A compendium of solid reporting, commentary, and direct-from-source information surrounding the pivotal 2024 elections in the United States. You won't find horse race coverage here, or the standard "both sides" (even when one is lying) BS that passes so often for political journalism. What you will find are links – with brief quotes from the coverage and short commentary from me – to work that I believe advances the conversation we should be having about America's, and the world's, future. Remember: Everything is at stake this year. (Unfortunately, some of the work I point to is behind paywalls.)
Harrisnomics
Here's VP Harris' speech. It's worth a listen, or a read (White House transcript).
Far from being notably to the left of Biden, Harris’s economic program looks much like the one that Biden began, which was short-circuited only by the lack of a working majority in Congress and some hostile court decisions. If Harris wins big, she will pick up where Biden left off, and that includes court reform. Her housing plan and her proposed restoration and expansion of the Child Tax Credit build on Biden, and go a little bigger. Likewise her proposed expansion of price controls for drugs. It’s all about constraining corporate excess and helping working people—and connecting the two goals.
We'll be hearing the feedback, and blowback, from Harris' first set of economic proposals for at least a few days. (The Democratic convention will be about her, and Walz, not so much their policies.) Harris wasn't continuing the Biden approach; she was extending it. But she needed to explain clearly to her audience that grocery prices and inflation are part of a complicated ecosystem – a major part of which consists of monopolies and cartels – and I don't think that came across well. Given that the press was guaranteed to focus on the anti-price-gouging rhetoric, this was an unforced error. However, she was appropriately tough on Wall Street hedge funds' tax-incentivized buying up of housing across the nation, and of price fixing in apartment rentals – both of which are examples of the way cartels are wrecking so many sectors of the economy and looting people's wallets. This is a progressive cause, and needs the kind of relentless pressure politicians should have mounted long before now. I hope she'll get even tougher on the corporate malfeasance that dominates so much of our lives. Many in traditional media will clutch their pearls, but voters will be in tune.
Yet the most noteworthy thing about the story has been the media’s own response—or rather, non-response. Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post all received materials from the hack, and have apparently confirmed their authenticity. But all these outlets have only reported on the fact of the document release, not its contents, which are only referenced in exceedingly general and vague language.
One good element in all this is that journalists are genuinely paying attention to motive in deciding whether and what to publish. But I take it for granted that the full or nearly complete set of documents, whatever they may contain, will emerge fairly soon. The leakers can't be happy that their work has been submerged by the BigFeet of the political press corps. The materials will make their way elsewhere, or someone inside one of those news organizations will get them "out there," in the parlance of journalists who readily report on things they might not touch if handed directly to them.
Republican propagandist's framing advice
Issues: “Number one is affordability. We should not call it inflation ever again." – Frank Luntz on CNBC
Listen to Luntz and how he says Trump needs to reframe the issues, e.g. replacing the word "inflation" with "affordability" to recapture public mindshare. Republicans know how to tilt the playing field with biased framing. Luntz, in particular, is brilliant at this and has left Democrats befuddled again and again. Meanwhile, Democrats remain pretty much incompetent at framing issues, and the press typically buys the Republican framing. Separately, it's remarkable, and revealing about today's journalism, to see the NY Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin brainstorming with Republican propagandist Frank Luntz on how Trump can regain the initiative. This isn't an interview. It's Sorkin working with Luntz to figure out what Trump's countermeasures should be against the Harris phenomenon.
Alexander Vindman, a former soldier on the National Security Council who testified against Trump at his first impeachment trial, said on social media that the comments show Trump “dishonors Medal of Honor recipients, our nation’s highest military award for distinguished acts of valor. He deserves nothing but disdain and disqualifies himself from public office.”
If Harris said something as disgusting as Trump's dunking on Medal of Honor winners, Big Journalism wouldn't stop talking about it for weeks. Trump's vile statement is getting the notice and denunciation it deserves today. I predict that our political press will decide it's old news by tomorrow, or Monday at the latest.
Voting is just part of democracy, but it's the essential place to start. Make sure you're registered. Doublecheck in the fall, well before Election Day, because in some states Republican officials are removing people, mostly those who tend to vote for Democrats, from voting rolls.
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