On the face of it, successful businessman and Shark Tank venture capitalist host Mark Cuban’s endorsement of Kamala Harris makes no sense. Her hatred of “Billionaires” is central to her worldview. More broadly, Harris is a central planning authoritarian. Her whole economic “vision” for America centers around control by the state. So what could Cuban be thinking?
In this op-ed for The Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin tries to make a positive case for Mark Cuban’s endorsement of Kamala Harris:
Democrats, long hammered for being anti-business, have frequently looked for prominent business leaders to serve as validators.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s most effective advocate from the business world might be tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who became a household name as owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks (he sold his majority stake late last year for $3.5 billion) and as a one of the hosts of the reality TV show “Shark Tank”.
Translation: It’s good campaign window dressing. But that surely can’t be Cuban’s purpose. So again I ask, Why? I don’t say he should endorse Donald Trump. Abstention is a valid alternative.
But Harris is as anti-business as any Democrat, in my view. I don’t think Mark Cuban thinks otherwise. But he could remain neutral. So, what’s he thinking? I posted these comments, slightly edited for clarity:
It’s interesting that Jennifer doesn’t mention Cuban’s desire to be SEC chairman. In answer to a pointed interview question from Neil Cavuto on whether he would accept a cabinet job in a Harris Administration, Cuban immediately answered “SEC Chairman,” and why:
“NEIL CAVUTO: But can I ask you, Mark, whether you would entertain the treasury secretary, or commerce secretary in a Harris Administration...
“MARK CUBAN: Head of the SEC, that's the job I would take. Maybe HHS, but somebody needs to replace [current SEC Chairman] Gary Gensler.”
Cuban did not equivocate. He labeled Gensler “awful” for his regulatory assault on the newly emerging Blockchain and AI industries, and business in general.
I don’t doubt Cuban hates Trump, and everything he said about Trump [in the Cavuto interview] is true. But I don't think Cuban is a fool. I think Cuban has accepted the likelihood that Harris will win. Forget his mushy praise. Cuban likely wants to have a chance to blunt her economic authoritarian instincts. The most likely reason for Cuban’s endorsement of Harris, especially given Harris’s proposed blame-the-victims price controls and proposed assault on his—and by extension of the principle, all Americans’—vast unrealized capital gains assets, is the old political advice, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
Related Reading:
The reality of Kamala Harris' plan to tax unrealized capital gains by AXIOS
On the Candidates’ Disastrous Price Policies—and Harris’s Moral Obscenity
Joe Biden’s Despicable, Unjust Blame Game
Harris's Unchanged anti-American Values
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