Ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, numerous Republicans attempted to connect Democratic candidate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris to communism and Karl Marx, the German philosopher who authored "The Communist Manifesto." In particular, Harris' detractors picked apart her frequent use of the phrase "What can be, unburdened by what has been," asserting she borrowed it from Marx himself.
A number of readers sent us the following meme purportedly quoting both Harris and Marx, attributing these specific words to Marx: "Move forward into a future unburdened by what has been."
(Screenshot via Instagram)
Another thread on X claimed the phrase was an "inverted quote" from Marx:
I see it as a reference to the French saying "Le mort saisit le vif" (The dead seize the living), famously used by Marx in the introduction to the first volume of Capital. It means that the past hangs over the present. Harris's father, a Marxist economics professor, may have said this phrase in front of his daughter. She remembered it and (perhaps unconsciously) turned it on its head. The dead no longer seize the living! We are unburdened by the past. So, unburdened by what has been, we march toward Trump's landslide in November and possibly the end of representative democracy in the US. Sorry for being bleak.
While Harris' father was indeed a Marxist economist, as we have reported before, there is no evidence that Harris herself subscribes to Marxist beliefs. We searched through a number of archives and found no evidence of Marx ever making a similar statement about being "unburdened by what has been." We also reached out to an expert on Marx and will update this post if we receive more information. Until then, we rate this claim as unproven.
Marx and Marxism
First, a brief explanation of Marxism. According to Merriam-Webster, it is a theory and practice of socialism, which in turn refers to an egalitarian economic and political movement or theory, advocating for collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. Marxism has various interpretations, but put simply, Marx critiqued the economic system of capitalism for creating fundamentally opposed classes that would inevitably clash in conflict. He predicted capitalism's collapse followed by working-class revolutions.
We began our search for the origin of the quote by sifting through the online collections (archived here and here) of the "Collected Works" of Marx and Friedrich Engels, a close collaborator of Marx. We also looked through the Marxist Internet Archive, an independent volunteer-run online library. We searched for variations of the phrase, including "unburdened," "move forward" and "what has been," and found nothing remotely similar to Harris' phrase.
Marx did, however, use the French phrase "Le mort saisit le vif" (The dead seize the living)" as the X above post claimed. In the introduction to "Capital: Volume One" he wrote (emphasis, ours):
But apart from this. Where capitalist production is fully naturalised among the Germans (for instance, in the factories proper) the condition of things is much worse than in England, because the counterpoise of the Factory Acts is wanting. In all other spheres, we, like all the rest of Continental Western Europe, suffer not only from the development of capitalist production, but also from the incompleteness of that development. Alongside the modern evils, a whole series of inherited evils oppress us, arising from the passive survival of antiquated modes of production, with their inevitable train of social and political anachronisms. We suffer not only from the living, but from the dead. Le mort saisit le vif! [The dead holds the living in his grasp. – formula of French common law]
But what, if anything, does this have to do with Harris' use of the phrase "What can be, unburdened by what has been"? The claim that Harris turned the words "The dead seize the living" on their head seems speculative, at best.
Harris' Use of the Phrase
Harris has used the phrase in a range of settings, many of which were tied to election campaigning. In one speech made at a campaign reception in the White House in July 2024, she discussed the Democrats' prospects for the 2024 elections and how they were going to "fight for this country we love." She said:
We love our country. We believe in the promise of America. As much as anything, the fight before us is for the promise of America. I am empirical evidence of the promise of America, okay? (Applause.) We know what can happen and what is possible when we collectively have the ability to see what can be unburdened by what has been.
She also used the phrase in her November 2020 victory speech, when she was elected vice president. Harris praised U.S. women's historical fight for the right to vote and the women who cast their ballots in 2020. She then said:
Tonight, I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision to see what can be unburdened by what has been. And I stand on their shoulders. And what a testament it is to Joe's character that he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country and select a woman as his vice president.
These speeches do not make any explicitly Marxist proclamations. As we have reported before, even though her father was a Marxist professor, Harris has not—whether in her policies or statements—shown Marxist leanings. The New York Times reported how Harris has repeatedly stated her support for capitalism. We wrote in our past coverage:
Harris is a Democrat, an American political party that is left-of-center but overall more conservative than many left-wing parties abroad. She is not viewed by American progressives as being as far to the left as they are, and in fact was disparagingly called a "cop" by some on the left who found her career as a prosecutor disagreeable. [...]
In all, Harris has sometimes been seen as not far left enough by progressives and too far left by those on the right. As a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries [of 2020], however, Harris wasn't viewed as being among the more progressive candidates, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts.
Interpreting Harris' use of a phrase that has been used in different contexts as Marxist in nature is purely speculative, drawing connections where there are none.