When I broke with Trump, following his 2020 attempted coup, several people who know me were surprised. They should not have been. In 2016 I do not vote for Trump but voted for the third-party candidacy of Evan McMullin. I did not think Trump was a conservative, nor a Republican of any conviction. Trump had flipflopped on several issues over the years and had changed party affiliation several times. I saw Trump as an opportunist and a carnival barker with no core values.
After Trump was elected, I thought he governed better than I expected. While I was never sold on building a great big beautiful wall that Mexico would pay for, I was pleased that illegal border crossing declined under Trump. Also, the economy did quite well, and I was very pleased that he successfully put three conservatives on the Supreme Court. He did some things I liked, and he didn't screw up much. I was bothered by his nasty rhetoric and some of his action and still thought he was kind of a snake-oil salesman but given the choice between Trump and a typical liberal in 2020, I chose Trump.
After the election of 2020 when he engaged in a campaign to overturn the results of the election and all that that entailed, and after the January 6th insurrection, I knew I could never vote for him again. I thought his actions, while not legally traitorous, was morally traitorous. I supported Nicki Halley in the primary and after she failed to stop Trump, I thought I might just write in a name, maybe Nicki Haley, maybe Mike Pence, or maybe Liz Chaney. Since Tennessee would not be in play, as a practical matter it didn't matter for whom I voted or if I voted at all.
As time passed and I saw Trump become more unhinged and saw him associate with more radical characters and become more extreme and double down on his threat to democracy even saying he would be justified in suspending the constitution. He began reposted of QAnon memes and called for Barack Obama to be tried in a military tribunal and took more and more radical positions and told us he would seek restitution against his opponents. I knew that for me, simply writing in another name was not enough. I knew I had to take a moral stand against evil. Back in July, I publicly stated I would be voting for Kamala Harris. I explained why in this post.
Some of my friends were shocked. I was told that they understand me not voting for Trump but could not understand me actually voting for Harris. The below article reflects my view. This is not an election about policy but a competition of civic visions. I think those who may dislike Harris' policies should put that aside and vote for her anyway. It is time to put country over party. It is time to swallow hard, accept that one is voting for policies they may not like because American democracy is at stake.
The Full Liz
By Nick Catoggio, The Dispatch, Oct. 3, 2024- Who said it?
“Kamala Harris is a radical liberal who would raise taxes, take away guns & health insurance, and explode the size and power of the federal gov’t. She wants to recreate America in the image of what’s happening on the streets of Portland & Seattle. We won’t give her the chance.”
No, it’s not Donald Trump. The words are properly spelled and capitalized, aren’t they?
It’s not J.D. Vance either. He would have thrown something in about foreign parasites sucking the blood out of American communities (and out of their pets, specifically).
It’s Liz Cheney. She tweeted the above on August 11, 2020, the day Joe Biden chose Harris as his running mate. Her post circulated again on Thursday morning as she prepared for a joint appearance in Wisconsin with the candidate she’s supporting this year: Kamala Harris.
How you feel about that tweet depends on how you view the choice next month.
If you’re treating the election as a competition of policy visions, Cheney’s post is evidence of hypocrisy so ludicrous that it should neutralize whatever influence her endorsement might carry with conservatives. Four years ago she claimed Harris was too liberal to be trusted with power; four years later she’s campaigning with her against a Republican. She’s free to be a progressive if she likes, but no right-winger who cares about policy should take her seriously ever again.
If you’re treating the election as a competition of civic visions, Cheney’s position then and her position now are consistent. Her old post bolsters the case for the Democrat today, in fact: If someone with as many misgivings about Harris’ policy agenda as Cheney had in 2020 is willing to lay them aside to support her in 2024, the civic threat posed by the Republican ticket must be truly dire. (There is much more, please read it all at this link)
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Rod, you're my friend and I have great respect for your political views, both political and ideological. But I still can't buy (although I get it) voting as a conservative for Kamala. Liz Cheney was right in her assessment of Harris's core political views. And I could never vote for a "radical liberal" and surprised that she (whom I still believe to be a solid conservative) to occupy the White House. Heck, not sure I could even vote for a soft liberal, though with Trump as the alternative it would be a tempting choice. If your vote is a throw-away in Tennessee anyway (though admittedly not nearly as much as my write-in choice--probably Pence now, formerly Cheney) why not vote your conscience? I don't mean to imply that your anti-Trump choice of Kamala isn't conscientious but a write-in at least offers the limited solace that you opted to try to keep out both a radical liberal and a moral jackal.
ReplyDeleteDid this counseling session work? No charge. :-)