Tanya Vyhovsky says Trump can be beaten but Harris has to go out and meet the people.
What would be the impact of a Trump victory on support for Ukraine?
It would be catastrophic. I wouldn’t be shocked if he started backing Russia. We never quite know what’s true or not true with Trump. We have to take it as a serious threat. Anything is on. His previous record is he tried to extort President Zelensky. So he has not got a track record of being on the right side of the conflict.
Should Ukraine be free to use US supplied weapons inside Russia?
Generally speaking I’m pro-peace but the lines have shifted. If Crimea is Ukraine’s not Russian they have to take it back. They have every right to fight for sovereignty and take back their land. If it means they have to attack across borders then yes, it has to be on the table.
What’s behind the shift in support for Harris and can it be sustained?
More people are becoming aware of the Trump threat to our democracy and to our rights, especially those from marginalised communities who have fought hard for and sometimes died for those rights. She may not have been first choice, indeed many may not even like her, but she has injected energy into the campaign that was lacking for Jo Biden. There has been a huge outpouring of support for Harris here in Vermont from Democrats and progressives. They recognise that as in France we have to unite against Trump or we are not going to have a democracy worth fighting for.
I don’t think people took seriously the Trump threat last time around. I spoke to large numbers before election night saying they thought there is no way he could win. I took a different view that Trump was going to win, even months before. Now we know he can win people are taking the threat much more seriously.
Will Trump accept the result if he loses? Unlikely. We know he hasn’t in the past.
Its hard to know what the danger is. I would not have expected what happened on Jan 6th 2022. I was stunned and horrified. He has taken things to such extremes; we have to prepare for anything.
What programme is Harris likely to fight on?
She already running a different campaign from Biden: organising more events, drawing more crowds. That’s all good. That’s what it takes to win hard elections-grass roots organising. In terms of administration she has a good voting record in the Senate so I hope she recognises that she needs to lean in to the needs of the most vulnerable Americans so we have a living wage and affordable housing. My hope would be to see her invest more in the people. I’m not holding my breath for this but I hope she leans away from corporate politics and towards grassroots and real people politics.
Will she take a more progressive view on the Gaza war, calling for an end to arms sales to Israel and accepting rulings of the ICC that genocide is happening?
No. She has a history of being a pro-Zionist politician. She has said some pretty horrific things on the campaign trail. When the announcement was first made Netanyahu was in Washington DC. There was a protest that day I took part in. I did hope she might take a different stance. I now believe it’s unlikely. I’m equally cynical on a change in her view on ICC rulings.
Can Harris win in the rustbelt and what does she need to do to win?
She needs to show up and tell people in those areas what she is going to do for them. Bernie Saunders wins in those places and has widespread support because he shows up to people who can’t afford to put food on the table. She needs to come up with policies that will enable people to put more food on the table.
We do know progressive candidates can win in these states. Biden has helped by going on picket lines.
What should be, and what is, her position on the border and migrant rights?
Her position on border and migrant rights has not been clearly laid out. What’s happening on our border is inhumane and has absolutely got to change. When Trump was President we had virtual concentration camps on our borders and everyone was up in arms. Biden did not make that go away. Harris has to.
Recently we’ve seen far right mobs in England being supported by Elon Musk and Trump. What needs to be done to curb the power of the tech giants, if anything?
We need regulation of tech giants. We need Elon Musk to pay his taxes so he doesn’t have so much spare money to funnel into far right extremism. We need to more strongly regulate what can go out. Currently he can do what he wants with impunity. This is a threat to US democracy. Political speech is more protected than regular speech given rulings by the Supreme Court. We need to fine tune what is political speech. If it is blatant lies is it political speech? I think that change is unlikely with the current make-up of the court. So I’d hope Harris would expand the SC so that this will stop.
I’m cautiously optimistic about Harris winning.