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Voters influence the outcome of the presidential debate between Trump and Harris
Young voters express their expectations for the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris
OK, we’ve seen the joy and the hype, so what’s the problem?
This is the question facing Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. She must take back her cheering and make concrete statements.
As a political tool, the question “Where’s the beef?” has its origins in the mid-1980s. When Walter Mondale, former vice president under Jimmy Carter and eventual nominee of the year, ran against the pompous Gary Hart in the 1984 Democratic primaries, he used a slogan from a television commercial for a fast-food restaurant.
“What’s the problem?” Mondale asked Hart in a televised debate. Hart stammered in a word salad that sounded like it had been written in a college seminar by students who had heard too many New Age mindfulness chants from Buddhist “monks” who actually grew up in the New Jersey suburbs.
Mondale eventually won the nomination and lost the presidential election to Ronald Reagan. But the “beef” issue was a campaign tactic.
And now it’s Harris’ turn to deal with it.
Harris needs to get serious. Trump too
To some extent, former President Donald Trump faces the same question. But he is so undisciplined and trapped in his own chamber of grievances that it is pointless to ask him to lay out a program for how he intends to govern if he returns to the White House. America already knows what it could get if Trump is elected. Get ready for those nightly tirades on social media.
Harris is a different story. She’s a bit of an enigma who’s been on a roll since President Joe Biden handed her the presidential baton. So, with the Democratic National Convention kicking off in Chicago on Monday, it’s fair to ask Harris what she plans to do if she defeats Trump.
Some of the thorny questions are obvious: What would Harris do about Ukraine? Gaza? Energy? Anyone who watches cable news today knows the litany of expectant questions.
The problem is that such questions on these issues are based on the assumption that a candidate will put forward a clear proposal that may not be achievable. Remember Trump’s plan to “fix” the Affordable Care Act? Or Harris’s call for national health insurance during her ill-fated 2000 presidential campaign?
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Here is an alternative way to address three key issues that concern voters:
The economy
We all know the problem. Yes, inflation is falling. But even after the announcement this week that inflation has now been reduced to just 3% – the same level as 2021 – the economy doesn’t “feel” like it’s improving. Just go to any grocery store. How can anyone feel good when a dozen eggs cost $5 or more?
So far, Harris has used an old maneuver. She promises to crack down on price gouging. (As if the White House were a consumer protection organization.) She supports “affordable housing.” (Who doesn’t?) She wants to cap drug costs, increase the child tax credit, and pass a minimum wage law. (All good ideas that have basically been floating around politics for a decade or more.)
Here are some difficult questions for the economy:
- How can the federal government cut taxes without reducing the national debt, which will soon hit the $2 trillion mark? (In short, who will pay the bills?)
- What can the federal government do to increase spending on infrastructure? (The bipartisan bill signed by President Joe Biden is just a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.)
- How can you end taxation of Social Security benefits and still keep Social Security from going bankrupt?
- What can the federal government say about its three decades of global economic policies — under Democratic and Republican presidents — that have essentially destroyed American industry and the Midwestern middle class? And if the U.S. imposes tariffs, what will it say about the inevitable price increases at home? (Hello, inflation.)
crime
The problem with any debate about crime is that Democrats inevitably claim that violent crime rates have gone down.
That may be true. But why do so many schools now conduct mandatory school shooting drills? Or why does a ride on the New York subway seem like a walk on the wild side, even in daylight? As in business, there is a gap between statistics and the perception of reality.
With that in mind, Harris could address the following questions, which inevitably shed light on some of the most controversial progressive proposals of recent years:
- Even if you convinced Congress to pass legislation to eliminate military assault weapons, what plans do you have to confiscate the estimated 20 million assault weapons already in Americans’ hands?
- Was the movement to cut police funding smart, or just a naive liberal plan conceived in a college seminar? In that sense, does the police still need more money for better training and more officers trained to deal with the increasing number of criminals with mental health problems?
- Should America rethink its governments’ efforts – from state to local – to decriminalize drugs?
- Should homeless people be forced to move into shelters? If not, what plans do you have to remove them from public spaces such as parks and sidewalks? In short, do you have a plan that recognizes the humanitarian need to help homeless people while protecting the rest of the population from the disorder resulting from the current situation?
- Do you think bail reform needs to be revised? If not, why not? If so, what would you do?
- Shoplifting has transformed America’s retail stores in ways that punish law-abiding customers – often in communities that can hardly be described as hotbeds of crime. (Just walk into a CVS these days and look at the items locked behind glass.) What would you do to solve this problem? Or do you think America has to live with it?
immigration
We know the border is a problem. And we know Republicans and Democrats share some of the blame. But the next president will face two massive realities:
First, there are currently over 15 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Second, the nearly 3,200-kilometer-long border with Mexico will always have gaps.
Trump says he wants to deport all illegal immigrants. His vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, suggests the federal government could “start” by deporting a million – as if this were some kind of social experiment.
And as for closing the border, remember Trump’s plan to build a wall – and force Mexico to pay for it? That worked really well, didn’t it?
Harris needs to face reality.
- Do you think the bipartisan bill you hope Congress will pass is just a stopgap measure or a viable, long-term solution? What else would you do?
- Is crossing the border illegally a crime? If not, why not? And if it is not a crime, what are the criteria for determining who is illegal and who is not?
- Should labor laws in America be changed to reflect the reality that most immigrants just want a job?
- Should border states be allowed to bus migrants into cities like New York and Chicago? If so, should the federal government take over the funding – and the regulations? If not, what plans do you have to stop these buses?
- Do you support the right of states and cities to declare themselves “sanctuary cities” where local police are, in some cases, not required to report the arrest of an illegal immigrant to federal authorities?
- If you don’t deport them, what are you going to do with the illegal immigrants? How can a “path to citizenship” be fair to immigrants who play by the rules? And if you don’t offer a “path to citizenship,” is it fair to just let illegal immigrants continue living their secret lives that put pressure on schools and hospitals? In short, what is the workable and reasonable plan to solve this problem?
- Do you think the asylum rules should be rewritten? If so, how? If not, why not? In this context, what do you think about the “catch and release” procedure, which allows undocumented immigrants to live in America for years without their asylum claim having to be heard in court?
- Looking more broadly, do wealthy countries like the US have a responsibility to accept more migrants? And if not, why not?
These are just a selection of questions, but they underline the deep complexity surrounding each of these issues.
It’s time for America to speak its mind – especially from Harris. But small bites – in snappy sentences – won’t work.
We need to see the entire menu.
Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books and a producer of podcasts and documentaries. A paperback edition with an updated afterword of his 1995 book “Color Lines,” which chronicles race relations in a small New Jersey town after a police shooting and was called “American journalism at its finest” by The Washington Post, was released last year. For unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live in the Northeast, subscribe or activate your digital account today.
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