Harris Must Overcome Voter “Trumpnesia” to Win in November

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Kamala Harris offers a fresh start for Democrats, but to win she will still need to overcome the Trumpnesia that is affecting many voters.

What is Trumpnesia? Apparently, it is a kind of metaphorical mood disorder in which many voters forget just how terrible Trump was as president and how much they disliked him in the White House.

Trumpnesia appears to particularly affect independents who voted for Biden but now seem to remember Trump during the “good old days” before he mishandled the pandemic. Oddly they also seem to blame Biden for the mess Trump left behind, instead of crediting Biden for cleaning it up.

Soon Vice President Harris will set out her vision for how the future of America could be different and better. In doing so, Harris will not have the headwinds on age that Joe Biden had, especially since Trump is now the oldest candidate ever nominated for president. Unfortunately, she is likely to face other headwinds because of her gender and race.

But until then, one of the possible cures for Trumpnesia may be to review the many accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration compared to what it was like on January 20, 2021, at the end of Trump’s term:

• Minus 28 points — This was Trump’s net disapproval rating at this end of his presidency. It was the lowest mark of any president in 70 years except for Richard Nixon. Even Biden’s last Gallup rating was eight points higher than that.
• Over 3,000 people dying a day from Covid with a total death toll of nearly 450,000 — It bears recalling just how badly Trump responded to the Covid pandemic. At first he denied it was serious and then failed to take vigorous actions to counter it. Even after his administration developed an effective vaccine for the virus, Trump never put a national plan in place for its distribution.
• Unemployment rate of 6.3% and a loss of 2.9 million jobs — When Trump took office the unemployment rate was 4.7%. By the time he left, his bungled response to the Covid pandemic had contributed to zooming job losses and a plummeting stock market. Inventory shortages and supply chain disruptions were also growing, helping to create the conditions for future inflation.
• The January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol — According to a bipartisan Congressional investigation, Trump helped provoke the violent attack that threatened the certification of the election by Congress just weeks before the end of his term. Due to delays in the court system by conservative judges, we may never know the full extent of his role.

With these reminders, it would be helpful to go in-depth comparing these two administrations on a set of critical issues.

(1) Pandemic Response

(2) Economic Recovery

(3) Reproductive Rights

(4) Immigration Reform and International Security

(5) Defending Democracy and Voting Rights

COVID PANDEMIC AND ECONOMY RECOVERY: AN OVERVIEW

When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office, the Covid pandemic was running out of control. About 450,000 Americans had died, and the weekly death rate was nearly 24,000 a week. This health crisis under Trump was accompanied by an economic one. The U.S. unemployment rate soared and international supply chains were disrupted, eventually contributing to spiking inflation and declining real wages.

The success of the Biden-Harris administration’s ambitious economic plans can be seen in the results.

• From the end of the Trump administration in January 2021 to June 2024, total employment in the U.S. economy increased by 15.7 million jobs, which is 6.6 million jobs more than the peak under Trump. Nearly a million of them have been manufacturing jobs as promised.
• In fact, last year the unemployment rate hit a lower percentage point (3.4%) than at any time under Trump, and this year the stock market hit a new all-time high.
• Although more needs to be done, the Biden-Harris administration continues to focus on bringing down prices and interest rates, with the result that inflation has declined, real wages gone up at times faster than under Trump, and consumer sentiment risen some surveys say.
• Partisan critics of the Biden-Harris administration have claimed that its budget policies were the main cause of U.S. inflation. This is empirically false. First, the Trump administration added much more to the national debt than did this administration. Second, if the U.S. deficit had been the cause, then inflation would have been largely confined to the U.S., but it was a global phenomenon related first to Covid and then international conflicts. In fact, in America inflation has come down and production gone up much faster than in other industrialized countries, making America the economic envy of the world.

(1) PANDEMIC RESPONSE

Biden-Harris Administration’s Actions on Covid were Rapid and Successful —

• Immediately upon taking office, the Biden-Harris administration unveiled a multi-faceted plan to combat Covid, sending Congress a $1.9 trillion proposal to finance it (The America Rescue Plan). At the same time, the president issued a series of executive orders facilitating testing, promoting preventive measures, seeking to vaccinate 100 million Americans, making better treatment available, and keeping small businesses afloat while safely reopening K-8 schools.
• Later the Biden-Harris administration would stay on top of the pandemic by updating executive actions as the pandemic and economic situation evolved, including countering the emergence of different variants of Covid.
• By September of 2022, the administration declared the pandemic phase of Covid to be over, with a weekly death rate that had plummeted by more than 90%.

Trump’s Response to Covid was Tragically Inadequate and Made it Worse —

• Throughout the pandemic Trump played down the danger from Covid. He hesitated to fully use authorities available to him such as the Defense Production Act and failed to promote effectively the use of the vaccine developed by his own administration, even among his own supporters.
• One scientific assessment grimly estimated that about 40% of the deaths in the first year of the pandemic could have been avoided if Trump had simply employed public health measures used by European countries. In fact, under Trump the U.S. had 20% of the world’s Covid deaths with only 4% of its population.
• Furthermore, another independent study revealed that Trump himself was the biggest single source of pandemic misinformation circulating in traditional and online media, including purporting a variety of baseless conspiracy theories and false remedies.

(2) ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Phase 1 — American Rescue Act (signed March 11, 2021)

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act was an early Biden-Harris administration package to blunt the economic effects of Covid, while channeling even more resources into the administration’s efforts to reduce its spread. Although the administration built on the foundation of the CARES act and other budget bills passed in 2020, more was needed to quell the full effects of the pandemic.

• Important provisions included extending unemployment benefits, providing stimulus checks directly to individuals, expanding the child tax credit, providing grants to small businesses, assisting state and local government pandemic programs, funding testing and vaccine distribution, and aiding health care centers and workers.
• Republicans in Congress opposed the American Rescue Act on a party-line vote, saying it cost too much. Fortunately, Vice President Harris was able to save it in the Senate with a tie-breaking vote. Since then, many experts have concluded it was probably just the right amount of stimulus to keep the economy going while the Federal Reserve brought down inflation without a recession.

Phase 2 — Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation (signed November 2021)

For years politicians of both parties have recognized the dire need for the U.S. to invest the necessary resources to rebuild its crumbling transportation and energy infrastructure. However, it was the Biden-Harris administration that finally got the job done — and with significant bipartisan support.

Biden-Harris Came Through with the Investments —

• The infrastructure bill contained $1.2 trillion in critical infrastructure investment, about $550 billion above current levels. This investment is expected to yield major economic returns in a vast number of sectors including transportation, the energy grid, broadband networks, and clean water plants.
• In just two years after enactment of the program it had already provided nearly $400 billion for over 40,000 projects across 4,500 communities in all 50 states and D.C.

Trump Failed to Deliver —

• The Trump administration claimed they were interested in passing infrastructure legislation so often that the idea of “infrastructures week” became a standing joke. His failure to close a deal underscores the incompetency of Trump’s tenure and his misguided priorities.
• Meanwhile, the package has been so popular that now even Republicans who voted against the bill are falling over themselves to take credit for projects in their district or state.

Phase 3 — Inflation Reduction Act (August 16, 2022) —

After addressing the pandemic and the immediate economic crisis left behind by Trump, the Biden-Harris administration looked ahead to making other basic needs more affordable in the future. The resulting legislation — The Inflation Reduction Act — focused on reducing the cost of health care while making it more accessible, reducing the costs of energy while making it cleaner, and offering friendlier service by the IRS to taxpayers while cracking down on tax cheats. Once again Harris had to save this legislation in the Senate by casting a tie-breaking vote.

The Biden-Harris Blueprint Reduces Health Care and Clean Energy Costs for Americans —

• The IRA will bring down the price of drugs by empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices, capping out-of-pocket drug prices and the price of insulin, and expanding Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidies saving the average enrollee $800 a year on premiums.
• The IRA also cuts carbon pollution in 2030 by 40% compared to its peak, while helping consumers switch to cleaner fuels for electricity and transportation, saving households as much as $500 a year. It could create as many as 1.5 million additional jobs in the clean energy sector.
• Furthermore, the IRA gives much needed resources to the IRS so that it can provide better customer assistance to taxpayers while targeting wealthy tax cheaters who are not paying their fair share of taxes. Finally, it will make the corporate tax system fairer with a 15% minimum tax rate for billion-dollar corporations.

Trump’s Economic Plan Enriches the Rich at the Expense of Hard-Working Americans —

• While Trump was president, he passed a massive, deficit-fueling $1.7 trillion tax cut that handed its benefits mainly to wealthy taxpayers and corporations.
• He tried to eliminate the Affordable Care Act without offering an alternative. This would have been especially disastrous for millions of Americans during the pandemic. Now he is promising to repeal the ACA again if reelected.
• Trump has called climate change a hoax and weakened or eliminated more than 100 environmental protections while president. If returned to the White House, he has already promised to make himself a dictator on the first day so he can drill, drill, drill fossil fuels.

(3) REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTIVES

For nearly 50 years, women had a recognized constitutional right to control their reproductive decisions until it was taken away by a conservative majority on the Supreme Court with the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Biden-Harris Fought for Women’s Reproductive Rights —

• In response to the Supreme Court decision, Vice President Harris sought to mobilize the American people in support of the protections contained in the Roe v. Wade precedent as the Biden-Harris administration immediately called on Congress to restore them.
• Not stopping there, Biden and Harris worked on a series of executive orders protecting aspects of reproductive rights by making abortion medication available to individuals, shielding the privacy of patients from government intrusion, and ensuring safety of abortion providers from threats of violence.

Trump is Leading the Charge to Take Away Reproductive Rights —

• By contrast Trump has bragged that he was responsible for taking away these reproductive rights through his Supreme Court appointments.
• Lately he has generally supported state bans on reproductive rights while claiming the issue should be left to individual states. But he can nonetheless be expected to sign a federal ban into law if a Republican Congress passes one.
• Few issues continue to compete in importance with the threat Trump poses to individual liberties than his continued appointment of extreme judges to the judiciary and Supreme Court.

(4) IMMIGRATON REFORM AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

President Biden has advocated immigration reform throughout his term and tapped Harris to help him fashion policies to address the issue. While their opponents have criticized the administration for not doing more, the record actually shows it is Republicans in Congress that have failed to act, while the Biden-Harris team have taken executive actions where feasible.

Biden and Harris Have Long Sought Much Needed Reforms on Immigration —

• On his first day in office President Biden sent reform legislation to Congress that combined border security with a pathway to citizenship, visa modernization, and an expanded asylum policy.
• After years of inaction, the Senate finally agreed this year to a major bipartisan proposal which the Biden-Harris administration urged Congress to pass. However, House Republicans blocked this bill at the request of Trump for purely political reasons.
• In response to this Republican failure, the Biden-Harris administration is implementing a change in asylum law that has already resulted in a 29% drop in border crossings, the lowest level of the Biden-Harris administration. At the same time, they have balanced the stringency of these asylum restrictions with a humane reform that permits individuals who are not U.S. citizens, but are married to one, to remain in the country.
• Meanwhile on another international security issue, the Biden-Harris team was able to work with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to eventually provide $95 billion in military assistance to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. The aid package was dangerously held up for a while by Congressional Republicans for partisan reasons, including a lack of support by Trump for defending Ukraine.

Trump Pursues a Cruel, Ineffectual and Discriminatory Immigration Policy —

• As president Trump was never able to pass immigration reform legislation. Instead, he used the immigration issue to denigrate Mexicans (“criminals, drug dealers, rapists”) and Middle Easterners (the Muslim travel ban), while adopting oppressive measures such as family separation where “cruelty is the point”.
• In fact, the symbolic centerpiece of Trump’s border policy became the border wall, which cost billions of dollars, proved to be largely wasteful and ineffectual even according to the Cato Institute.
• Now his proposals for a second term promises to not only restore many of the harshest policies of the past, but also mass deportations and an end to birthright citizenship.

(5) DEFENDING DEMOCRACY AND VOTING RIGHTS

Voting rights have significantly eroded since sweeping GOP election victories at the state level in 2010 and the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision of 2013. The Shelby County decision gutted oversight by the Department of Justice in states with a history of voter suppression. Not surprisingly, these laws have had a disproportionate effect on voting turnout by minorities.

The Biden-Harris Administration Has Made Protecting Democracy a Priority —

• The president launched an initiative to promote democracy at home and abroad in his first year in office, even convening an international summit on the topic. Biden also asked Vice President Harris to lead domestic administration efforts on the issue.
• In January 2023, Biden signed into law the Electoral Count Reform Act which safeguards the counting of votes in the Electoral College. The Biden-Harris administration also endorsed other major legislative proposals to protect voting rights — The Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — which have been blocked by Republican filibusters.
• The Biden-Harris administration also has taken a variety of executive actions to promote democracy prioritizing enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, having federal agencies facilitate voter registration, challenging extreme gerrymandering, protecting election workers against the threat of violence, and fighting discriminatory practices.

Trump Supercharged Political Efforts to Undermine Democracy —

• Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats has had a corrosive effect on America institutions and culture by increasing distrust in the political system, bitter partisan polarization, and even an apparent tolerance for violence to advance political ends.
• Moreover, Republicans in states controlled by the GOP have used Trump’s false claim to pass an additional round of restrictive voting laws. There is also a growing fear that government officials may refuse to certify elections results unless they are favorable to Trump.
• Restrictive measures adopted by 29 states since 2013 (including in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin) have included unnecessary voter ID laws and other measures making it harder to register to vote, to stay registered to vote, or to cast your vote — all without a proven increase in the integrity of the election results.

CONCLUSION

According to a recent survey of experts on the presidency, Joe Biden ranked 14th on the list of best presidents ever while Donald Trump placed dead last. And no wonder.

President Joe Biden successfully steered the country through a turbulent period by enacting a raft of bills to fight a deadly pandemic, reinvigorating the U.S. economy, and restoring U.S. international leadership, while fighting to protect democracy and individual rights at home. And when it was time to make way for a new generation of leadership, he stepped aside for his highly qualified Vice President, Kamala Harris.

This stands in contrast to Trump, who during his presidency sought to divide the country through polarization and rancor, enrich himself at the expense of regular Americans, and subvert democracy to keep himself in power. And since leaving office he has not done any better by continuing to spread lies about the 2020 elections results and being judged by the courts to be a felon, a business fraud, and a sex offender.

So let’s dispel the fog of Trumpnesia once and for all. It will help us to remember in November that this should be a clear choice.