How Kamala Harris formulates her theme of “freedom”

Anderson edited “Leverage: A political, economic and social framework“, has taught at five universities and ran for the Democratic nomination for a seat in Congress from Maryland in 2016.

Vice President Kamala Harris, experts say, has shifted the language of the Democratic Party from democracy to freedom. Even her campaign song is “Freedom” by Beyoncé.

President Joe Biden placed particular emphasis on the concept of democracy during the 2020 election because he saw himself and the United States fighting against the rise of authoritarian countries around the world—notably China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—as well as the increasingly authoritarian nature of the Trump presidency. Biden and the Democrats have broadened the scope of their call to promote democracy rather than autocracy even further after January 6, 2021, when Trump incited the insurrection on Capitol Hill.

Woodrow Wilson called on Congress to declare war on Germany on April 2, 1917, because “the world must be made safe for democracy.” After January 6, Biden and his party called on the American people to make the country safe for democracy.

Harris is going in a different direction. She is more concerned with reaching out to voters who feel that their personal freedoms have been denied to them and could be denied even more. Harris wants women to feel free to have an abortion if they choose. She wants schoolchildren not to be shot in school and the books they read not to be censored and poor people not to have the fear of not having health insurance.

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In short, she wants the people of the United States to be free to live a good life, to have enough money for child care, to breathe clean air, and to love whoever they want to love. In fact, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are fighting for basic political, civil, and economic freedoms. And they clearly think that's a better message right now than talking about the threat that Trump and Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio) pose to our democratic system.

In some ways, Biden, at least in his campaign language, had placed more emphasis on America's place in the world, while Harris, in her burgeoning campaign language, has focused more on the place of American citizens in America.

Historically, Republicans have put freedom on a pedestal—especially economic freedom at home, protecting big business from harsh regulations and the wealthy from excessive taxes, but also upholding the right of small businesses to thrive. Now they are engaged in a tug-of-war with Democrats over who has more effectively promoted the United States' role in protecting the value of freedom around the world.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (who famously told Congress that we must protect the four freedoms that all people hold dear – freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech and freedom of religion) led the United States to victory over Nazism and Japanese fascism in World War II. Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush, on the other hand, led the United States to victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

As the presidential campaign unfolds over the next few months, the Harris-Walz team would do well to at least make a connection between freedom and democracy, even if they emphasize freedom first and foremost. According to the vast majority of political philosophers and political scientists, freedom is a value, arguably the most important value within the concept of democracy. Democracies promote values ​​such as freedom and equality. Autocracies do not.

Democracies based on capitalist laissez-faire economies have traditionally had a weak concept of freedom and equality, while democracies with robust mixed economies have traditionally had a stronger concept of freedom and equality. Harris clearly prefers a robust mixed economy with a strong concept of freedom – and certainly a strong concept of equality as well.

Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont), a democratic socialist or social democrat – depending on who is presenting his views – talks more about equality because the left is usually concerned with restricting the freedom of the wealthy in order to improve the economic and social situation of the middle and working classes.

Harris should absolutely push her ideal of freedom, because the message is excellent, but she should not distort her message by leaving democracy out of it. She should ask voters to recognize that the Democratic candidates are rallying behind a strong concept of freedom, which in turn is anchored in a strong concept of democracy.