What I hope to see come out of the 2024 election is what I have wanted in every national election since the first one I remember, and that goes way back to 1964. A path forward to better national prosperity; improved civil rights, especially for persons who are often looked at as "those others;" enhanced national security, much of that through alliances and America being perceived as a global leader in solving problems in ways that share the benefits throughout the global community; national support for and investments in scientific advancements and innovation; and international respect for America's values and integrity.
For this year specifically I will add this: Dramatically less divisiveness. A more unified social and political environment where the opposing groups will disagree respectfully and without hostility. That's one I've never had to think about before.
I do not believe these goals to be unique to me. I think they are shared by many, and I also think that they are part of the national heritage. For two and one half centuries, in fits and in starts, we and our predecessors have made progress on them all.
Leadership is vital
None of these aspirations can be accomplished by any one person, but leadership counts for a lot. Whatever progress can be made in these areas depends upon whomever becomes President in January 2025.
Kamala Harris has the temperament and the vision to make progress on these goals. Donald Trump does not -- his temperament and vision would stifle and destroy progress, not encourage and build it.
Kamala Harris beats Donald Trump on character (she is honest, he is a liar). She is patient and optimistic where he is revanchist and hostile.
Harris will inherit a good economy and continue the policies that have made it so. Trump inherited a good economy in 2017; he mostly didn't screw it up until the pandemic. That's when his basic desire for chaos asserted itself, and his chaotic mismanagement laid the groundwork for supply shortages, a primary cause of inflation.
Speaking of inflation: The Inflation Reduction Act of August 2022 -- largely a string of investments in clean energy -- coincided with an annual inflation rate of 8%; too high. It also coincided with the beginning of a precipitous drop in inflation, now down to about 2.5%. So, perhaps not such a bad name for that legislation.
Looking forward
Looking forward, Harris will support that set of investments and those of the Infrastructure Act of 2022 so as to continue and increase their benefits. They would be under threat of repeal or mismanagement from a Trump presidency. In fact, Trump's plan for deportations and tariffs are a recipe for higher inflation. Fewer workers means less production which means (once again) higher inflation; higher tariffs are the same as a national tax on consumption (again, higher inflation). The prices of those items that are tariffed will increase, and the prices of things in which the product contains something that is subject to higher tariff will also increase.
America's prosperity is not well-spread. Too much goes to too few at the top. Harris will push for higher income taxes for the wealthiest and the highest earners (a potentially dis-inflationary program), as well as for big business. Trump's record from his presidency was to dramatically reduce those tax rates, causing a major jump in the Federal debt.
Let's get that top bracket up a lot, maybe to 50%. It's been higher in the past and the economy kept growing and was healthy. When it was brought way down was when we started having the ultra-high pay disparities -- we don't need the highest paid executives making hundreds of times what the typical worker makes, that's where we are now as a legacy of the much lower tax rates for the highest earners.
Harris is for the law; Trump is for the dis-order
Harris has a successful legal background, having been a district attorney and California Attorney General. She has read and understands the Constitution, the nation's basic set of laws and order. Trump says he will pardon the convicted insurgents from the January 6 attempt to overturn the 2020 election. . .that's anti-law and pro-disorder.
Unlike Donald Trump, Kamala Harris has never sexually assaulted someone and been found guilty in a court of law. She has never falsified election-related financials and so been found guilty of many counts of fraud. Folks, Trump had a jury trial. He and his lawyers had their say on the jury selection. In his arrogance, he did not even testify in his own defense!
She is definitely not a bully and has not called for termination of the Constitution so that she can rule without restraint, all of which are Trump positions. Harris has not tried to force state election officials to "find" votes for her or to change state election results, something that Trump and his legal minions spent months doing in November and December of 2020.
Upon losing the election of 2020, and then being unsuccessful in his attempts to steal the election from Joe Biden, Trump absconded with boxes of classified material. He kept them in a public bathroom. Who knows who has seen what, thereby possibly exposing others named in those documents to harm, even death? And then when the FBI came to investigate and reclaim the items, he obstructed lawful actions. Not a big deal to Trump, I suppose, following his failure to live up to his oath of office on January 6, 2021.
(Oh, Trump said, Mike Pence won't disqualify the electoral votes so that I can continue being president? And my insurgents at the Capitol say they want to hang him? "So what?" as revealed recently by Special Counsel Jack Smith's court filing. And let's not overlook some other parts of that work which are showing that Trump began this process before the election.)
America will look better to the rest of the world with Harris as President
With her track record as District Attorney, Attorney General and now Vice President, it is clear that Kamala Harris is offering herself up to be in service to the nation for the nation's interests, not for her own. She has continued to make that clear during her vice-presidency and actions as presiding officer of the Senate.
Trump with his focus on retribution and divisiveness (signs of being a sociopath) is all about doing this for himself. Trump's presidency owed something to Russia, a hostile foreign power, and Russia's Vladimir Putin, the man who defines Russia as hostile-to-America-and-the-West-and-all-that-they-represent. Harris helped to achieve a variety of Federal investments in infrastructure. The best that Trump could manage was a presidency's worth of "infrastructure weeks."
The Harris campaign is one of America is good, it needs to be better, and here's how we can make that happen. Trump's campaign, on the other hand, has degenerated into one where, for the first time in American history, he sees those who disagree with him as "enemies within" who should be prosecuted for their political positions, perhaps even beset by U.S. armed forces.
Let me say it differently: That. Has. Never. Happened. Before. In. American. History.
Kamala Harris is not perfect. Nobody is. But she is a decent, caring person who is proposing a presidency that is a much better bet to reduce domestic divisiveness than is Trump's negative, hostile, disloyal to the Constitution, un-American bullying and posturing.
Harris is thoughtful, experienced, knowledgeable and brave. She can provide leadership to help make progress on things that matter to Americans. Trump cannot. He is increasingly unable to clearly articulate policy; he is often incoherent publicly and shows no ability to act otherwise within the functioning of the government. He is unaware of proven experiences and facts, and so is without the needed knowledge to make decisions that are in the nation's best interests. He depends upon his character of being a cowardly bully to carry him along. This type of presidency would cause a great loss of international respect for America's reliability and integrity.
Harris will represent America to the international community as reliable and committed to values that are the legacy of more than two centuries' worth of history and progress. Other nations will know that the United States can be trusted to continue a heritage that, for all its flaws, is much more good than otherwise.
American needs Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for President and Vice President.
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