Kamala Harris’s Prosecutor Populism Will Save Our Working Class | Opinion

As everyone knows, Kamala Harris is a prosecutor. The pursuit of justice is in her bones—it’s at the root of her political promise. The citizens of California saw that when she pursued criminals in the Golden State. The rest of America saw it when, from her perch on the Senate Judiciary Committee, she grilled and exposed Bett Kavanaugh. Now, it’s time for her campaign to unleash the next chapter in her storied history. She has an opportunity to craft a new, future-oriented “prosecutor populism” to restore America’s working class.
Republicans will be desperate to color a prospective Harris/Walz administration as a boon for the coastal elite. Democrats can’t let themselves fall into that trap. The Vice President’s prosecutorial persona is poised to be an instrument for working-class justice. Far from kowtowing to those who are bankrolling the Trump campaign, our nominee will “stand tall for small,” promising to take on the deep-pocketed interests who screw workers, bleed our health care system, and pollute God’s great bounty. Using her bully pulpit and the Presidency’s other tremendous powers, her campaign should be centered on a determination to take on the powerful interests that stand in the way of progress.
Think Teddy Roosevelt in heels.
Crafted in Harris’s image, this prosecutor populism would not only align government with working people against the rich and powerful. While protecting consumers, it would balance concerns about redistribution with a determination to grow the pie, ensuring, as John F. Kennedy once extolled, that a rising tide lifts all boats. Toward that end, this new populism would embrace innovation, framing new ideas as the most effective tool for breaking the stranglehold huge corporate monoliths have over ordinary people. It would prize individual entrepreneurship, cognizant that investments in economic growth are the key to lifting up forgotten communities. It would make clear that the grit embodied by hard-working Americans is the lodestone for the wealth they so desperately need.
In that spirit, this new populism would open the door for small entrepreneurs to disrupt entrenched behemoths. It would view artificial intelligence as an opportunity to democratize the economy. It would outline how technology can serve as a powerful tool in reducing health care costs by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. It would highlight how those savings can be invested in making Americans healthier, more productive, and happier. It would snap up opportunities and slash red tape by using blockchain, a cutting-edge technology that can both expedite decision-making and make the public sector more transparent.
This pursuit of working-class justice may sound strange to some who presume that populism is obsessed with resisting change. And there’s no denying that technology has, in some cases, cut against the interests of working-class communities. But change and innovation also brought us the steel mills that drew hundreds of thousands of jobs to Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. New ways of making tires prompted the construction of massive factories in Akron. The invention of the automobile sparked working-class prosperity in Detroit, Gary, and hundreds of other communities tied to the auto supply chain.
My point is that change is what we make of it, and prosecutor populism can work to make these innovations work for average people.
As important as addressing the fear of change, Democrats need to make clear that, in the absence of change, working-class Americans too often get screwed. Today, for example, a system captured by big, powerful interests is thwarting efforts to use Psilocybin and MDMA to help veterans and other Americans suffering from post-traumatic stress and addiction. It’s allowing mom-and-pop businesses to be crushed by big box stores. It’s allowing greasy spoons to be trampled by chain restaurants. It’s allowing local lenders to be gobbled up by financial consolidation.
Prosecutor populism would limit mergers and other anti-competitive business practices by updating our nation’s anti-trust laws with a clear and strong consumer welfare standard. It would begin forgiving medical debt for the millions of Americans who defeat illness only to face bankruptcy. It would allow students to pay down what they owe at 1 percent interest. And it would recognize that we have to move to balance our nation’s budget so that we aren’t paying huge amounts on our debt with money that is better invested into the jobs and industries of the future or lowering tax rates for working people and small businesses.
This notion of a new populism may prompt some to scratch their heads. Many equate populism with former president Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. And for that reason, too many Democrats have come to assume that the Rust Belt will never ever embrace a party whose standard-bearer slogan is “We’re not going back!” They operate on the political presumption that what middle America really wants is, in fact, to return to some earlier age. But we’re now to the point that millions of Americans are too young to remember the good old days. They’re open to something new. And for that reason, progressives should be crafting an agenda that puts their interests front and center.
Joseph Campbell once wrote, “Revolution doesn’t have to do with smashing something; it has to do with bringing something forth.” Our nation is exhausted by all the smashing, verbal assaults, corruption, and violence. That’s the promise of what prosecutor populism could bring to a Harris/Walz administration. A national “Stand Tall for Small” initiative would breathe new life and energy into small-town America not only by supporting their small businesses but also by cleaning their rivers, renovating their theaters, and rebuilding their downtowns replete with parks, outdoor amphitheaters, breweries, wineries, art, and music.
In short, a new populism would extend the upbeat vibe of the campaign, build community, and increase people’s quality of life without asking them to move hours away from family to find a good-paying job.
The American people want to bring forth something new. Some progressives are already implementing this new approach in scattered parts of our country. But, to this point, their innovation has been overshadowed by a toxic media and political culture. We need to center these ideas in the Democratic agenda. Amid the wave of excitement now propelling the Harris/Walz ticket is a popular determination to find leaders who can refresh progressivism’s approach to governing—figures capable of calling forth the better angels of our nature.
A prosecutor populist and football coach fit the mold to a tee: new leaders with a new agenda to build a new America. The working class is right there waiting to pick up their banner. Let us pray for the smashing to end and the revolution to begin.
Tim Ryan is a former Congressman and Senior Advisor, Campaign for Working Americans at the Progressive Policy Institute.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.