During their debate, Trump said Harris was a Marxist and everyone knew it. One of the great things about the debate is that unlike Trump’s previous opponents, she refused to take him seriously, treated him with the disrespect he deserved, and laughed at all his crazy statements.
But let’s discuss that. Why did Trump say that when there is absolutely nothing in Harris’ resume or record to indicate Marxism?
Well, first, remember that one of the key attacks Republicans constantly do is to claim that all Democrats are socialists and Marxist and so on — an attack which works less and less these days as more and more people are saying “Socialism? You mean with national health care and child care leave and free public colleges? Yes, I’d like some socialism, please.”
But mostly, he is basing this on the fact that Harris’ father (who did not raise her) taught politics and economics, which includes a course on Marxism.
Because you can’t study economics and politics without learning about Marxism.
I took a course on Marxism when I was a Political science student, and among other things, we discussed why it didn’t work. Just because someone studied Marxism doesn’t make them a Marxist. I also took a course in Philosophy of Religion but no one would call me religious.
The other problem is that many people who did not study this have no idea what Marx was about or what he said.
I do admit, however, to being a big fan of Marx — in fact, all of the brothers.
If the polls were exactly accurate and the election were held today (August 30, 2024), Harris would win enough states to be President.
I made this map using 538’s page where the team averages out the polls based on the reliability of the pollsters (they currently says Harris has a 59% chance of winning) and then used 270 to Win‘s mapmaking.
But let’s be realistic about these numbers.
First, remember that anything can happen between now and November. You can rest assured that Putin and others will be doing everything they can to get their toady back into office, and already the Trump folks are planning to disrupt the election, kick people off the voting lists, challenge the results (but only in blue states, of course), and otherwise cheat to win.
Note as well that polls can be inaccurate and have constantly under-estimated Trump fanatics. Pollsters now claim they are taking that into account, but this is not an exact science.
See all those very light blue states? That means Harris’ poll advantage is less than 5%, and often within the poll’s margin of error. In some states (like Pennsylvania, where I live) her poll advantage is less than one percentage point. This is going to be close, people. We have to get every single vote we can.
If Trump wins, it will most likely be like last time, where we won the popular vote and he squeezed by due to the Electoral College. (Remember that absent that stupid Electoral College, Democrats would have held the White House going all the way back to Bill Clinton.)
I still predict a Harris win (for reasons I have stated here before) but we cannot afford to be overconfident.
After a very exciting convention — one of the most enthusiastic ones I’ve seen in my lifetime — Democrats are fired up. Polls are moving in our direction, states that were once GOP locks are now within reach, and contributions are dwarfing the GOP numbers.
That doesn’t mean we will win. The swing states we need are still within that margin of error range. We have to organize, we have to work, and we have to vote.
But let’s celebrate while we can.
So here’s a collection of recent political cartoons about the convention to make you smile.
Besides the fact that the GOP is now running an angry, elderly felon against an optimistic, joyful woman, they face other challenges, such as finding a winnable issue. No, arguing over crowd sizes isn’t it, and many in the GOP are begging Trump to shut up about that. (Apparently Trump is losing his mind over the thought that he could lose to a black woman, two things he hates. This is not new. ) The two main issues the GOP raises often are, of course, lies.
The economy is doing terrible! Actually, unemployment is at its lowest, real wages have risen sharply, the world-wide inflation problem didn’t hit us as bad as the rest of the world (and is now very low), overall the stock market has boomed, mortgage rates have fallen… Sure, it’s not perfect, but it never is.
Illegal immigrants are destroying our country! Okay, let’s begin by pointing out that this is largely an appeal to racists who hate the idea that brown people are coming here, because they never object to immigrants from Western Europe. But the fact that these people are illegal is simply because we made them so, and we could easily make them legal just like it was for many immigrants last century. And many are refugees, legally arriving and asking legally to be let in. (Also illegal border crossings are much lower than they were under Trump.)
But the fact is that, unlike Trump claims, these immigrants commit less crime than citizens. They pay their taxes, they want to work, they’re coming here for a better life, and they’re nothing to be scared of unless you are a white supremacist who worries that in the future, you will be the minority in America and then the majority will treat you as terrible as you have been treating them for generations.
Democrats and Republicans worked on a bipartisan plan to help immigrants and to make sure they all come in legally, but Trump told his cult not to vote for it because he needed to blame Biden for not fixing the problem. So if illegal immigrants are destroying our country, we can blame Trump for ignoring a solution.
They are trying to hide their positions on abortion and gay rights and the other extreme things in their Project 2025 because they know their views on these issues are hated by a majority of Americans. Their plan was to win and then force all that on us against our will, like they have always done.
I’m more optimistic now that we will be able to hold these liars back, but it will require everyone to vote, because you know the MAGA cult always will.
My wife and I were firmly in the Josh Shapiro camp. Our current governor here in Pennsylvania is doing a great job and is very well respected. Plus, we need to win Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state. Without PA, it is unlikely any Democrat will win.
But as the media started writing more about Minnesota governor Tim Walz, the more I saw the potential. And now that he is the VP candidate, I am convinced that this was the right choice.
Walz will help carry those swing states that might have been suspicious of another East Coast liberal. (And let’s not discount the sad fact that there is still plenty of anti-semitism out there, which could make the difference in a close election.) So now Shapiro can travel his home state to make sure Harris captures Pennsylvania.
Admittedly, Walz’s record could be construed to be just as liberal as Shapiro (both are rather moderate in many ways), but Walz’s charm and history speaks volumes about his intentions. He just seems like the good neighborhood father that everyone trusts who wants to spend his life helping people — one of those politicians who got elected not out of some personal ego ambition, but because he saw it was the best way to help the largest amount of people.
So I have a lot more optimism these days, especially as I see the poll numbers moving quickly in our direction, and states that were clearly in the Republican column moving to the “too close to call” column.
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