Sometimes people tell me they don't know the dif between where Biden stands on the issues and where Harris does. I've noticed some definite differences not only in the ways that Biden and Harris have campaigned, but also in terms of the policy programs they respectively champion. Biden basically wasn't advancing any new ideas this year. He seemed to have no re-election platform to speak of and just ran on his unpopular record, believing he could change opinion about it. Harris, by contrast, is running on an actual platform, not just the very mid Biden legacy. Having been handed the reigns just a few months out from election day, she's had little time to craft a detailed one, but has managed pretty well on comparatively short notice, producing speeches dedicated to various issues. The most important of these is her economic policy speech, as the cost of living, jobs, and the economy are of course consistently the top-ranked issue on the voters' minds. Here it is:
(If you're looking to skip past the opening remarks and get straight to the policy substance, skip ahead to around 17 minutes in.)
She divides her plan into three categories: 1) strategically-placed tax breaks for families, aspiring home owners and small business owners, and workers and consumers in general, which she describes as her top priority, 2) cost-of-living controls, which I liked just as much, and 3) the weakest plank in my opinion, supporting and subsidizing biotech innovations, including crypto and A.I. development, among other things, not all of which do I necessarily agree with. (That last item would be symptomatic of her being a California Democrat, IMO.) The very existence of this plan differentiates her quite clearly from Biden in my mind. It carries a fairly strong populist undertone that positions her vision for the economy firmly in capitalist territory yet also distinctly left of Biden's very status quo non-message when he was running.
Also very noteworthy, IMO, was her recent immigration policy speech:
I noticed that she led her speech with extensive plans for shoring up border security that went even beyond simply her previously-announced commitment to signing the bi-partisan bill endorsed by the border patrol union that Trump effectively tanked earlier this year into law. In that regard, she went further than Biden in her commitments, seeming to position herself to his right on the issue. What impressed me the most about the speech though was her detailed plan to address the fentanyl crisis in particular, which got its own dedicated sub-section in the speech. One doesn't hear Democrats discuss the fentanyl crisis much at all, let alone with such clarity and specificity. It made me confident that she will take forceful action and as a top priority. She of course also remarked about supporting a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who've been living here for decades and meet specific requirements, which is a standard-issue Democratic position that I agree with. The latter though was reserved for much later in the speech and described in less detail, making it clear that border security will be a Harris administration's higher priority, which is also as it should be.
Those speeches cover the two highest-ranked issues of the voters. The third highest-ranked in most surveys is abortion rights, and I've noted that Harris has come out in support of scrapping the Senate filibuster to pass legislation restoring the protections that Roe V. Wade had previously afforded, which is actually the same position Biden has embraced. (I wish we could just have a national referendum on abortion rights like you can in the individual states, but apparently we don't believe that participatory democracy should apply at the federal level in this country for some reason I don't understand.) Indeed, Harris's positions on other issues seem similar or identical to Biden's, including championing an all-of-the-above energy policy and a negotiated end to the Israel-Hamas War, etc. Mostly commonplace, fairly moderate positions. But on the economy and immigration respectively -- the top concerns of the voting public -- she strikes out on her own more, carving out a stance left of Biden on the economy and right of Biden on border security, both of which meet with my strong approval. I feel like she's very in touch with the mood of the country and takes the public's concerns about the Biden White House's shortcomings to heart. I don't feel like she's terribly beholden to woke politics or campaigning on her identity hardly at all despite the fact that many do in fact take pride in the opportunity to elect someone who would be our first female president ever, including 70% of us independent women.
(I'm sorry to fawn so much over Harris, I've just come to like her a lot. Also I've noticed that we don't discuss actual public policy very much on this thread. It's mostly just the horse race and Trump/Republican-bashing.)
