A quick follow-up to some recent diaries about how the Democrats' return to high-quality, well-assembled FDR-style economic populism is extremely popular – even among MAGA voters – but it's worth repeating and emphasizing how much of a sea change this represents for Democrats across the country, with huge opportunities for success for lower-tier voters. As we mentioned in one of these diaries, Harris' economic plan is gaining respect even among many conservatives by really addressing things that have angered even voters who have been voting MAGA since 2016. Especially deep resentment towards large corporations and Wall Street (Companies like Invitation Homes, Blackstone and even Zillow are particularly notorious) Buying up single-family homes and increasing rentsto make it impossible for even well-paid professionals to afford a home and drive up rents. Or using the RealPage algorithm for illegal collusion and even worse rent increases in the middle of a housing bubble, or all this corporate price gouging in general.
This is a home run problem for usan important differentiator for voters between Democrats and Republicans on an issue that is high on voters' priorities, where the GOP's stance and obstructionism are deeply unpopular across all voting blocs. In other words: There is a clear difference between the Democratic and Republican officials, like night and day: The Republicans are proving themselves to be corrupt and completely bought off by these corrupt, widely hated and exploitative corporations, while the Democrats are clearly and unambiguously standing up for the 99 percent of Americans who want to end price gouging and bring home prices back to affordable levels by preventing large corporations, private equity, profit-hungry hedge funds and huge foreign investors from buying up single-family homes. The Harris/Walz plan makes it clear that housing is a basic need of the population and not something to be bought up, overinvested in, and sold at high prices by big corporations and Wall Street. And Democrats have introduced bills in Congress to make this happen, which Republicans are predictably blocking.
To put it simply: The Democrats’ position is extremely popular with voters across America on one of the key issues that decides their votes if they are undecided – popular even though many wear MAGA caps– while the Republican position of bailing out these corrupt, profit-driven corporations and plutocrats on such basic issues as housing is extremely unpopular. even among the Republican base. Republicans in Congress are openly blocking one of the most popular bills on one of the most important and electorally decisive issues for American voters, while Trump and Vance, of course, remain silent, as they too are being bribed and in the pocket of these corrupt interests. And the GOP is desperately hoping that the Democrats will muddle our messaging on this issue, lose focus, and bury our messaging, positions, and policies on this issue – where we have such a huge advantage and Republicans have such a huge disadvantage – to the point that voters simply don't realize how fundamentally clear it is that the Democrats really Are the party of the people, and the Republicans are truly the corrupt traitors that they are, in the clutches of some of the most hated and unpopular corporate interests in the country. The Republicans are frighteningly vulnerable on this issue, and their only hope is that we will be distracted. But we cannot.
We must make Republicans pay dearly for this corrupt policy and obstruction on the fundamental issue of housing availability in our embassies.. This is one of those advantages that is so one-sided for us that we need to exploit it and use every advantage we can get to bolster our candidates in all the campaigns across the country and unleash it directly on Republicans at every opportunity to inflict as much pain and damage on them as possible. Incorporate this into your ads and your GOTV vote canvassing of how Democrats and only Democrats have introduced and supported bills in Congress to stop hedge funds, private equity firms and foreign investors from buying up scarce and desperately needed single-family housing inventory. Remind voters how Democrats and only Democrats are cracking down on RealPage and the corrupt, price-gouging landlords who are using this algorithm to collude and drive up rent prices, putting more Americans into homelessness and financial hardship.
This should also be a priority for Democrats at the state and local level and, where possible, on referendums. Unlike some policies and positions on housing, which can be difficult and controversial (especially the tough debates over zoning codes, where we must be cautious), we have incredibly broad support here. Democrats, Republicans and independents almost universally agree that housing should be for the American people to buy, not for corporations and foreign investors to hoard and charge exorbitant rents for.
At campaign rallies, we talk a lot about focusing on issues that can cripple the GOP in swing states, but this is about the real, genuine thing – one that exposes them for what they are. For all their claims to now be a party of the working class and union voters, the GOP's embrace of mass purchases of single-family homes by corporations, private equity and foreign investors shows its true face and how the Republican Party is the archenemy of the American people and their most basic economic interests in such a fundamental issue. This is such an important issue, particularly for first-time home buyers and for many baby boomers now trying to downsize but facing the headwinds of the housing shortage and speculative bubbles, that it is basically the defining issue for them. And the fact that Republican officials have so blatantly betrayed them and allowed such scarce housing to be bought up by corporations and foreign investors is a cause for almost universal anger. It is definitely something that should be at the top of the Democrats' congressional agenda and at the top of our media and advertising.
Like women's right to decide about their own bodies, this is a huge difference-maker, the kind of issue that can move swing states like North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Arizona and Nevada from purple state status to the Democrat column (and could potentially even make South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Montana, Alaska and Iowa competitive). These house-hoarding corporations are really The unpopular and deeply hated even by MAGA Republicans – it is one of the The most important questions it happens all the time, even on Gab and TruthSocial in the feeds of our MAGA relatives (and before that, and probably again soon, on Parler)—and even conservative media outlets like Breitbart, the Washington Times, Fox News, and National Review are reporting on how “the swamp” has enabled these corrupt interests to prey on the housing market at the expense of Americans. Trump has managed to channel this anger in the wrong direction. Instead, we need to channel it where it belongs—at the traitorous GOP that is blocking Democrats’ efforts to reform this, to stop these corrupt interests from buying up housing, and demand that they release this critical housing stock. Let’s make this a central part of our messaging and our ground campaign, hit the GOP where it hurts, and hit them every day, every hour that we can!
