Is "unburdened by what has been," part of a phrase often used by Vice President Kamala Harris, drawn from a quote by philosopher Karl Marx? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Marx publicly made such a statement in his lifetime. Harris has not credited Marx with the phrase.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on October 2, 2024. The post featured an image of Harris accompanied by text that said, "unburdened by what has been," and an image of Marx accompanied by text that said, "Move forward into a future unburdened by what has been." The post was captioned:
Did you ever wonder where she got that line?
This is how the post looked on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 3 16:33:36 2024 UTC)
No record of Marx using the phrase
Marx, born in 1818 in Prussia (modern-day Germany), was one of the most consequential theorists of the industrial age. He is most famously known for writing what's now called "The Communist Manifesto" (archived here), published in 1848 with his frequent collaborator and friend Friedrich Engels, along with "Das Kapital" (known as "Capital" in English), a series of books published in 1867 and after his death (archived here). Marx died in 1883 in London, but his work inspired communist movements and uprisings around the world throughout the 20th century.
Lead Stories could not find any credible sources reporting that Marx ever said or wrote the phrase "unburdened by what has been," much less the phrase attributed to him in the post on X, "Move forward into a future unburdened by what has been." Although Marx mostly wrote in German, some of his writings were initially published in English (archived here). Additionally, his original German-language work has been translated into other languages for well over a century (archived here).
Lead Stories searched through the collection of Marx's works on the English version of the Marxists Internet Archive, an organization that has compiled and shared Marx's works online since the early 1990s (archived here). We started with a page from the archive dedicated to quotes by Marx and Engels (archived here), all linked to their sources. The "unburdened by what has been" phrase was nowhere to be found.
Then, we searched the website for works and personal correspondence by Marx that included the word "unburdened" (archived here) and the phrases "unburdened by what has been" (archived here) and "move forward into a future unburdened by what has been" (archived here). None of the results were relevant to the claim.
Beyond the Marxists Internet Archive, Lead Stories referenced the "Marx & Engels Collected Works," a 50-volume book series billed as "the largest collection of translations into English of the complete works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, covering the period 1835-1895." The series claims to "contain all the written works of Marx and Engels including formerly unpublished manuscripts and letters" (archived here).
We virtually searched (archived here) the volumes for phrases related to the claim. Searches for "unburdened," "unburdened by what has been" and "move forward into a future unburdened by what has been" did not generate any results.
Lead Stories contacted experts in Marxist thought for comment on the claim. We will update this story with any relevant responses.
Harris' use of 'unburdened by what has been'
Harris has used several variations of the phrase "unburdened by what has been" throughout her political career. In 2023, a social media account backed by former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party published a four-minute video (archived here) of instances during which Harris had said the phrase.
Lead Stories could not find any evidence that Harris has attributed the phrase to Marx: instead, she has used it in a video description (archived here) of how her mother provided inspiration.
Other Lead Stories fact checks
Lead Stories has published numerous fact checks on claims related to Harris and the 2024 presidential election. Lead Stories face checks on claims concerning Karl Marx are here.
