I haven’t posted on this blog in a long time.

I’ve had some ideas for posts here and there, but the drive to actually write something and post it just hasn’t been there for the last couple years. Today, I feel like I need to. Not that I expect a significant number of people to actually read this, but I’ll feel better to actually put these thoughts out into the world, and who knows, maybe one or two folks might actually give it a glance.

Anyway, today is Election Day here in the United States, and among many other offices, the American presidency is up for grabs. And, like every election in recent memory, it’s pretty damn important who wins.

My basic opinions have not changed much since I last posted here, so it would come to no surprise that I want people to vote for Kamala Harris, and to send Donald Trump back to Mar-a-Lago. Well, hopefully back to court soon (and eventually prison), but we can concentrate on one thing at a time.

I’ve written quite a bit on why Donald Trump is a horrible human being and completely unsuited to the job of President. The four years he spent in office are a stain on the history of this nation. It’s not like we don’t already have stains, but we rarely have elevated someone quite as awful as Trump to the office of the President. Yeah, there have been some bad ones, but I believe his combination of amorality, dishonesty, avarice, viciousness, and ignorance is unmatched in the annals of the White House. I’m not going to rehash most of it, as fans of Trump are generally unmoved by recitations of his words and actions, and left wing critics of the Democratic Party usually already know why Trump is bad. Feel free to follow the above links if discussion of Trump’s past sins seem interesting, but my focus here is going to mostly go in another direction.

Trump supporters often believe they’ve discovered a brilliant gotcha when they ask a Democratic voter to provide a positive reason to vote for Kamala Harris (they did this with Biden and Clinton, too) rather than just the negative case against Trump. This is where the “orange man bad” quip comes in. Of course, the simplest response to that is that the orange man legitimately IS bad, and that really is enough. If a Democrat that I’ve frequently criticized like, say… Joe Manchin, were the nominee against Trump, I would gladly cast my ballot for Joe, and implore everyone to do the same. I don’t think a positive case for Harris is really all that necessary, especially in light of Trump’s many flaws and failures.

But, in a brief response to that clumsy attempt at a gotcha, yes, there are plenty of non-Trump reasons to support Harris:

• She’s a center-left Democrat with a solid grasp of policy, and she now has four years of experience working in the Biden administration. These center-left policies frustrate progressives and leftists, but they also tend to be successful, are more likely to be passed through Congress, and are certainly a significant improvement over the alternative.
• Related to the above, Harris represents continuity with the last four years of the Biden administration. That’s important, because despite some legitimate issues, this Biden term has been a major success, particularly compared with the state of the nation that Biden inherited from Trump. Noah Smith discusses this in more detail, but essentially, the combination of Trump policies and COVID left the nation in a rough state, and the Biden administration has led the country through the most successful post-COVID recovery among all wealthy nations. Unemployment has plummeted, GDP growth is strong, all while inflation has dropped back to sustainable levels – also faster and more completely than any other rich country. Manufacturing in the US has boomed, thanks in part to the CHIPS and Inflation Reduction Acts. Kamala Harris herself was not necessarily a significant architect of these accomplishments, but she will almost certainly continue similar economic management.
• She’s committed to protecting the remaining rights of women’s bodily autonomy, and will work to bring those rights back to women nationwide. The Republicans successfully played the long game over the course of multiple decades, and thanks to Donald Trump’s SCOTUS nominees, Roe v Wade was overturned, and 13 states now have total (or close) bans on abortion, and 8 more have severe restrictions. This enormous attack on the civil liberties of just over half of all Americans is not going to be fixed overnight, but Kamala Harris is going to be much more likely to work toward that than the guy who caused this crisis.
• Kamala Harris has thoughtfully discussed the cause of the current housing crisis, and seems to understand what needs to be done to fix it better than any other recent president. We might actually see a YIMBY administration, and if she is able to commit to a massive increase in home construction, we could enjoy some real progress on the cost of housing within this decade. It’s genuinely exciting stuff.
• She’s pledged to continue to support Ukraine in their struggle against the genocidal invasion by the tyrant Vladimir Putin. She’s also called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and is likely to provide much more pushback against Benjamin Netanyahu than we’ve seen so far during the last year of conflict.
• Harris is a thoughtful person who is willing to listen to those who disagree with her, and isn’t interested in punishing dissent.

All of the above reasons contrast sharply with Donald Trump, who represents the opposite position in every case. And I suppose if one truly believes that a booming economy, women’s rights, opposing international tyranny, and being open to new ideas are all bad things, than I guess Trump’s your guy. Seems weird to me, but this is a weird world.

And if your reason for supporting Trump is that eggs cost more now than 5 years ago, I’ve got news for you – Trump won’t help. The average voter has a terrible grasp of political and economic cause and effect, and unfortunately some think, “inflation got worse when Biden was president, so Trump can fix it.”

Seems intuitive if you haven’t paid much attention, or have a short attention span. But it’s also entirely wrong. To briefly sum up the situation, the surge of inflation in 2021 and 2022 was a global phenomenon mostly caused by supply shocks resulting from the aftereffects of the COVID pandemic. Worldwide, every nation suffered from these inflationary effects. The United States suffered less than many, and brought inflation back under control faster than almost anywhere else, while also keeping unemployment low and continuing economic growth. It really was something of an economic miracle.

And yes, at the same time, lower inflation now doesn’t reverse the effects of the past few years. But we wouldn’t want it to. People miss the prices of goods from 2019, and I don’t blame them, but in order to restore those prices, we would have to endure a crippling depression. Deflation wouldn’t exactly be ideal. The fact is wages have been outpacing the cost of goods and services for a while now, and Trump’s plans to harshly tax imported goods will not help make them cheaper for Americans. Neither will his pledge to reverse the Biden policies that have led to the current manufacturing boom.

Yeah, inflation sucked, but while the US President doesn’t have an INFLATION UP/DOWN lever on his desk, the current administration was able to reign it in, and Trump would have been much less likely to do the same had he won his second term in 2020. And he would certainly make it worse if elected now.

The other thing that comes up now and then are criticisms of Harris from the political left, arguing that she doesn’t represent enough of a contrast from Trump to be worth voting for. Many of these folks support Jill Stein, Cornell West, or other third party candidates. And on one hand, I believe that people should be free to support the candidates they prefer. On the other, much stronger hand, people who are still far closer to Harris ideologically than Trump should grow the fuck up and understand what’s at stake if Trump becomes president again.

The one issue that is specifically addressed by this group more than any other is the situation in Gaza. Basically, there is dissatisfaction with Joe Biden’s handling of Israel’s campaigns in Palestine since the massacre on October 7 of last year. Well, for many, Israel’s relations with Palestine since 1948, but in particular over the last year.

And yes, there’s a ton to criticize. Israel’s war against Hamas has been sloppy, indiscriminate, disproportionate, and has resulted in an enormous number of civilian deaths. In many ways, it’s been a year-long disaster. And while Israel would be more than capable of continuing their actions without US aid, there are many far worthier places the US could direct their financial and military support. Like say, I dunno… Ukraine. And Taiwan.

We don’t need to make it easier for Israel to rip apart Gaza, and we do need to help defend our democratic allies against authoritarian invasion.

But… (and there’s usually a ‘but’) there’s more nuance to the situation than many want to consider, and there’s no reason to think that Harris wouldn’t be preferable to handle it than Trump. Keith Ellison provided a more eloquent argument about this than I can, but in short, Harris has openly called for a ceasefire, has pushed for a boost in humanitarian aid to Gaza, and will not openly root for Israel’s worst actions.

I know, the point is to make a positive case for Harris rather than a negative case for Trump, but the fact is that Benjamin Netanyahu wants Trump to win. And Trump has repeatedly called for Israel to “finish the job,” which does not mean a peaceful withdrawal and settlement. If Trump becomes president again, Palestinians will suffer far more than they already have been. Things will definitely get worse. And with President Harris, the situation should improve. At the very least, she can be held accountable in ways that Trump won’t, should he win a second term.

Back in 2000, the first election I voted in, I had already concluded that Al Gore was the only reasonable choice for President. My immediate family all mostly agreed. I remember asking my dad, who had libertarianish leanings, why he was voting for Gore. My dad is an intelligent person, with a deep knowledge of politics and history, but for him, the choice was simple. He said, “It’s smart versus dumb. Gore is smart, Bush is dumb.”

24 years later, that basic dichotomy hasn’t changed. Of course, there’s also all the other stuff I’ve already mentioned. But this is also just smart versus dumb, and good versus bad. Seems overly simplistic? Nah, sometimes you can boil down a choice to its basic elements and reach a clear truth.

In the end, Kamala Harris is… good. Trump is bad.

She’s intelligent, experienced, thoughtful, and empathetic. And even if you can’t be convinced of that, she still is going to be an improvement over the only other candidate than possibly can win.

About that candidate. Yeah, this is supposed to be about Harris, not Trump. But there are only two candidates who can win, and part of the argument I’m making includes the reasons why electing Trump would be a colossal mistake. I’m not going to go down the whole list, as I don’t have time to type out 30,000 words, but in short:

• Donald Trump wants to implement insane tariffs that will increase the cost of goods for Americans, and will almost certainly accelerate inflation.
• He’s going to be surrounded by people who want to pick up where the Dobbs decision left off, and strip women of their rights to their own bodies nationwide. Those same people also want to outlaw contraception, and invade people’s private lives.
• Trump supports Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and will work to undermine the Ukrainian’s defense of their home. He also won’t support any other European nation against future Russian aggression, and has made it clear he doesn’t care what China will do to Taiwan. He is a supporter of autocrats around the world.
• Trump wants to prosecute people who not just worked against him politically, but even those who merely criticized him.
• And he won’t be surrounded by people who push back against his worst impulses, or try to contain and distract him. He’s going to be able to do a lot more of what he wants to do than the last time around.
• He admits to sexually assaulting women, has been found liable for rape in court, and has been revealed to be a close personal friend of Jeffrey Epstein.
• Oh yeah, and he tried to steal the last election, which resulted in a day of chaos and terror, several deaths, and the prosecution of hundreds of his biggest fans.

I guess if you like the idea of authoritarian government here, and support for authoritarians abroad, then as I said earlier, he’s your guy.

But if you aren’t a piece of shit, than the choice is clear. Vote for Kamala Harris. Even if you don’t like her, she can absolutely be moved in ways Trump never will. And if you do like her, then go convince someone else to vote for her, too.

Vote for Kamala Harris. That’s it. That’s the message. The alternatives suck.