As the campaign cycle draws to a tense
close, with only a few hours remaining before election day, the two presidential
candidates have provided voters with messages that are as clearly contrasted as
night and day. I should start by explaining to my Republican friends that this
is not a news story. It is an opinion piece, in which I am stating my
position and observations as clearly and honestly as I can, unfettered by any
editorial line. I am an independent observer and writer, beholden to no editorial
board or party line. And speaking in pure umpirese, “I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em.”
The only thing I have to gain or lose by
sharing my outlook is the off chance that I it might, in some small way, prompt
someone undecided to make what, for me, is the only appropriate decision. Or,
at least, to give some thought to the points I make.
Other than that, this essay, like all
others that I write and share, is a way of logically coming to grips with my
own doubts and fears. It is a vehicle for ordering my own thoughts, of
accumulating information and seeking to distill it into knowledge, and of achieving
what I feel to be a reasonably educated opinion.
That said, though it pains me a little to
admit it, I’m almost grateful to Donald Trump for his campaign performance
during these final days before elections. My gut feeling is that he has done
more in a few short days to swing women and undecided voters toward Harris than
all of the spin-masters working for the Democratic campaign put together. He
has, in short, done everything he could to underscore everything that has gone
into the formation of an enormous body of never-Trumpers, which now includes a
not insignificant number of Republicans and Independents. He has even convinced—as
indicated by most recent trends and polling—many who have never voted Democrat,
never voted for a woman, and never voted for a minority, that there’s no responsible
choice in this historically consequential election but to hold their noses and
vote for Kamala Harris.
Faiz Shakir, former campaign adviser to Bernie
Sanders for the 2020 Democratic primary campaign, stated it most succinctly.
According to him, Trump has “focused on die-hards and the likely-to-be-inclined”—in
other words, the fawning MAGA crowd who unconditionally stroke his
pathologically oversized ego. “For anyone who didn't like the behavior, conduct
and management of his last presidency,” Shakir continues, “he gave them
nothing."
Indeed, in these last days of the run-up
to Election Tuesday, Trump has given all but his most fanatical supporters less
than nothing to cling to. Just to recap, his final rallies and statements
before the election have been a litany of lies and complaints about the
election he lost (and still doesn’t concede he lost), suggestions that
he should have “stayed in office” in spite of that clear loss, rampant conspiracy
theories about fraud in an election that has yet to take place, and insults and
threats to his opponent and her supporters.
As if that were not enough, he has doubled
down on, and vastly expanded, the kind of violent rhetoric that he has used and
promoted since he first ran for office in 2016. The freshest of these violence-laden
messages happened Sunday at a Pennsylvania rally when he suggested he would be
okay with members of the campaign press corps being shot. (He apparently has “having
people shot” on the brain lately). Specifically, he said, “I have this piece of glass here but all we
have really over here is the fake news, right? And, to get me, somebody would
have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much, coz…I don’t
mind, I don’t mind that.”
Last week at a Wisconsin rally, Trump ranted for a full four minutes about his
mic. He talked about "knocking the hell, out of the people backstage” who
had given it to him. He also called the organizers/workers “stupid”. Then, complaining
that the microphone was “too low, too low,” he started pretending to have oral
and manual sex with the mic stand. I mean, his acting was quite good in this
case, so there was no doubt about what he was mimicking, even if he later
claimed he was pretending to “eat a corndog” (and speaking of dogs, this lame
explanation is sort of like, “the dog ate my homework”).
Earlier, he vented his fury against
staunchly conservative Republican Liz Cheney for putting country before party
and supporting Kamala Harris. He ranted about Cheney’s being “a war hawk” and
suggested she should be facing “nine (gun) barrels pointed at her face.” Trump
supporters immediately started scrambling to spin what we all heard—and, even
though it came from Trump, were shocked by—saying that the statement was taken “out
of context.” Apologists claimed that what he meant to say was that if
she were a “war hawk”, she should be sent into battle and have to face gunfire “the
way our troops do.” But that simply doesn’t wash, because there is no
appropriate or didactic context in which a politician can suggest that an
opponent—whether from their party or any other—should have guns pointed at his
or her face.
I’ve asked Trump Republicans—rhetorically,
of course—and ask them again now, if Liz Cheney were to say that, Trump, because
of his behavior in the January Sixth Insurrection (2021), is a traitor to his
nation (which, as a key member of the J-6 Committee investigative team, she
very likely believes), would they, in all fairness, find it acceptable for her
to say that he should face a firing squad? And would “context” be considered an
acceptable justification for her saying it if she did? In other words, what
sort of righteous outrage would we have had to listen to from Trump supporters
if Cheney had suggested gun violence against Trump instead of the other way
around?
There have been numerous other instances
of violent rhetoric from Trump in the run-up to tomorrow’s election, but I rest
my case. Suffice it to say that words matter, and especially coming from
a perpetually angry cult leader like Donald Trump. Words not only matter, they also
spark deeds. Just ask the one hundred forty police officers injured during the
January Sixth Insurrection at the Capitol Building, or the family of the one
who died at the hands of Trump’s rioters. Ask relatives of the Trump supporter
who was shot to death seeking to breach the congressional chamber, where
members of Congress were cowering in fear for their lives. Ask, as well, stateswoman
Nancy Pelosi and her husband whose lives were ruined when a crazy Trump
supporter, pumped up by his cult leader’s violent rhetoric, broke into the
Pelosi home, hoping to find the Speaker and kill her, but instead settled for
beating her spouse’s skull in with a claw-hammer.
Trump is also telling people, in no uncertain
terms, that he plans to be a dictator. All you have to do is listen to the
not-so-subtle dog whistles. In these last days of the campaign, in practically
the same breath in which, for the umpteenth time, he suggested that former Speaker
of the House and former House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff were
“horrible people”, Trump told a crowd that he would be going after his enemies
if he became president. And he added that he might very well use the National
Guard “or even the military” to do it. He also suggested he would go after “disloyal”
(to him) general officers within that military, including decorated generals
like John Kelly, who was once Trump’s closest adviser, and now, based on his
experience with him, describes the former president as “a fascist.” Or like
General Mark Milley, who was the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump—and
may very well have successfully kept the ex-president from slapping the US under
martial law and ruling by decree.
For someone like myself, who has not only
lived through but actually had to survive a military dictatorship, as an
opposition newsman and foreign correspondent in Argentina during the
nineteen-seventies and eighties, these words are chilling. Not only that, but
they also underscore what I’ve been warning about in the US since the turn of
the century. Namely, that giving ever-increasing power to the Executive Branch—as
has been happening since the Reagan Era—is dangerous, and has a cumulatively
pernicious effect. I warned long before Donald Trump reared his ugly head, that
while strong central government might seem attractive when people want someone
to “keep them safe” and when those holding the power act judiciously and
wisely, it only takes one despot, one madman, to abuse that expanding power and
end up overthrowing the existing order.
In case some of you haven’t noticed, that time
is here! Donald Trump is that despot, that madman, and he has already proven
that he is perfectly capable of seeking to hold onto power by force. Our checks
and balances, the guardrails that maintain the division of powers, managed to
hold in 2020, when, for the first time in history, a president refused to
uphold the peaceful transfer of power and sparked an insurrection to try and
remain in power, despite certifiably failing to win a free and fair election.
The guardrails held, as I say, but only barely. And only because there were a
handful authentic small-d democrats who defended them—then-Vice President Mike
Pence, House Speaker Pelosi, Congressman Schiff, former Republican Senate
Leader Mitch McConnell, some (but certainly not all) members of Congress, and,
with uncommon courage and resolve, the Capitol Police, among others.
But it seems clear as day to me that American
democracy, the two-and-a-half-century-old experiment dreamed by the framers of
the Republic, simply will not survive another term of the Trump Era. While we
have whistled in the dark for the past four years after experiencing the most
consequential interruption of representative democracy since the Civil War, and
pretended that everything is okay, it is not. The Trump Era has done grave
damage to the fabric of the Nation. It has weakened the floor of our democratic
institutions, cast fabricated doubt on our election process, born false witness
against Trump’s opponents, and divided Americans as they have never been
divided since the Southern slave states declared their rebellion against the
Union in 1861.
In the closing of her campaign, Vice
President Kamala Harris’s message could not be more distinct from her opponent’s.
While Trump’s campaign has been dark,
seeking to picture the US as a horrible, dangerous place that only he can fix—and
only do so by force—Kamala Harris’s rallies have been upbeat, buoyant, and full
of positive visions for the future. The enthusiasm has been electric and the
crowds huge—despite Trump’s attempts to dismiss them as “fake news”.
Harris’s points have been clear and easy
to understands. She has aptly described Trump as “a petty tyrant”, adding that "These
United States of America, we are not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe
dictators. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever
devised."
"America, we know what Donald Trump
has in mind,” she said. “More chaos, more division, and policies that help
those in the very top and hurt everyone else. I offer a different path."
Appearing to speak to still undecided
voters, the vice president said, "This is not a candidate for president who
is thinking about how to make your life better. Donald Trump has spent a decade
trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That is
who he is, but America, I am here tonight to say that is not who we are."
She pointed out that while Trump
consistently threatens and demeans his opponents, "I don't believe people
who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I'll give
them a seat at the table."
Reminding voters of the support she has
received from Liz Cheney and other Republican politicians, as well as of some
two hundred thirty former Trump administration officials who have vowed to vote
for her, she added, "We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking
arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and
division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America."
Harris has also shown a kind of humility
that marks another stark difference with Trump. She has told more than one
audience, "I'll be honest with you. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. But
here's what I promise you. I will always listen to you. Even if you don't vote
for me. I will always tell you the truth, even if it is difficult to
hear."
It seems to me, putting aside issues,
policy and governance that will all only take shape when the votes are counted
and the winner is inaugurated, the choice tomorrow, for those who have yet to
cast their ballot, is clear. The Nation can elect a tyrannical narcissist, who has
already demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that everything he does is
self-serving and aimed at consolidating his grasp on absolute power to the
everlasting detriment of democracy, the Constitution, and American traditions,
and a man who will alienate the rest of the Western world from America. Or it
can elect a new generation, a forward-looking leader, who will, for the first
time, bring a woman’s vision to the office, who is sincere and inspired in her
patriotic verve, and who will do everything in her power to create social harmony
while upholding justice both at home and abroad.
Today’s the day. Today we choose whether to
advance into the light, or to slip inexorably backward into darkness.
