Editor,
Contexts matter. In the campaign for president between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, each has a political theory, or internal context with which they will govern, especially in the context of the economy.
Kamala Harris has focused on growth, change and support, especially for the middle class. Her campaign theory is clear. She wants the middle class with strong unions, a strengthened Affordable Health Care, increased hourly wages, first-time home buyers’ credits and reproductive rights. A prime example of how she will grow the economy is with the child tax credit, which allows parents to take a tax credit of $6,000 for newborns, $3,600 for children under the age of 5 years and provide $3,000 for all rest of the young people up to age 17. This plan has increased employment of working parents. You can see Harris’ political theory clearly. She wants equality for all, especially economically, so all have growth from the middle up.
Donald Trump has his own top-down context. According to Timothy Snyder, Yale professor and author of books “On Tyranny” and recently published “On Freedom,” Trump is an “intelligent and talented politician” whose “actions make sense within their own political theory.” According to Snyder, Trump engages in fantasies about Haitians eating pets, a made-up story that can never be remedied, thus leading to views that the government is impotent and needs a Strongman leader. (Timothy Snyder, “Fantasy-Impotence-Fascism.” Substack, 9/22/24).
We can see autocratic, top-down responses clearly. In another example, his answer in an interview question about the need for affordable child care help goes like this: “Child care is child care.” Then he goes ahead with a top-down response by saying that, to paraphrase, he will bring in so much money with his tariffs that parents won’t need to worry about child care. Context matters. A single mom with three kids, a job and a mortgage can only hope that some money might trickle down to her, though it may seem impotent to her. Clearly Trump doesn’t see that a young mom might need to go to work while her kids get the care they need. He sees the dollars the tariffs will bring but doesn’t see the reciprocal increase in the cost of those goods, essentially a tax on the middle class.
Context matters. I prefer the middle out rather than the top-down approach. To learn and grow is much better than to still be stuck with the same old tropes. Vote your conscience. Vote for the candidate that understands your context. Vote.
Mike Myers
Battle Ground
