Much has been said about the Washington Post’s non-endorsement of a Presidential candidate in this election. (Yes, I cancelled my digital subscription to WaPo after reading that owner, Jeff Bezos, had put the kibosh to the endorsement of Kamala Harris, which had already been drafted by the paper’s editorial board.) I read Bezos’s explanation of his “principled” decision to not endorse any candidate, which had the distinct smell of cowardice.
Why am I endorsing Kamala Harris? Let me start with
this: she is not Donald Trump. I lived through Trump’s first term and remember
clearly how bad it was. He withheld military aid to Ukraine in order to try to
extort from its new president an agreement to investigate Joe Biden. Trump was
impeached for that, but his sycophants in the Senate voted to acquit him. With
the assistance of the slithery, senior Senator from Kentucky, Trump was able to
appoint three Supreme Court justices – enough to overturn Roe v. Wade, removing
a constitutionally protected right that women had possessed for fifty years.
He bungled the response to COVID. Rather than
encouraging Americans to get the vaccine that was rapidly developed to Trump’s
credit, he sided with anti-vaxxers who discouraged its use. He tried to repeal
the Affordable Care Act which prohibits insurance companies from denying
coverage for pre-existing conditions and allows young adults to remain covered
by their parents’ health coverage till age 26, rather than 18. His signature
achievement was a tax cut that mostly benefited corporations and wealthy
Americans. He lied constantly during his term in office – over 30,000 false or
misleading statements. And he authored the Big Lie – that he won the 2020
election. He used that Lie to try to overturn the election results by fomenting
an insurrection, which resulted in a second impeachment.
I could go on about how Trump is a convicted felon, a
man found liable for sexual assault, a man found liable for hundreds of millions
of dollars for cheating on his state taxes, a man who threatens to use the
military against American citizens who oppose him. But, enough said about a
boastful, but craven little man who was handed a fortune by his father and who
would like to be President again to avoid prison.
My blog Post strongly endorses Kamala Harris because
of who she is and what she believes. She will fight to restore a woman’s right
to choose. She will stand with America’s allies and not kowtow to dictators and
strongmen as Trump prefers to do. She supports unions and the middle class. She
supports reasonable immigration reform including the bipartisan compromise bill
that Trump single-handedly killed. She is a key member of the Administration
that produced the best economy in memory with low unemployment, inflation low
and trending downward, and stock prices soaring. She has had experience as a
prosecutor, a Senator, and a Vice-President. She promises to listen to
dissenting voices and to include a Republican in her cabinet. She is a voice
for America’s future rather than a call to return to its past. For these
reasons and so much more, Kamala Harris has this Post’s endorsement.
