THE HARRIS/WALZ INTERVIEW | Recycled Policies and Weak Leadership
Over the last three years, I have struggled to pay for gas, electricity, and groceries on my corporate salary. I believe I am what most would describe as middle-class. I work for a major corporation, own my home, have a moderate amount of savings, and drive a mid-level luxury vehicle. I am fortunate to share a home with my son, daughter-in-love, and my grandchildren. In this environment, we can support each other, and although I don’t like asking for help, as a widow, it’s good to know that I can get assistance if needed. That’s my situation, but it hasn’t been the same for many middle-class Black Americans in our community. I have heard story after story of high prices, soaring electric bills, and the fear of losing jobs. I know many who have taken second jobs just to survive and others who lost jobs and couldn’t find another in the same field with the same income. People are slipping from the middle class to the bottom in droves.
Listening to Kamala Harris in her first interview on CNN Thursday night, in a sit-down with Dana Bash, my initial impression was: stop it! She just can’t go big on big—she is no President, though she pretends to be presidential. This interview with Kamala came at a pivotal point in her run for the highest office In the land, as the nation grapples with various crises—from inflation and immigration to wars. The media, in the days leading up to the interview, speculated whether Harris would finally break free from the shadow of Biden and present herself as a strong, independent leader. The Democratic party’s expectations were high; many anticipated that this would be her opportunity to clarify her vision for the country and assert her leadership—but she failed.
That move to add Tim Walz to the interview was bad. It belied the strong, tough, prosecutor persona Democrats have tried to create over the last few months and attempted to solidify at the DNC. It was just a few weeks ago at her rallies that Harris called out Trump, saying, “Say it to my face,” yet she couldn’t even take on Dana Bash alone. If she intended to present herself as strong, she should have left the coach on the bench. Walz had no business on the field. He reminded me of a father in the principal’s office because his daughter was in trouble. It was disturbing to see him sitting there looking down over his shoulder, as Kamala, tried to explain away the failure of what has happened over the last three years.
According to Harris, everything from immigration to the failing economy is Donald Trump’s fault. She claims she’s going to move America forward and create the change America is craving and deserves—without acknowledging her current role and direct impact in the challenges facing our nation. She has nothing to offer except an array of liberation slogans. But everything she said was in step with Biden’s plan for America. Her policies—from climate to immigration to the economy to foreign affairs—will now be known as “Opportunity Economics,” but they represent the same failed Democratic policies that have nearly crippled our nation over the last three-plus years.
As far as the interview goes, it felt uncomfortable—they seemed crowded in the space. Also, Kamala looked a lot older, with bags beneath her eyes, which surprised me considering all the recent debates around age and stamina. She looked tired and small, sitting next to Santa in a blue suit.
Kamala answered no questions. From the start: “What is the first thing you will do if elected President?” her answer—or should I say non-answer—had something to do with hope, change, opportunity, and the middle class. The answer was all mixed together in a bowl and sprinkled with heavy verbiage. Left-leaning pundits, including Bill Maher, had to come to Kamala’s defense and confirmed Dana Bash’s question was stupid. So much for there are no stupid questions. The question may have been stupid and predictable, yet Kamala had no answer.
False Campaign Promises
Child tax credit
Having botched the first question, Harris went on to not explain her plan to extend the child tax care credit to $6,000 per taxpayer for the first year of a child’s life while extending the current tax credit of $3,600 per child tax credit. It’s interesting how her plan offers child tax credits while simultaneously promoting abortions. It’s akin to giving weapons to your ally to defend itself while at the same time feeding their enemy. Notably, JD Vance has said he would support a $5,000 per child tax credit, giving no special preference to the first year of a child’s life. All children matter.
First Time Buyer
Kamala Harris’s homeownership plan, which includes support for first-time and first-generation homebuyers, it reminds me of the Obama administration’s homebuyer tax credit. While Obama’s policy aimed to boost homeownership, it actually contributing to inflated housing prices and market distortions. Harris’s plan risks repeating these same issues. But just for shits and giggles let us consider.
A homebuyer knowing there’s a $25,000 cushion might be inclined to raise the price of their home, potentially inflating home values or creating another housing bubble. Additionally, her proposal doesn’t seem to prioritize the interests of the ADOS middle-class community. To start, in 2021, approximately 82% of first-time homebuyers were White, while only 7% were Black. Among those receiving federal rental assistance, according to HUD, approximately 27% are African American. When considering all housing programs (e.g., USDA, Section 8, Vouchers), 45% of those receiving rental assistance are African American. Many within this community have little hope of acquiring sufficient resources to consider homeownership, while landlords continue to build wealth in the form of equity. White Americans benefit from the credit, while Black Americans, especially Black women, continue to pay landlords. Once again, the Black lower-class community is left behind with little opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.
Instead of giving special benefits to first-time homebuyers or first-generation buyers, how about providing ADOS women who are receiving housing assistance with that $25,000 credit to purchase a home? Additionally, we could use the potential rental assistance the government would have spent over a ten-year span as proceeds to help them buy the same home. This approach would directly benefit those least served in the community—and could be part of a broader reparations solution.
Moreover, by focusing the $25,000 tax credit on first-generation homebuyers, Harris’ policy will effectively exclude my ADOS sons from benefiting. Having struggled to purchase and maintain my home, it now becomes a stumbling block for both my sons, as they won’t qualify for the benefit because I am a homeowner. Meanwhile, every immigrant who comes to America could potentially purchase a home as a first-time, first-generation homebuyer—just as Kamala’s mother benefited—while my mother, a descendant of slaves, former Mississippi sharecropper, lived in Section-8 housing and worked three jobs.
Harris’s plan would use American tax dollars contributed by citizens like myself who have lived here all our lives and have participated in this quest for the American dream.
Border crisis
Harris talks about moving forward without recognizing that sometimes you have to step back to move forward. Having failed to secure the border for the last 3 1/2 years and unable to develop any policy of her own, she has now promised to sign the Senate Republican-led bill, H.R. 29 - Border Safety and Security Act of 2023. The question many are pondering is why haven’t Biden and Harris done anything since January 20, 2021.
Since Biden/Harris stepped into office Immigrants have put a strain on our communities. Individuals are flown, trained, or bused into our neighborhoods use resources meant for our own communities, with no accountability and no contribution. Democrats argue that illegal immigrants are not violent, yet we see police beatdowns in NYC and Chicago, murders in our border cities, an influx of drugs, and child trafficking and a host of individuals that feel as if they can take from the bank having deposit absolutely nothing. Only in America could Palestinians claim to hate this country, while standing on our soil with green cards and begging us for embargo’s. We have watched as immigrants from Caribbean nations have come to this country, manipulated the system, and even took over vacant properties. In recent weeks, there have been numerous news stories about illegal immigrants taking over apartment complexes and school buses. All this is the result of Biden and Harris’s failed immigration policy. Now, Harris wants us to give her a second chance.
What is worse is knowing all these things, the ADOS community is one of her biggest supporters and has backed Democratic policies for decades, even though we have not benefited. The ignorance is surreal—for real.
Flip flop on fracking
If that’s not strange, consider she is for the Green New Deal and fracking—at the same time. I don’t know much about energy, except they don’t seem to go together. She was once against fracking and has been on video saying she doesn’t support it, but now she is all for it. In fact, she criticized Biden for supporting fracking during the 2020 debate in South Carolina, where she performed so poorly she dropped out of the 2020 Presidential race. But now, she claims to be in support of fracking without having increased her knowledge on the topic.
The Harris administration, as part of the broader Biden-Harris agenda, has significantly shifted U.S. energy policy towards clean energy, leading to cuts in support for fossil fuels. The Biden/Harris Administration reduced new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, cut subsidies for fossil fuel companies, enforced stricter regulations on coal plants, and redirected federal funding from traditional energy projects to renewable energy initiatives. All these changes have sparked debate over potential impacts on energy costs and independence.
Let’s be clear: my electric and gas bills have tripled, and this is a direct result of Biden/Harris policies. This year alone, I’ve spoken to countless people who have had their electricity turned off and, like me, struggle to pay the electric and gas bills. It’s a real issue, caused by Biden and Harris’s rush to embrace clean energy while China drills a hole in the earth’s crust. It’s maddening, and the people sitting at home in the dark, scrounging for groceries and rent money, or banding together to hold things down, are suffering the most—yet they are the main ones who will vote Democrats into office.
Plan for Inflation
Harris doubled down on her plan to go after corporations that practice price gouging in an attempt to reduce inflation. It’s an inflated hoax. She wants America to believe that her “Opportunity Economics” is different from Bidenomics by telling you nothing different. But every word salad she used included aspects of current Democratic policies. She merely rebranded the same Democratic policies with a corney name. What does “Opportunity Economics” even mean.
In an attempt to define her policy, she tossed together a mix of ideas that expand social safety nets, increase government intervention in the economy, and focus on climate change initiatives. While these are well-intentioned goals, the problem isn’t the need for opportunity but the failure to create a sustainable pathway for the middle class and poor communities to grow.
All the other talk about lowering prescription medications for seniors so they are paying only $2,000 a year. My thought is, how about not giving our resources to other countries and providing free prescriptions for American seniors? And her lie that their administration cut poverty by 50% while excluding 2021. What she doesn’t mention is poverty is now up 12% when it was only 9% under Trump.
LEFT OUT
She offered nothing to help middle-class Americans that already own their homes and have been around long enough to remember how we had to tighten the reins to save the housing crisis, and how we had to buckle down during COVID and the manufacturing crises, and how things seemed to be improving—we were headed in the right direction and then came Biden/Harris.
Absent from her conversation was any mention of the ADOS community. But when asked about her race, she refused to answer that question—who are you. She declined to speak on her lineage and pretended what Trump had done by questioning her race was outlandish—when the ADOS community have been asking that same question since she came on the scene. Her refusal to admit who she is speaks to her character—she would rather you believe a lie than reveal the truth that she is NOT Black, i.e., in the words of Glenn Loury, “she does not share the African American historical heritage.” She could have ended the conversation by admitting the truth—but instead, she just blamed Trump.
She has run around calling herself African American for decades. She went on the Breakfast Club during her previous run, and called herself an African American who smoked weed and listens to Snoop. But when asked before the entire nation, she refused to make that proclamation and speak her truth. Kamala is not a descendant of a slave—her family owned slaves.
This dissonance between her public persona and her personal background raises questions about her authenticity and her commitment to addressing the unique challenges faced by the ADOS community.
Coach
Now, I would be remiss if I left out the elephant in the room, Tim Walz. All I can say is, wow. Like Harris, he used the same strategy—redirecting every question back to Donald Trump and JD Vance. Walz has lied about his military record, point-blank. One would think that a man in line for Vice President, who has already been caught in one lie, wouldn’t tell another lie on stage at the DNC and get busted again. He claimed his child was conceived through IVF, but it turned out that wasn’t true. It was some other form of fertility treatment—though they never specified what form. Seeing a VP candidate cover up something he didn’t have to lie about speaks to his character. It aligns with his record as a leader, like sitting back and watching as Minnesota burned. His wife even boasted that, as the city burned, she opened the window to smell the scent of the tires.
This man had a DUI while he was a teacher, lied about his military service, and lied to the American people about reproductive rights to evoke emotions from the crowd. He’s like a fat, greasy preacher who pretends to do good while stealing your vote with a bright coach smile.
What became clear to me last week is, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are weak, lying leaders trying to masquerade as strong leaders. They fail to address the real issues facing middle-class Americans, particularly American Blacks. Instead, they offer recycled policies, empty rhetoric, and a refusal to confront the truth about their own records. They speak of progress and moving forward, but all I see is a return to the same failed policies that have brought us to this point.
As a member of the middle class, I am not convinced. I’m tired of the lies, the avoidance, and the lack of accountability. We deserve leaders who will genuinely fight for our interests, not ones who merely pretend to understand our struggles while continuing to push the same old agenda. Perhaps that person is not Trump—maybe we get Trump and redirect in 2028. But the time for change is right now, and that means voting the current Democratic Party out of office.
