Several top Democrats have reportedly issued strong warnings to Joe Biden to challenge Trump’s friendly ties to corporate America when the two face off on Thursday’s presidential debate, and less time talking up his legislative accomplishments. The news reflects continued pressure on Biden to lean more into populist, anti-corporate appeals. But that would be a huge mistake.

Wealthy political advisors keep trying to tell Biden how to speak to the common person. But the Scranton, Pennsylvania native with a working-class upbringing knows how to do that better than any politician alive today.

First off, reading out demagogic business bashing scripts is not Biden’s nature. Nor is it smart politics. Nor is it even remotely factual. Not a single Fortune 100 CEO has donated to Trump so far this year—a major break from overwhelming business and executive support for Republican presidential candidates dating back a century, to the days of William Howard Taft and stretching through Calvin Coolidge and the Bushes, all of whom had dozens of major company heads donating to their campaigns.

Biden himself—if not his progressive allies—must surely recognize that portraying businesses as cartoonish bogeymen to appease fringe elements is needlessly self-destructive, alienating many would-be supporters. As the prominent American economist Thorsten Veblen pointed out a century ago in The Theory of the Leisure Class, running up through entertainment journalist Robin Leach’s Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Americans are fascinated by those who succeed........

© Time