Kamala is Moderate: Weekly Digest
Round-up for Aug. 26-31.
Happy Friday, everyone!
I hope y’all are rested from last week’s DNC, recovering from a collective “Democrats are back, baby” hangover, and gearing up for a great Labor Day weekend.
Kamala Harris was certainly ready to keep the DNC momentum going, spending the week affirming her policy commitments focused on costs, and announcing she will appoint a Republican to her cabinet.
I took a step back this week to think about the state of the presidential race — and this newsletter. We got some great constructive feedback last week to not make this digest merely a “PR outlet for Harris,” but to clearly show where the Harris-Walz ticket is - and is not - aligning their messaging and actions with what can maximize the odds of both winning and governing effectively. This comment highlighted something I’ve been chewing on with our Center Left partners: there will never be a definition of “moderate” that’s as clear as "progressive" or "MAGA." But that doesn't mean moderate isn't real — one aspect is nicely defined by Starts With Us — or that depolarizing isn't possible, as we cover via our new podcast.
One could also argue we have bigger problems to hash out right now as a Party (and as a country) than quibbling about, say, economic incentives, but I do often ask myself, what happens if we win?
I’m curious of y’all’s thoughts on this: What does “moderate” mean to you? And how do you self-identify as a Center Left Democrat? Since WelcomeFest, I’ve been into self-identifying as a “progressive conservative” with Rep. Jared Golden, or as a “passionate pragmatist.” Let me know in the comments section, please!
Now, on to this week’s round-up.
HARRIS WALZ CNN INTERVIEW
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash for the duo’s first official interview since launching their ticket. Bash peppered them with questions ranging from why Harris shifted her position on policy stances she took in 2019 on issues like fracking and the Green New Deal to how she responded when Biden notified her of his decision to drop out of the race.
Some (Kamala is Moderate) highlights:
Harris pledges to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet: “I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences,” she said in an interview with CNN. “And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”
Harris confirms she will not ban fracking: “No, and I made that clear on the debate stage in 2020, that I would not ban fracking. As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.”
Harris emphasizes her intention to secure the border: “Joe Biden and I and our administration worked with members of the United States Congress on an immigration issue that is very significant to the American people and to our security, which is the border. And through bipartisan work, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress, a bill was crafted which we supported, which I support. And Donald Trump got word of this bill that would’ve — that contributed to securing our border. And because he believes that it would not have helped him politically, he told his folks in Congress, '“Don’t put it forward.” He killed the bill: a border security bill that would’ve put 1,500 more agents on the border. And let me tell you something. The Border Patrol endorsed the bill.”
Harris’ vision for an “opportunity economy:” Day one, it’s gonna be about one, implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy. I’ve already laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we’re gonna do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we’re gonna do to invest in America’s small businesses, what we’re gonna do to invest in families… We had to recover as an economy, and we have done that. I’m very proud of the work that we have done that has brought inflation down to less than 3%, the work that we have done to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors. Donald Trump said he was gonna do a number of things, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Never happened. We did it.
Post-interview, some pundits were unsatisfied with Harris’ explanation of her policy flip-flops. But as we noted in the original Kamala Is Moderate, her discomfort with the unrealistic litmus test fervor of the 2020 primary was clear at the time. I understand it may not be worth it for Harris to divide the joyful bandwagon by religitgating 2020, but it is clear that we all need to continue widening the path to victory in the middle - both before the election, and after. That's what's realistic, anyway: as Matt Yglesias points out, the median U.S. senator is likely to be Lisa Murkowski, so we may as well start proposing policies that will both help swing voters and have a chance at passing. Better to further moderate before the election than after.
You can view the full transcript of the interview here.
HARRIS GAINS FAV AMONG TRUMP UNFAVS
To be fair, this is last week’s news, but the New York Times reported groups from which Harris has gained and lost support in the electorate. Most notably, she’s up 46 points among voters who have a “somewhat unfavorable” view of Trump.
She’s also, notably, down 10 points among those who identify as “somewhat conservative,” which is a hard hit, as those are the same voters we often work to woo with our Welcome candidates.
RETIRED 4-STAR GENERAL, FORMER STAFF OF PROMINENT REPUBLICANS ENDORSE HARRIS
More than 200 former staff of both Bush Presidents, the late Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Mitt Romney declared their endorsement of Kamala Harris in an open letter released Monday. The group of Republicans urged moderate Republicans and conservative-leaning independent voters to “take a brave stand once more, to vote for leaders that will strive for consensus, not chaos; that will work to unite, not divide; that will make our country and our children proud.”
Additionally, retired four-star general General Larry Ellis, who served in that rank under George W. Bush’s administration, endorsed Harris’ campaign this week as well.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Lauren thank you for the post.
I disagree with the headline, Kamala is moderate. I think she is more undefined but historically she has been a progressive and ran to the left of Biden. True she hedged a little to the right of Sanders and Warren but that does not make a moderate which I would identify as being in the middle ideologically of the New Democratic caucus. Biden qualified in 2020 though I think he took his governance left.
So to answer your question, "What does “moderate” mean to you? And how do you self-identify as a Center Left Democrat?"
Moderate imo is believing, as the liberals that we are, that the government can and should do things to help the people, environment, but usually with a more modest incremental approach. So I was in favor of ACA but not M4A as Harris was. I actually dont care that much, but a hallmark of progressives is that they concern themselves more with what is right than possible, and ACA got through by the cats whiskers, and M4A could never have passed, and was far from incremental.
I did support the IRA but I did not support BBB (Build Back Better) because the latter was an enormous 1.9T program that was not self funded and would have caused enormous debt and would have further incited inflation. Dems always like to credit Clinton with being the last balanced budget which is true, but they dont actually say they prefer reducing debt. That is being a moderate.
Indeed the Dems under Pelosi advocated a pay go approach to spending but when I hear of Harris' programs like the mortgage benefits and child benefits, what I dont hear is that it will be covered by the requisite taxes.
As part of the inflation issue, I think most economists, even liberal ones, note that the stimulus programs in total, some coming from Trump, increased demand for the limited supply to the extent that it contributed a 1-2% effect on the peak inflation of about 8%, so a factor though a modest part, but I feel that is ignored, and that Harris' approach to affordable housing, to give people 25K is actually counterproductive in the same way. It increases demand where the real solution to affordable housing is to increase supply. And Dems have addressed that with the YIMBY movement to promote housing density and get rid of restrictive zoning. I did hear that slightly at the convention, but the main Harris plank of just giving people money to get a first time mortgage will only exacerbated demand and raise housing prices. It also is not moderate in that it repeats the pre 2008 housing crisis approach of helping people get mortgages where they wont qualify from banks because their credit is not high enough. That is a recipe for future foreclosures that precipitated the 2008 crash. I think the moderate thing is not for the government to give loans that are too risky and should get out of the loan business and let the banks do what they understand best, calculate risk.
I am no Libertarian and so I think government should help people, but not carte blanche. If we need more nurses and teachers we should use guaranteed loans to allow people to pursue those but it is a mistake to guarantee enormous amounts of money so people can go to expensive schools (why not community college followed by public) and get a BA in social sciences. And what I think is not moderate in the school loan bailouts is setting the cut off for the benefit at at 250K income for a couple. How in the world is giving money to somebody making 240K anything but a giveaway to the wealthy. So that defines, moderation to me. Yes, I support social benefits, but not excessively.
I do not see Harris taking moderate stands on these.
To me a moderate would 1) end the amnesty loophole that lets millions of people at the border entering illegally, get in the country pending adjudication that often takes many years and is often lost. That could be part of an agreement with the Rs that also includes DACA and increases in legal immigration (waiting time for a sib of a citizen is now 15 years) 2) limiting student loan payoffs to special cases, which already was in place with forbearance, but not blanket pay offs 3) no price controls, an approach that never works 4) attention to and reduction of the national debt 5) let banks give mortgages based on risk, everybody does not need to buy, and what the real problem is, is not enough housing supply, so attack zoning and density restrictions, and stop demonizing landlords and builders which is a DSA approach, it is not a coincidence that all the cities with the highest home prices are run by progressives.
I wonder/worry how many more Democratic members of Congress will take up the mantle of dragging out negotiations the way Manchin and Sinema did.
Democrats reinforce a perception they are internally incoherent when negotiations take too long. It happened under Clinton, Obama and Biden. It can't be repeated.
The mantra must be to pass whatever can get 50 votes as quickly as possible. Let everything else on the table for SECRET negotiations until you can get to 50 too.