It has been said that many people vote for political candidates with whom they can imagine having a burger and a beer, someone who shares their tastes, behaviors, and lifestyle. Maybe that is true for some voters, but that has never been part of my framework for casting a vote.
I want my president to be smarter, more industrious, and more collaborative than I. I want my president to be my representative both at home and abroad, embodying the best of what it means to be an American. I want my president to demonstrate statesman-like behavior and to wake up every morning with the determination to make my life, and the lives of my neighbors, better. I am not interested in a burger and a beer. I am interested in good governance. I do not want my president to be a fraudster, a liar, a sexual predator, or an egomaniacal blowhard.
These days I think we should look carefully at the candidates for president and ask ourselves, “Does that individual care about me? Does that individual work to make my life and the lives of other ordinary citizens more comfortable? Will the policy positions of that individual create a more stable, diverse, equitable, and prosperous country for all who live here?”
This is why I have yet to fathom why so many ordinary, hard-working, honest Americans would cast their vote for someone who has already held the position and has demonstrated complete contempt for everyone but himself, his family, his wealthy friends, and a handful of tyrants.
Donald Trump’s enormous tax cuts went almost entirely to the wealthy. He believes in welfare for the rich, not assistance for the poor. He installed cabinet officials who were tasked with dismantling the very institutions of government that were created in order to protect and improve the environment, working conditions, housing, public education, the lives of immigrants, the lives of women, and the civil rights of minorities. He then went on to pack the Supreme Court with white Christian nationalists who have been delighted to assist in that endeavor.
Trump took a wrecking ball to NATO and important international alliances. He picked fights with democratically elected world leaders and tried to extort them for kompromat on his political rivals. He cozied up to dictators. He built a wall on a portion of the southern border but did nothing to actually reform immigration laws—and Mexico didn’t pay for the wall; we did. Even more destructively, when his own party created a very stringent, extremely conservative revamp of our immigration laws, he single-handedly killed the legislation. He doesn’t really want to solve the crisis; he wants to perpetuate it for his own benefit. Captain Chaos rides again.
He spent millions and millions of taxpayer dollars on weekly transportation to his resort properties, there to play endless rounds of golf and line his own pockets with the exorbitant fees he charged to house and feed his extensive retinue.
During his presidency, he collected at least $8 million from foreign entities who understood that they had to pay to play—in clear violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution—and, accordingly, they rented suites and private entertainment venues at Trump hotels and purchased apartments in Trump-owned buildings. The rented facilities were paid for but seldom used, and many of the apartments in the Trump-owned buildings have yet to be occupied. It has recently been revealed that the government of Egypt sent $10 million in cash to Trump in the waning days of his 2016 campaign, in exchange for major policy position shifts toward Egypt. Trump happily obliged. As a side-note, former Senator Bob Menendez (D – N.J.) will soon go to prison for making a similar arrangement with the Egyptian government.
Trump has treated the RNC like a personal piggy bank, and as a result, he has single-handedly brought them to the verge of destitution. Some RNC field offices have closed for nonpayment of rent. Like all card-carrying kleptocrats, he has now installed his daughter-in-law as co-chair of that illustrious organization, all the better to make sure that no one stops him from hoovering up what is left.
Yet his base seems not to care. They remain stubbornly loyal in spite of the fact that he can barely stand to be near them. That goofball dressed as a Minute Man? That dude wearing tactical gear, holding an American flag in one hand and deploying bear spray on policemen with the other? That guy with an abundance of facial hair carrying the “F— Biden” sign? The morbidly obese woman in the American flag tank top and MAGA hat screaming from a bleacher seat at one of his rallies? The “patriot” wearing red, white, and blue face paint, deerskin pants, and bison horns? I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, folks, but Donald Trump doesn’t even want to shake your hands, let alone invite you to Mar-a-Lago for a Diet Coke and a Big Mac.
Donald Trump hates traditional campaigning—hanging out at diners and grange halls, VFW posts and state fairs—because he can’t stand to be near you. He does very little retail politicking because his rallies provide him with substantial physical distance from you. He travels with buckets of hand sanitizer, all the better to wash you off in the unlikely event that you somehow manage to get close enough to touch him, which is difficult even in close quarters because he is surrounded by a phalanx of Secret Service agents. He doesn’t care about you, and he doesn’t care about your life. The only thing he has ever done for you is to amplify your resentments in exchange for your vote, your money, and your fealty. That is it.
Let’s consider his opponent, Kamala Harris. Does Harris have charisma? Yes. Does Harris appear to be brimming with youthful vitality? Yes. Is Harris a gifted orator? Yes. Did Harris pick an excellent running mate in Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz? Yes. Does she care about ordinary folks? Yes.
Here is what Kamala Harris is: a life-long public servant aligned with, but not tied to, Joe Biden’s ambitious first-term domestic agenda. She campaigns joyfully on the issues that really matter to a majority of Americans: a woman’s right to govern her own healthcare decisions, a clean environment for our children, investing in small business, strengthening the middle class with good-paying jobs, lowering medication costs for seniors, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, strengthening public education, making the purchase of a home more affordable for first-time buyers, bringing back and making permanent the childcare tax credit, and reclaiming our standing on the world stage.
Kamala Harris believes in science, not conspiracy theories, because science saves lives. She provides a model of acceptance and inclusion for the marginalized among us. She stands shoulder-to-shoulder with striking workers on picket lines. Oh, and she actually enjoys talking with you and shaking your hand. She doesn’t try to avoid you or wash you off after a campaign stop.
Harris doesn’t maintain an enemies list. She doesn’t want to rescind the Constitution. She doesn’t take to social media to bully, threaten, vilify, and insult those with whom she disagrees. She doesn’t promise to declare herself “dictator for a day” after winning the election. As many of us understand, there is no such thing as a “dictator for a day.” Dictators declare themselves dictators in order to maintain their grasp on power forever, not for a day.
And to the handful of readers who write to me regularly to say that Kamala Harris is a political lightweight, I would like to remind you that this woman was the attorney general of California, a no-nonsense prosecutor who went on to become a United States senator and then the vice president of the United States. She is not without political experience and has a long track record of working hard on behalf of the people.
Kamala Harris cares about preserving democracy. Donald Trump does not. Donald Trump attempted to weaponize the military and the Department of Justice to overturn the results of a free and fair election for his own benefit. He stole highly classified documents pertaining to national security, showed them to people who had zero security clearance, and then obstructed all reasonable efforts by the government to secure their return. He blabbed confidential military secrets to an Australian multi-millionaire, who immediately blabbed those secrets to everyone he knew. He revealed highly sensitive Israeli military intelligence to the Russians. He fired people by tweet. He wants to suspend the Constitution and imprison his detractors. He is only running for a second term to try to avoid going to prison for his efforts to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat.
Donald Trump does not embody our best democratic ideals and principles; he embodies our worst human impulses. He is crude, crass, and illiterate. He is a pathological liar. He is a grifter and a cheat. He is an unrepentant racist. He is a serial sexual assaulter who has no respect for women.
I wonder what it will take for his base to finally see him for who he is: a two-bit conman and aspiring tyrant.
The alarm bell is ringing. Time to wake up, get dressed, take a look in the mirror, and ask yourself if you will continue to support a candidate who not only doesn’t care about you, but, if given another chance, will destroy our country.
Make a good choice.
