Harris’s Radical Response to Polarization

Disclaimer: This article was written about one week before the US election

It would not be an understatement to say that Harris has radically shifted her election strategy against Trump, compared to other Democratic leaders such as Biden and Hillary Clinton. This week, Harris gave her closing speech before the presidential election, underlining that everybody matters to her, both Democrats and Republicans. This is a vastly different strategy than Trump’s, which emphasizes an us versus them mentality of identity politics. Similar tactics can be seen in many other populist leaders worldwide like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Giorgia Meloni in Italy. Trump promises to be tough on immigration, economic dependency, and increasing tariffs. Many liberal politicians have struggled in their response to populists, like Trump, and their policies which are beneficial for the traditional white working class.

Conventional strategy against right-wing extremism

The Democrats’ previous strategy against right-wing extremists was to exclude them from “normal” voters. However, this proved ineffective. Hillary Clinton famously called Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables” at a fundraiser in 2016 during her campaign, not long before she lost the election. Another example came last week with Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage”. Trump and his team capitalized on both occasions by claiming that only he, cares about them and the broadly defined American people. By reacting in the same manner to all the banter and false accusations, which Trump loves to make, politicians risk shooting themself in the foot and ultimately losing the electoral race. Such accusations only polarize Trump's voter base and the rest of Americans even further.

Not just a speech, but a successful trend

To be clear, Harris did more than just say that she wanted to stand up for Republicans who felt excluded by Trump. It is a trend in Harris’s behaviour, which in the last few weeks before the election became her main strategy. Many examples can be given, but I will limit myself to just two. Firstly, dozens of important republican politicians have voiced their support and endorsed Harris's presidency. Many of these politicians feel Trump threatens the average American and the US Constitution and turn to Harris as a result. For example, Liz Cheney, a Republican house representative who has been one of the leaders of anti-Trump Republicans, has said the following: "As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, [...] because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris". Secondly, Harris has promised that she would appoint at least one Republican to her Cabinet if she was elected. To conclude, by trying to win over unheard Republicans Harris has managed to build a small but stable bridge over the enormous gap between Democrats and Republicans

The right strategy?

Time for the big question: will this last-minute strategy win Harris the election? That remains to be seen at this current moment. Regardless of the election outcome, I believe that this is the right strategy for Harris, and for any other democratic-liberal politicians trying to win over a populist and their usage of identity politics. Of course, it must be said that there are tons of factors influencing elections and general politics. But the way a politician treats society is extremely important.