Bringing an economist’s lens to bear clarifies the issue. First, an essential part of freedom is the freedom to do and to act — to live up to one’s potential. People living hand to mouth or on the edge of starvation have no real freedom; they do what they must to survive.
Kamala Harris has made freedom a central theme of her campaign. Under the heading “Safeguard our fundamental freedoms”, her website explains, “Vice-President Harris’s fight for our future is also a fight for freedom. In this election, many fundamental freedoms are at stake: the freedom to make your own decisions about your own body without government interference, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride, and the freedom that unlocks all the others: the freedom to vote.”
This messaging is welcome. It is high time that American progressives reclaim the freedom agenda from libertarians and the right, especially now that the right represents the exact opposite. While many on the right drape themselves in the flag, progressives are advancing an all-American freedom agenda.
