2024 US elections: what the corporate media won’t tell you

The Peoples Dispatch guide to underreported issues and perspectives regarding the 2024 US presidential election

November 03, 2024 by Peoples Dispatch
Protesters hang a banner reading "No votes for genocide" ahead of the US presidential elections in Boston, MA. The Israeli genocide in Gaza has become one of the defining issues of the elections. Photo: Micah Fong/PSL

With this year’s US presidential elections days away, US voters are once again faced with two establishment candidates with the highest likelihood of winning.

During the last 8 years of the Trump and Biden administrations, working people have endured the COVID-19 crisis that resulted in over 1 million people dead and millions losing their jobs. The social protections implemented during the pandemic including an eviction moratorium, expanded public healthcare coverage, and increased unemployment insurance payments, were almost all scaled back during Biden’s term, which has been characterized by new crises of inflation and the complicity in Israel’s genocidal war.

There is much about this grim reality that the mainstream media has chosen to ignore. Peoples Dispatch has compiled a list of our coverage, from the frontlines of struggle to reports on the untold stories of poor and working class realities, to keep people across the world informed about what’s at stake in these next presidential elections from the belly of the beast.

What else is on the ballot?

Beyond the presidential race, there are 34 seats in the Senate that are up for election on November 5, as well as all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. The population that was eligible to vote in the US in 2020 was nearly 240 million, with 66% of those people turning out to vote for the highest office of President.

There are some notable ballot measures, which include ten states with ballot measures related to abortion rights. Only one of these measures, Nebraska Initiative 434, relates to the restriction, not the promotion, of abortion rights. 

Eight states will have ballot measures to add additional statewide bans on noncitizen voting, as conservatives have drummed up a significant controversy over the widely debunked theory that noncitizen voting has swayed elections to the Democratic Party. Only US citizens are permitted to vote in the US, and noncitizen voting is already banned nationwide.

There are six states that are deciding on ballot measures related to wages. Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, and Missouri have ballot measures to increase the minimum wage, and Nebraska is requiring employers to provide earned paid sick leave to their workers. Arizona’s Proposition 138, on the other hand, would actually lower the minimum wage for tipped workers. 

Slavery is on the ballot this year, with two states weighing in on the legality of forced labor in prisons. Prison labor is among the most controversial aspects of mass incarceration in the United States, with some argue that it perpetuates the long legacy of enslavement by forcing the disproportionately Black prison population to work for little to no wages.

Millions of people in the US have already voted in the early voting process, both by mail and in person. However, it is unlikely that final results will come out on election day itself, which is Tuesday, November 5. Full results might not come for days. A similar delay happened in the last presidential election of 2020, due to mail-in ballots and Trump’s allies requesting recounts after his loss. 

Who are the candidates?

Harris and Trump are the two front-runners representing the Democratic Party and Republican Party respectively. How are they making the case for themselves to working people in the US?

Trump and Harris spar in the second US presidential debate of the 2024 election year (Screenshot)

Kamala Harris is the current Vice President and a former Senator from California. Harris has a background in the criminal justice system as the California Attorney General and San Francisco District Attorney. Her record as prosecutor in California has come under fire for inflicting harsh punishments on parents whose children were not attending school. This law sought to make an example out of parents, who were often working people whose children could not attend school due to a variety of circumstances. These included a mother, Cheree Peoples, of Orange County, arrested and walked out of her home in her pajamas in front of cameras, whose daughter could not attend school regularly due to sickle cell anemia. Harris has also come under scrutiny for defying a Supreme Court ruling to decarcerate the state to maintain high levels of cheap and forced prison labor in California. With regards to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Harris has maintained that “Israel has a right to defend itself” and has rejected calls to condition aid or implement an arms embargo as it escalates the war.

Former president and media personality Donald Trump has promised to implement a hardline conservative agenda if elected, including the mass deportation of 15 to 20 million people. Before entering the political arena, Trump was widely known for his borderline fascistic political views, which include calling for the death penalty for five Black men (the Central Park Five) who were falsely accused of rape, spreading claims that former President Barack Obama was actually born in Kenya, and promoting racist myths regarding migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.

As President, Trump implemented massive tax cuts for the wealthy in 2017, allowing many billionaires and corporations to pay lower taxes than working people. These “reforms” effectively transferred USD 2 trillion from workers to the ultra-rich.

Jill Steins speaks at a demonstration protesting Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the UN General Assembly (Photo: Wyatt Souers)

Alternative candidates: With the dominance of the two-party system in the US, some candidates are seeking to break through the duopoly by running independently of either the Democratic or Republican Party. They’ve experienced serious attacks by establishment party operatives as a result. 

Claudia De la Cruz at a campaign event in the Bronx, New York (Photo: the Party for Socialism and Liberation)

What are the key issues?

Cost of living: The economy and cost of living continues to be the top issue for the people of the US, who are struggling under astronomical housing and grocery costs.

Immigration: Establishment parties have scapegoated migrants as responsible for the problems of the average worker.

Natural disasters: The US government has failed to allocate the necessary funds for the survivors of recent devastating hurricanes.

Harris speaks to Border Patrol agents on the campaign trail (Photo: @KamalaHarris/X)

Palestine solidarity: The vast majority of people in the US oppose aid to Israel, both candidates say they will continue to back Israel and refuse to support an arms embargo or even conditioning aid.

Pro-Palestine protesters rally outside of the White House on June 8 (Photo: the Palestinian Youth Movement)

Foreign policy: US imperialism continues to be the default foreign policy of both major parties.

East Asia: How the US continues attempts to corner China.

West Asia: The US continues to unconditionally support Israeli genocide.

Demonstrators at the largest pro-Palestine demonstration in US history in Washington DC, on November 4 (Photo: Carolyn Yao/ANSWER Coalition)

Latin America and the Caribbean: The US continues to subvert democracy in the region.

Africa: People across the African continent have marked recent years by standing for sovereignty against neo-colonialism.

Europe: The war in Ukraine continues with the US standing firmly against peace.

Climate change: How the US has not fulfilled its responsibility to people and the planet.

  • The US is evading its responsibility on climate change. Eugene Puryear of BreakThrough News explains the failure of the United States to fulfill its responsibilities in combating climate change. He also talks about how its positions are hurting countries in the Global South.
Abortion rights India
(Photo: via ACLU)

Abortion rights: The Republicans successfully dismantled abortion rights, and the Democrats failed to fight back.

Issues you don’t hear about: These are issues that the corporate-owned media doesn’t talk about. Can you guess why?