In the heated run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris has increasingly focused her campaign rhetoric on portraying former President Donald Trump as an existential threat to American democracy. Her warnings, particularly regarding Trump's recent comments about eliminating the "enemy within," have struck a chord with many voters concerned about the potential for authoritarian overreach. However, this narrative, while addressing a genuine concern, risks oversimplifying the complex realities of the American political system and its relationship with capitalism.
Trump's portrayal of those who oppose him as enemies of the state aligns with a global trend of populist leaders leveraging such rhetoric to consolidate power. From Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, populist leaders have employed similar narratives to justify authoritarian policies that weaken democratic institutions, muzzle the press, and erode civil liberties. Harris is positioning herself as a staunch defender of the rule of law and democratic norms in this broader context. She frames Trump’s potential resurgence as an existential threat to American democracy and underscores the importance of resisting the erosion of democratic principles that have, thus far, defined the U.S. political system.
Yet, while Harris is right to sound the alarm on the dangers of authoritarianism, her narrative risks oversimplifying the complex relationship between democracy, inequality, and power in the United States. By focusing solely on Trump’s authoritarian threat, Harris potentially reinforces a narrow conception of American democracy that ignores deeper, structural forces. Specifically, it neglects how the capitalist underpinnings of the U.S. political and economic system have long facilitated the marginalization and criminalization of vulnerable populations—particularly poor and working-class communities—through neoliberal policies that commodify punishment.
The Authoritarian Specter: Trump's Rhetoric and Harris's Response
Trump's recent statement on Fox News that "the enemy from within... is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries" has sparked widespread alarm. Harris, seizing on these comments, has positioned herself as a defender of democratic norms against what she describes as Trump's "unstable and unhinged" pursuit of "unchecked power."
At a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Harris played a recording of Trump's comments, telling the crowd, "A second Trump term would be a huge risk for America." This framing of the election as a battle for the soul of American democracy has become a central theme of Harris's campaign.
The vice president's focus on Trump's authoritarian tendencies is not without merit. Trump's presidency was marked by numerous challenges to democratic norms, from attempts to overturn the 2020 election results to his handling of the January 6th insurrection. His recent comments about the "enemy within" echo authoritarian rhetoric used by leaders who seek to consolidate power by demonizing opposition.
The real challenge to U.S. democracy lies not just in resisting populist leaders, but in addressing the structural inequalities that render large segments of the population politically and economically disposable.
Harris's running mate, Tim Walz, has gone even further, suggesting that Trump's musings about using the military against domestic foes was unAmerican, proclaiming at a recent rally “He crossed a line that, I have to tell you, in my lifetime, I would have never imagined because we know our history.” This escalation in rhetoric reflects the Democratic campaign's strategy to paint Trump not just as a political opponent, but as a fundamental threat to the American system of government.
However, while the threat posed by Trump's rhetoric is real and concerning, the narrative put forward by Harris risks reinforcing a simplistic view of American democracy that overlooks deeper, systemic issues. It also raises questions about the role of fear in political discourse and the potential consequences of portraying political opponents as existential threats.
The Creation of "Disposable" Populations
While Trump’s rhetoric undeniably carries authoritarian overtones, the existence of an “enemy within” is not solely a product of populist demagoguery. It is, in fact, a feature that has long been ingrained in the U.S. capitalist system. Underlying the fabric of American democracy is a system that routinely designates certain populations as “disposable” for the sake of profit and control. These populations—often defined by race, class, and immigration status—are rendered politically and economically expendable, targeted by punitive systems that feed into the broader machinery of profit-driven incarceration and surveillance.
The prison-industrial complex in the U.S. is one of the clearest manifestations of how capitalism creates and profits off a constructed “enemy within.” The United States, with only 4% of the world’s population, houses nearly 20% of the world’s prison population. The private prison industry, coupled with the massive expansion of surveillance technologies and for-profit rehabilitation services, has transformed incarceration into a multi-billion-dollar industry. This system is deeply racialized and class-based: people of color and economically marginalized groups are disproportionately represented in the incarcerated population, while wealthier individuals are more likely to escape punitive measures altogether.
Kamala Harris, in her previous role as a prosecutor and later as California’s Attorney General, was often seen as part of this very system. Though she has since positioned herself as a reformer, Harris was, during her tenure, known for supporting “smart on crime” and “tough on crime” policies that contributed to the growth of mass incarceration. Her decisions not to pursue wrongful conviction cases, or to defend the use of cash bail, played a role in perpetuating a system that disproportionately punished marginalized communities under the guise of public safety.
This complicity points to a broader political dynamic that extends beyond partisanship. Both Democrats and Republicans have, over the years, embraced punitive policies to address social inequality, often framing criminal justice as a mechanism for maintaining law and order, rather than acknowledging the systemic inequalities that drive crime in the first place. This bipartisan embrace of "tough on crime" policies is symptomatic of neoliberal governance, which responds to social problems with punishment rather than investment in communities. The focus on crime control serves to obscure the deeper economic and racial inequalities embedded in American capitalism, allowing political leaders to position themselves as defenders of public safety while neglecting the underlying social conditions that create cycles of poverty and criminalization.
The Myth of U.S. Democracy and Capitalist Authoritarianism
Kamala Harris’ warnings about Trump’s authoritarianism rest on an implicit assumption: that the U.S. is, at its core, a liberal democracy under threat from an aberrant figure. However, this narrative reinforces a myth about American democracy that ignores the capitalist mechanisms that have always shaped the country’s political system. The danger of framing Trump as a singular threat to democracy is that it obscures the extent to which capitalist democracy itself has always been exclusionary, privileging certain groups while marginalizing others.
The U.S. has long upheld the notion of democracy alongside policies that systematically disenfranchise the poor, the racially marginalized, and the working class. Voting restrictions, gerrymandering, and the overwhelming influence of money in politics have all functioned to limit true democratic participation. At the same time, economic inequality continues to deepen, with a small percentage of wealthy individuals and corporations exerting disproportionate influence over political decision-making. This capitalist framework creates the conditions for authoritarianism, even within a supposedly democratic system, by concentrating power in the hands of a few while rendering large swaths of the population politically and economically invisible.
[A] capitalist framework creates the conditions for authoritarianism, even within a supposedly democratic system, by concentrating power in the hands of a few while rendering large swaths of the population politically and economically invisible.
Trump’s populist authoritarianism thrives on these very contradictions within American democracy. His rhetoric about eliminating the “enemy within” speaks to a broader fear among many Americans that their interests are being ignored by political elites. However, what Trump capitalizes on is not a departure from American norms, but rather an intensification of a process that has been in motion for decades. The designation of certain populations—immigrants, the poor, people of color—as enemies of the state has long been part of the U.S. political landscape. This is not solely the product of Trump’s authoritarianism, but of a system that treats marginalized groups as expendable in order to maintain the political and economic status quo.
Harris, by focusing on the authoritarian threat posed by Trump, risks reinforcing the notion that American democracy is fundamentally democratic and that the primary danger lies in external forces like Trump or populist movements. This analysis, however, overlooks the ways in which capitalism itself breeds forms of authoritarianism that target the most vulnerable populations, regardless of who is in power. The bipartisan embrace of neoliberal policies has resulted in the mass incarceration of millions, the erosion of labor rights, and the deepening of economic inequality—all of which contribute to the creation of a political system where large segments of the population are disenfranchised and left vulnerable to state violence.
Moreover, the private prison industry, which profits from the criminalization and incarceration of these populations, exemplifies how capitalism and authoritarian practices are interwoven. The commodification of punishment, surveillance, and rehabilitation has created a system where justice is not about accountability or rehabilitation, but about profit. This is the essence of capitalist authoritarianism: a system in which marginalized populations are rendered disposable for the sake of economic gain, while the rhetoric of democracy is used to justify these actions.
The U.S. political system, underpinned by neoliberal capitalism, has long designated certain populations as “enemies within”—those who are economically, racially, and socially marginalized. The private prison industry, the mass surveillance apparatus, and the commodification of punishment are all products of a capitalist system that thrives on the creation of “disposable” populations. Harris’ own history as a prosecutor highlights the complicity of centrist politicians in this process, as “smart on crime” and “tough on crime” policies have perpetuated the cycle of inequality and incarceration.
The real challenge to U.S. democracy lies not just in resisting populist leaders, but in addressing the structural inequalities that render large segments of the population politically and economically disposable. Without a reckoning with these deeper forces, warnings about authoritarianism will continue to ring hollow, while the underlying system of exclusion and inequality remains intact.
