With less than 100 days to go until the 2024 presidential election, Democratic votes have shifted heavily toward “liberty” as a campaign strategy. But how serious are they about this, really?
Vice President Kamala Harris locked in enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination within 48 hours of President Joe Biden ending his reelection bid. Yesterday, Harris announced her running mate choice: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, an outspoken progressive who has pioneered the tactic of calling Republicans “weird.”
At his first joint campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Walz showed some approachability that clearly won him over with Harris. He had some harsh words for opponents on the topic of abortion rights.
“Some of us are old enough to remember Republicans talking about freedom. Now it turns out they mean the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office,” he said. “In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make. Even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there’s a golden rule: Mind your own business!” The crowd erupted in cheers and applause. , Walz said he heard chants of “mind your own business.”
Walz: In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make. Even though we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there is a golden rule, mind your own business. pic.twitter.com/TRQNlbySlE
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 6, 2024
Lawrence O’Donnell said in a fawning segment on MSNBC that Walz’s language was “no less than the best political message the Democrats have ever sent on abortion and reproductive freedom.”
In fact, the message is startling—even downright libertarian. This fits well with Harris’ campaign themes, in which she abandoned Biden’s focus on “democracy” in favor of “freedom.” Within days of winning her party’s presumptive nomination, Harris deployed her first campaign ad, which not only chose “freedom” as its theme but also featured Beyoncé’s song of the same name.
But unfortunately, Harris’ ad, like Walz’s rally manifesto, offers a limited understanding of what “freedom” really means.
Harris intones in her ad: “We choose freedom, not just to survive, but to progress; freedom from gun violence; freedom to make decisions about our own bodies. We choose a life without Any restrictions for the future.
Liberals may feel that these remarks stretch the definition of what free What it really means. After all, “freedom from gun violence” is a laudable goal, but in practice it seems to violate the constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arms. “Throughout her career, Harris has been a strong advocate for reinstating a ban on assault weapons, the weapons of choice for mass shooters and extremists,” according to a release from Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group. a press release stated. “As California Attorney General, Harris led the fight to pass red flag laws, becoming only the third state to do so.” Walz, as governor of Minnesota, also signed legislation enacting red flag laws.
If you truly believe in “the freedom not just to survive, but the freedom to progress,” then you should support making it as easy as possible for a person to make a living.
However, the Biden-Harris administration advocates for stricter enforcement of tax laws, which would disadvantage low-income earners. While gig economy companies like Uber and Etsy were previously required to report users who earned at least $20,000 on their platforms to the IRS, a provision in Biden’s 2021 pandemic relief bill would lower the threshold to $600. When the administration proposed hiring 87,000 new IRS agents, it said the additional enforcement would allow the agency to monitor people’s use of services like PayPal and Venmo to ensure their transactions match their reported income.
The Harris ad’s support of “the freedom to make decisions about your own body” is also laudable, as is Walz’s exhortation to anti-abortion Republicans to “mind your own damn business.” But it’s not just abortion rights: It also includes the right to experimental drug treatments that aren’t officially approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). MDMA, for example, shows great promise in treating mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, but the FDA has yet to approve its use, and in June an FDA advisory panel voted overwhelmingly to recommend against approval.
True bodily autonomy also includes the right to take drugs approved in other countries but not by the FDA. But the 2017 Right to Try Act was introduced by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and signed into law by Trump, who touted the law in a speech at the Republican National Convention. But the FDA reports that by 2023, only four drugs will be available under the right to try.
“While more exceptions would improve the status quo, the need for these exceptions and the extremely high risks of obtaining them indicate something deeply wrong with the underlying process.” reason Editor-in-chief Katherine Mangu-Ward writes about the FDA in 2021.
To be fair, Harris and Walz have been liberal-friendly on other issues: Last year, Walz signed a bill legalizing recreational marijuana in Minnesota. She has been a stronger advocate for marijuana legalization than either Trump or Biden, despite a history of locking up marijuana users while serving as a prosecutor in California.
But if Democratic presidential candidates choose “freedom” as their rhetorical beacon, then the candidates should consider making public their respective definitions of freedom and the many ways people can gain it. “Mind your own business” isn’t just the perfect slogan for abortion and reproductive rights.
