will make sure you have a chance not just to get by, but to get ahead because I believe in honoring the dignity of work.
I will enact the first ever federal ban on price gouging on groceries, cap the price of insulin and Limit Out of Pocket prescription costs for all Americans.
I will fight to make sure that hard working Americans can actually afford a place to live.
And, again, she goes to her own upbringing to connect to American voters facing their own struggles, specifically regarding owning a home.
I’ll never forget how our mother saved up and how excited she was when she could finally afford to buy our first home. I remember how excited she was. And I know that owning a home is not only a measure of financial security, it’s about the pride of your hard work. And as President, I will fight to help first time home buyers with your down payment take on the companies that are jacking up rents and build millions of new homes.
She didn’t stop there. She spoke to the trouble ordinary working people have with caring for family while trying to work full time and offered a specific policy proposal to help. “I’ve met so many young people who have a natural desire to parent their children well, but not always the resources to do it. So, I’ll fight for a child tax credit to save them some money, which will also lift American children out of poverty.”
She moves on to talk about reducing the cost of child care, and of homecare for people struggling to care for their elderly parents. Again, she references her own experience with helping take care of her cancer stricken mother to connect to people struggling with the same concerns. And again, she offers policy relief.
And currently, if you need home care and you don’t have some money to hire someone, you and your family need to deplete your savings to qualify for help, that’s just not right. So, we’re going to change the approach and allow Medicare to cover the cost of home care so seniors can get the help and care they need in their own homes.
The entire focus of her speech has been on ways to improve the lives of ordinary working Americans.
Now, three quarters of the way through her speech, Kamala Harris talks about the important issue of reproductive rights. For women, this is every bit as much a “kitchen table issue” as inflation and mortgages.
I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand selected Supreme Court justices took away from the women of America – that today one in three women in America. Think about it, one in three women in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban – many with no exceptions, even for rape and incest.
The idea that a woman who survives a crime of a violation to her body should not have the authority to make a decision about what happens to her body next, that is immoral, that is immoral.
Next is a discussion of immigration, acknowledging that people who enter the country without proper authorization is an issue, as are transnational gangs, but arguing for a more humane approach that treats people with some level of dignity and avoids demonizing people who decide to come to the US.
Politicians have got to stop treating immigration as an issue to scare up votes in an election, and instead treat it as the serious challenge that it is that we must finally come together to solve.
I will work with Democrats and Republicans to sign into law the border security bill that Donald Trump killed. When I was attorney general of a border state, I saw the chaos and violence caused by transnational criminal organizations that I took on and when I am President, we will quickly remove those who arrive here unlawfully, prosecute the cartels and give border patrol the support they so desperately need.
At the same time, we must acknowledge we are a nation of immigrants, and I will work with Congress to pass immigration reform, including an earned path to citizenship for hard working immigrants like farm workers and our dreamers.
She describes herself, the daughter of immigrants, as someone who has benefitted from the opportunities the country has to offer. And pledges to ensure that ordinary, working Americans, too, can benefit as she did.
I pledge to you to approach my work with the joy and optimism that comes from making a difference in people’s lives...
I’ve lived the promise of America, I saw how hard our mother worked to give her daughters the same chances this country gave her...
I’ve spent my life fighting for the people who have been hurt and counted out but never stopped believing that in our country, anything is possible.
I’ve lived the promise of America, and I see the promise of America in all of you, in all of you, I see it.
And she concludes with a remarkable statement, one that equates the struggles of the civil rights movement, and of the gay rights movement, with the struggle America had to undergo to free themselves from a “petty tyrant”.
Nearly 250 years ago, America was born when we wrested freedom from a petty tyrant. Across the generations, Americans have preserved that freedom, expanded it, and in so doing proved to the world that a government of, by, and for the people is strong and can endure. And those who came before us, the Patriots at Normandy and Selma, Seneca Falls, and Stonewall, on farmlands, and factory floors, they did not struggle, sacrifice and lay down their lives only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms.
They didn’t do that only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant.
Lets look at again at basic tenet of Kos’ article, that “Trump won the America that Democrats Forgot” and the two assumption that form its basis. The first, Trump spoke to Americans need for economic security. Second, that Kamala and Democrats were too hung up on social issues and as a result ordinary working class Americans felt left out.
It is clear to me, as I hope it is clear to you, that Kos and those like Sanders and Third Way that promote this argument, could not be more wrong. It was Kamala Harris that spoke directly to the hardships people faced. It was Kamala Harris who recognized that the president must be focused on the needs of ordinary Americans rather than the needs of the rich who, let’s face it, never need a tax cut. It was Kamala Harris who had a personal story that demonstrated that she has experienced the insecurity that many Americans have faced and understands what struggle means.
Let’s be honest too. Republicans love it when Democrats make this argument. The idea that Democrats don’t care about ordinary Americans is one that Republicans have long tried to promote. In the Reagan years and forward the accusation was that Democrats listened to “special interests” rather than to real Americans. Today, Republicans continue to try to portray Democrats as elitist and out of touch. They assert that Democrats want to harm “real” Americans by allowing waves of immigrants into the country that don’t look like real Americans or speak the language of real Americans. That Democrats are more interested in promoting “DEI hires” than making sure the best (White male) person is hired. That Democrats want to turn your boys into girls and girls into boys.
Why people like Kos want to help Republicans promote this lie of Democratic elitism is beyond me.
Kos is wrong. Third Way is wrong. Bernie Sanders is wrong. Republicans are wrong.
Kamala Harris and the Democrats did not forget about ordinary Americans. Kamala Harris acknowledged, recognized, and empathized with ordinary Americans and the struggles they face.
Why Americans, including apparently a number of Democrats, refuse to listen to and to accept this truth is another question.
