WASHINGTON — I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling more concerned about the outcome of the upcoming election. I’m still terribly optimistic, but the nausea is growing.

I’m as skeptical of the polls as any of you, but when they all show the same thing — that Kamala Harris’ campaign stalled a few weeks ago, but Trump’s continues to surge — it’s important to take the polls seriously.

Harris will deliver his closing message to the American people tomorrow at a rally on the Ellipse on the National Mall in Washington.

For the past several weeks, she has focused on Trump’s threats to a woman’s right to her own body and the rights of all Americans to a democracy.

Tomorrow night, however, she must respond forcefully to the one issue that continues to be uppermost in the minds of most Americans: the economy.

She needs to tell Americans plain and simple why they continue to have such a hard time despite all the official economic indicators to the contrary: it is because of the power of big corporations and a small number of wealthy individuals to siphon off most of the economic gains for themselves.

Most Americans are outraged that they continue to struggle economically while billionaires attract more and more wealth. Most know they pay too much for housing, gas, food and the medicine they need. They also know that a major cause is the market power of large corporations.

They want someone who can stand up to the big corporations and politicians in Washington who serve them.

They want a president who is on their side. A president who will crack down on price gouging, who will destroy monopolies and restore competition, who will fight to contain prescription drug costs, who will get big money out of politics and stop the legalized bribery that rigs the market for the rich, and who will make sure corporations pay their fair share and end tax breaks for billionaire crooks.

A president who will put working families first – before big corporations and the wealthy.

Harris has to say he will be this president.

Her policy proposals support this. She engaged in strict antitrust enforcement – cracking down on mergers and acquisitions that give big food corporations the power to raise food and grocery prices, pursuing price fixing and banning price gouging. She needs to remind voters of this.

She also says she will raise taxes on the wealthy, offer $25,000 down payment assistance to help Americans buy their first home, restore the expanded child tax credit to $3,600 to help over 100 million working Americans and will introduce a new tax of $6,000. discount to help families pay the high costs of a child’s first year of life.

All should be part of her speech tomorrow about why she will champion working people.

She wants to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, make stock buybacks more expensive and expand Medicare to cover home health care — paid for with savings from expanding Medicare price negotiations with drugmakers.

She must frame all of this as a response to the power of big corporations and the rich – and say unequivocally that she is on the side of the people, not the powerful.

If she fails to do so in her closing argument, Trump’s demagogic response will be the only one the public will hear — that average workers are struggling because of undocumented workers and “enemy within”, including democrats, socialists, marxists and “deep state”.

Harris should frame her message about democracy within this economic message. If our democracy were not dominated by rich and big corporations, less of the economy’s gains would be transferred to them. Average working people would have better wages and more secure jobs and could afford housing, food, fuel, medicine, childcare and elder care.

Much of the public no longer believes that American democracy works. According to a new New York Times/Siena College poll, only 45 percent believe our democracy does a good job representing ordinary people. A staggering 62% say the government works mainly to benefit itself and elites rather than the common good.

In her closing argument, Harris should commit to reversing this so that government works for the common good.

Harris began his campaign in July and early August, emphasizing these themes of the economy and democracy.

But in recent weeks, she has focused mostly on Trump’s particular threat to democracy. Her campaign appears to have decided it can draw additional voters from moderate Republican women in the suburbs upset about Trump’s role in fueling the attack on the US Capitol.

That’s why he campaigned with Liz Cheney and gathered Republican officials as supporters. And why he chose to deliver his closing message on the Ellipse — where Trump called on his supporters to march on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

However, when he shifted gears from the economy to Trump’s attacks on democracy, Harris’ campaign stalled. I think this is because Americans continue to focus on the economy and want an answer to why they are still struggling economically.

If Trump gives them an answer — albeit a baseless and demagogic one — but Harris doesn’t, he could cruise to victory on Nov. 5.

Therefore, in her closing message, she must speak clearly and frankly about the misallocation of economic power in America — vested in big corporations and the wealthy instead of ordinary Americans — and about her commitment to fixing it.