The Democratic National Convention in August was roundly acclaimed as a great success, presenting a unified front that stretched from Shawn Fain and Bernie Sanders to Adam Kinzinger and Leon Panetta. Ezra Klein saw a party that finally “wants to win.” The vibes were good, almost euphoric. Over the past few weeks, however, Harris has dropped in the polls, and heading into Election Day, many Democrats feel less than confident.
What’s going on? A poll of 1,000 Pennsylvania voters from the Center for Working-Class Politics (CWCP), Jacobin, and YouGov shows that the campaign was tentatively heading in the right direction this summer. It also suggests why, despite all of Donald Trump’s efforts to alienate voters, the race is still neck and neck.
In late August, the historian Eric Foner wrote that Democrats were attempting to make the election about competing definitions of freedom — about, as Tim Walz said in his acceptance speech, “the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love,” against the freedom of corporations “to pollute your air” and banks to “take advantage of customers.” UAW president Shawn Fain went even further at the national convention in naming and blaming the villains that stand in the way of a better life for working people: “Corporate greed turns blue-collar blood, sweat, and tears into Wall Street stock buybacks and CEO jackpots,” he argued, adding that Trump was a “scab” who would protect the interests of corporations and billionaires. That same month, the campaign announced a series of commitments to tackle the housing shortage, crack down on price gouging, and raise the minimum wage.
Our survey found strong support for this kind of economic populist messaging and…
Auteur: Milan Loewer
