“The benevolent liberal capitalism of Kamala Harris, blind to differences, is opposed in every way to that which is embodied and defended by Donald Trump”

“I am a capitalist. » It was with this profession of faith, to say the least unexpected, that Kamala Harris presented herself before the economic circles of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) on September 25, revealing in the same breath her project for the country: an economy “opportunities”where everyone can “enter the competition”and middle-class capitalism regulated just enough.

During the debate against her opponent Donald Trump, Kamala Harris took advantage of the approval of the bank Goldman Sachs, and she subsequently detailed her approach “pragmatic” : tax credits for families as a social policy, a moderate increase in the tax rate on businesses, the continuation of hydraulic fracturing to ensure the low cost of energy and tax support for young entrepreneurs.

Of course, the Democratic candidate intends to counter the caricatures of her opponent, who portray her as a Bolshevik, but this reaffirmation of the virtues of capitalism is also her essential proposition. While economic vulnerability is the primary concern of voters who, in the countryside and the cities, on campuses and in churches, express a deep feeling of alienation, Kamala Harris proposes to resuscitate the liberal and measured capitalism which would have made the glory of the American middle class in history.

A commonplace in national discourse, this belief in capitalism which would be the unsurpassable horizon of the United States draws from the sources of liberal thought: The Wealth of Nationsa master work by Adam Smith (1723-1790) published in the year of the independence of the United States (1776), is the intertext of this messianic vision of capital which brings men and nations together, liberates from shortage, ensures the freedom of individuals and even protects against injustice and arbitrariness.

A woman, black and Asian who says nothing about it, Kamala Harris thus proposes a post-racial capitalism, without class struggle, where prosperity is shared between citizens equitably equipped in the face of ” opportunities “ of the market. The same nostalgia for capitalism “original” and lost thus strangely brings the two candidates together.

Market fundamentalists

The benevolent liberal capitalism, blind to the differences of Kamala Harris, is however in every way opposed to that which is embodied and defended by Donald Trump. Real estate developer and tech investor, the far-right billionaire ardently defends capital accumulation and frantic economic growth. Heterodox perhaps, its industrial protectionism is in reality only a tool in the service of productivism and is in no way accompanied by a questioning of financial globalization, infinitely more important for the American and world economy. .

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