Harris and Trump Debated How to Maintain the Status Quo

Sept. 12, 2024

The debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump featured a rehash of neo-liberal and imperialist talking points.

Both are committed to disastrous policies domestically and internationally.

The United States’ decline under oligarchic rule is brutally exposed every four years, as the duopoly parties differ on fewer issues and agree that the people’s needs stay far away from the political agenda. The 2024 election is no different, as the quality of candidates continues its downward trajectory with a former president who is hated by half the country but beloved by millions more running against a current vice president that no one voted for as a presidential candidate. Their September 10 debate was highly anticipated but not for very good reasons.

Kamala Harris entered the debate one day after finally putting cursory policy platform information on her website which had nothing but merchandise for sale and donation buttons for fifty days. It is hard to understand why she needed so much time to do what was an obvious copy and paste version of Joe Biden’s campaign website, but the odd decision-making is emblematic of this bizarre campaign season and her own lack of gravitas.

Just four days before the debate former vice president Dick Cheney endorsed Harris. Cheney was once a villain to liberals , the de facto president when he served under George W. Bush and the driving force behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Not only did he help to kill 1 million people, but it was a war from which he personally profited due to his connections to the Halliburton corporation, a major military contractor.

Cheney was loathed by liberals until January 6, 2021, when he and his congresswoman daughter Liz Cheney were quite vocal in their condemnations of Trump. True to form, liberals developed collective amnesia about their prior Cheney hatred and they suddenly elevated the right-wing family to revered status. Harris didn’t run from the endorsement, instead, she declared herself, “honored to have their endorsement” and praised the Cheneys for “putting the country before party.” Dick Cheney would not endorse someone who wasn’t pledged to continue the neo-liberal and imperialist project and clearly Harris sees the endorsement as being beneficial. Why shouldn’t she? KHive and Blue MAGA democrats continue being so completely indoctrinated that they don’t want to hear anything negative about her and corporate media are fully on her side.

Donald Trump sometimes rambles incoherently and gives the impression that he is experiencing cognitive decline like Joe Biden. Kamala Harris is younger and healthier, but she has also been promoted beyond her skill set and laughs nervously or has strange outbursts when she is unsure of herself. Trump often goes off script and Harris stumbles when speaking off the cuff. Debate anticipation was less about policy prescriptions than about who would make the better impression.

But ultimately good preparation was enough to win because the so-called moderators from ABC news had their thumbs firmly on the scale of orthodoxy when they posed questions about U.S. policy around the world. There was no effort to actually engage in debate. Instead, there were leading questions that asserted that the U.S. cannot be questioned in its actions. One example is this statement which was a clear expression of support for the idea that the U.S. should be the world’s hegemonic and unipolar power. “Mr. President, it has been the position of the Biden administration that we must defend Ukraine from Russia, from Vladimir Putin, to defend their sovereignty, their democracy, that it’s in America’s best interest to do so, arguing that if Putin wins he may be emboldened to move even further into other countries.” Trump answered correctly when he said the war in Ukraine can and should end with negotiation. Harris of course revived Russiagate allegations by saying Trump would end the proxy war by just “giving up” Ukraine and that if Trump were president, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv.”

It was Trump who brought up the fact that Biden’s actions regarding Ukraine could lead to World War III. Of course, he incorrectly said that “millions” of people have died in Ukraine but he also mentioned the very real threat of nuclear weapons. However, he did not mention that he, like every president of the last 20 years, unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from long-standing nuclear agreements with Russia and helped to create a very dangerous situation today.

While the moderators engaged in scaremongering about Vladimir Putin, Harris and Trump both went out of their way to express devotion to Israel. Harris claims she is working for a ceasefire in Gaza while simultaneously promising to continue weapons and money for Israel. She repeated calls for a two-state solution which Israel has repeatedly rejected and added threats against Iran for good measure. Trump dispenses with pretense and says he is and will remain Israel’s guy and claims that Harris “hates Israel.” He predicted that if Harris is elected, “…Israel will not exist within two years from now.”

Putin was cast as the all-purpose villain and Chinese president Xi Jinping also came in for criticism. Both Harris and Biden pledged to make the U.S. number one in chip production and Harris even blamed Xi for the spread of covid.

The subterfuge of alleged differences was not confined to Israel, Russia or China. Harris went out of her way to say that she wouldn’t ban fracking. Of course, fracking ought to be banned because it produces fossil fuels, contaminates water supplies, and even produces earthquakes. Harris went on to claim that democrats are concerned about climate change while simultaneously pledging to continue oil production. The moderators did not call out the inconsistency.

Overall the debate was a very sad affair. Trump made immigration the centerpiece of his remarks, claiming that crime is up in the U.S., even though it isn’t, because criminal aliens are amongst us. He repeated debunked claims of immigrants eating dogs and cats and being drug dealers and terrorists who will all try to vote. It was vintage Trump, meaning embarrassing, and Harris could only say that she favored a bipartisan immigration bill that featured the worst aspects of Trump policy that has resulted in more deportations under Biden than under Trump.

Supporting Israel will be a high-priority goal of a Harris or Biden administration. Democratic presidents have failed to codify the Roe v. Wade decision when they controlled Congress and could have done so. Harris’s claim of passing federal legislation rings hollow while Trump ranted that democrats were executing babies.

Perhaps the Kamala Harris image makers are right. She need only talk about joy while Trump says that protesters burned down Minneapolis, a city that actually still exists, while mentally ill immigrants run amok. The donors who as Trump says, “Threw Biden out of the campaign like a dog,” may have been right. Enough money and good press might be enough to put Kamala Harris in the white house.

[Top photo: Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris shake hands before a presidential debate in Philadelphia, on September 10, 2024. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images.]