On September 25, 2024 as a part of their New Way Forward plan, Governor Tim Walz and Kamala Harris unveiled their vision for the economy of the country. One of the key takeaways from Harris’ speech in Pittsburgh is her self proclamation as a capitalist. She said, “Look, I am a capitalist. I believe in free and fair markets. I believe in consistent and transparent rules of the road to create a stable business environment.”
This comment has not come from the void as Harris has, for a while, been building her case. Since early September there has been a “release of a small-business plan that included a new $50,000 tax credit for new small businesses as part of an overall goal of triggering 25 million new small businesses in four years.”
In a Telemundo interview, Harris herself mentioned, “I am a capitalist. I am a pragmatic capitalist.” While this essentially makes Harris’ stance on the market and economy clear, it also seems to be a message to Donald Trump who always refers to Harris as a communist or a socialist.
Moreover, Harris has also chosen someone like Mark Cubon to represent her and he repeated Harris’ message with an even better spin and said, “Kamala Harris is a hardcore capitalist” as he clearly hinted at the fact that Harris is a better person to do business with.
Since these messages and discussions were happening before the election, Cubon made it clear that the goal of projecting Harris in this light was to present her as some kind of CEO and also help undecided voters to bring “up to speed on our policies and how [she is] not an ideologue or dogmatic.”
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Harris herself seemed very eager to put forward the idea of her being a capitalist and business person as she further said, “As president, I will be grounded in my fundamental values of fairness, dignity and opportunity. And I promise you, I will be pragmatic in my approach.”
Harris’ words show that she has been trying to make her place into the bond that Republicans have with the business world. Harris also said, “I’ve always been and will always be a strong supporter of workers and unions.” She also borrowed a phrase used by former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, saying when it comes to economic matters, she would pursue “bold, persistent, experimentation” and would ensure that she will not be “constrained by ideology” and will also seek “practical solutions” to various problems.
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However, despite what she promoted, the Biden-Harris duo could not defeat Donald Trump as he became the American President for the second time. In one of his speeches on the economy in Georgia, Trump had said, “With the vision I’m outlining today, not only will we stop our businesses from leaving for foreign lands, but under my leadership, we’re going to take other country’s jobs.”
His words clearly impacted the American people as he emerged as the winner in the election. It now remains to be seen how Harris further uses her capitalistic image for her future political endeavors.
