Kamala Harris' decision to mention Alberto Gonzales being added to the list of Republicans who've thrown their support behind her rubbed Jeet Heer the wrong way. In a piece for the Nation, Heer writes that the reference to the former US attorney general at a Thursday town hall sponsored by Univision was a "tone-deaf" move—Gonzales has been out of the public eye for two decades and brings the phrase "torture memos" to mind. As far as ill-advised choices go, it was a minor one, but Heer sees a "broader" and more "distressing" pattern at play: In the waning days of her campaign, Harris is putting too much effort into trying to win over "Never Trump" Republicans. And he sees a parallel with the final weeks of Hillary Clinton's run for the White House.
"One big reason Clinton lost in 2016 was that she neglected the working-class base of the party at the expense of trying to win [GOP] converts," writes Heer. Fears are rising within the party that Harris is doing the same. And yet "unlike Hillary Clinton in 2016, Harris does have a genuine economic populist agenda." For example, her proposal that Medicare cover in-home care for seniors and people with disabilities would, if enacted, be a revolutionary investment in caregiving. However, Harris' campaign is bungling things by trying to court a pool of Republicans instead of focusing on this proposal and economic policy in general, according to Heer. Three weeks is barely enough time to change course. She must do it now. "Hitting hard on economic populism while there is still time to excite the base remains the best path to victory," Heer writes. (Read the full column.)
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