Kamala Harris for President

After most of this one-of-a-kind campaign, reminiscent of 1968 but hardly the same, we’re 18 days away from making our presidential decisions.  The right choice is no foggier than it was last time.

The Republican nominee in 2020 and election winner in 2016 runs again as the first major-party choice to stand for a third time since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.  That’s not the problem, and his age, 78, which would make him older on Inauguration Day than any other president, isn’t the main one either.  Donald Trump has more flaws and disqualifying characteristics than any Democratic or Republican nominee I have seen since I started following campaigns with Nixon-Humphrey.  He is a convicted felon who has consistently shown he does not want to follow our laws and Constitution.  He has a bizarre, apparently insatiable sweet tooth for lying, way beyond any of his competitors even in this often-sordid profession.  He has shown affinity with the world’s dictators, while saying many things indicating he would strive to be one himself.  He has threatened legal and even military retribution against those taking lawful measures to stop him.  His attitudes toward women, over a wide spectrum of areas, are disastrous.  His delusions, such as him being the true 2020 winner, which he has often insisted be supported by those working with him, have persisted.  And on jobs and the economy, his proposed extensive and expensive tariffs would drastically worsen both.

Nothing reported in news sources has been able to reverse the Trump tide.  His advocates have remained impervious to these issues, even when they are shown to be the truth.  And others have expressed a willingness to pollsters to join his side.  The reasons for his popularity will be discussed for decades or centuries to come, but common sense or prudent judgment will not be among them.  Some of his heavy contributors are extremely wealthy, expecting to save tens or hundreds or millions of dollars on his likelihood of taxing them less, but that does not make them worthy of emulation by the rest of us.  Perhaps the largest lesson of the 20^th century was that those who people find charismatic may lead us in devastatingly wrong directions, and caution about Trump seems a clear response.

His opponent, Kamala Harris, is a former district attorney who is currently the vice president.  She has shortcomings, but has shown in public appearances to be sober, reasonable, lawful, and almost always truthful.  We don’t know exactly how well she would work out, but it is obvious that her downside is vastly smaller.  As contrasted with her opponent, who has been described as a weak man’s idea of a strong man, Harris is forceful without being abrasive, and will work with politicians on both sides.  That is what we need in 2025 and beyond.

The best justification for a Trump vote I have heard was from one who said he was a reprehensible person, but she was not choosing a friend.  I don’t buy that, since the world is too dangerous, and our allies too valuable, for us to pick someone who needs to be contained.  And we still have a large nuclear arsenal with which the president would have great scope.  Junkyard dogs can be mean, but presidents need not be.

I have not mentioned Harris’s or Trump’s running mates, but both seem fair choices.  Either Tim Walz or J.D. Vance would rate to be adequate if circumstances put them into the top job, and, in the case of Vance, would get the presidency in steadier hands.  There is also little here about either candidate’s meager list of proposed policies, since that is not what this election is about. 

As of yesterday morning, the PredictIt site showed its contributors giving a combined five-point winning-percentage advantage to Trump.  We can do better, and massive amounts of safety and prosperity may depend on whether we do.  We need look only at what news and information sources, even including those generally favorable to his cause, say the realities are.  If this registered Republican who might have chosen a conservative nominee from that party can avoid him, so can you.  And please vote. 

Royal Flush Press endorses Kamala Harris for president.