….sigh. OK, kids, listen up. 96.2% of the people who will read this already know me, and already know how I feel about politics. The other 3.8% either won’t read this, or might read it and get mad. In no way do I think that anything I say will convince anybody. But, I feel compelled to do this, because I don’t want to look back and say that I didn’t do what I could to help out my country, my friends, and myself.
And trust me: I don’t wanna do this. I enjoyed being a bit checked out of politics and quite frankly I’m looking forward to going back to that. I’m not, by nature, a political guy. But much like a man with a toothache, I suddenly care very much about dentistry. If you get my drift.
And let me talk to that 3.8% for a moment, in case any of them read this: Look: I get it. You might feel like the world is moving too fast. You might feel like the world you used to understand is under attack. You may feel that Kamala Harris is too weird, a poor public speaker, a flip-flop artist, a typical politician. You may have legitimate policy differences with her; perhaps you feel like the Democrats spend too much money, don’t care enough about families, are out of touch, represent the elite class. While I disagree with some or most of this, I think these are very legitimate things for adults to disagree about. And I wish this election was about any of that. I long to return to a world where politics is about things like taxes or tariffs or public school education.
But this election is not about that. Smarter minds than I have produced more eloquent descriptions of the moment we are in, but let me try my best. It is an interesting facet of history that we rarely recognize what’s important about the time we live in until it’s over. And it may be the case that those of us who are concerned about what’s happening right now are “overselling” it. Perhaps the threat is not so dire. Maybe we will look back in 30 years and just have a little chuckle about how worried we all were.
But can you afford to assume that? The thing about history is that sometimes momentous things are happening, and we rarely realize it until it’s too late. Do I think we are living in pre-1938 Germany? Do I actually think Donald Trump would take over and corrupt our political institutions, install himself as a sort of totalitarian despot, leverage the DOJ and the military to target his political enemies, remove competent autocrats and replace them with his cronies?
Well: I don’t know, for sure, of course. But I do know one thing: he wants to. If he doesn’t, it won’t be because he has respect for rule of law. It won’t be because he thinks democracy is a superior system, or because he cares about the common people. How do I know this? Because he says so. Listen to the man! Believe what he says! Understand when he talks about the “enemy within”, and about the “stolen election”, he is quite literally telling you what he believes. There is a saying: when someone tells you who they are, believe them. Donald Trump is friends with despots. He is a man who wishes he could just wave his hand and have people bring him women and wine. He likes power, and attention. This is a man who used to be a Democrat when it was expedient to be one. He has no center, no moral core. We all know people like this in our life; perhaps we’ve had bosses like this, or ex-husbands. He is a man who would sell his grandmother for a few ducats.
And so, his policy ideas, his political stances, his tax and tariff policies are irrelevant. He is a man with a loaded gun pointed at the center of our democracy. It does not matter the color of his suit or the content of his speech; until he drops the gun, the only response he will understand is force and strength.
Luckily, we have that strength: we do have democratic institutions, and for the moment, they are strong. The solution, such as it is, is simple: do not vote for Donald Trump. If you must vote for Republicans down the rest of the ticket, please vote your conscience. But at the top, it cannot be Trump. It cannot.
And if you are inclined to vote for Harris, then please: vote! Don’t sit this one out. It’s important. This is not a time to indulge in third parties, or in protest, or in esoteric philosophical arguments about whether the United States is the best way to run a country. The threat here is potentially existential. The house is on fire; it doesn’t matter what color the drapes are.
So, please: vote. Vote for Kamala Harris. I’d like to continue to live here.
Thanks.