Here we are almost in the middle of October of another special year ending with an even number and we all know what that means. The date is fast approaching for all of us to get ourselves to our local voting precinct and mark a ballot in the latest “most important election of our lifetime.” With party conventions and all candidate debates in the rearview, we have little to look forward to aside from all the damned nonstop campaigning until the polls close on that first Tuesday in November. In bygone years it may have been wholly reasonable to dismiss all the brouhaha of politicians competing for support of that slim segment of undecided voters as a long run for a short slide. Those undecideds number even fewer now. For those who are decided, the contrast between the two major parties could not be as crisp as they are this year. One Presidential candidate is a former prosecutor running to preserve individual civil liberties and the democratic institutions of the American Republic while the other is a convicted felon literally running to stay out of jail! The sooner is running a more traditional political campaign, and the latter more resembles an ill-mannered and stale night club act. As has been the case in more recent elections, the candidates are running nearly neck and neck nationally according to the majority of both broadcast and print media. This should not be at all surprising because a close horse race is good for ratings, and in media-driven America ratings matter the most. True to form, the showman candidate representing the MAGA/GOP has dialed up the volume and frequency on his usual modus operandi: if all else fails, make up stuff. Per his usual, the more over-the-top his rhetoric the more media attention he attracts. Facts do not matter to him and his disconnect from reality is in too many instances toeing the line of dangerous. It is mind-boggling that anyone insisting that illegal immigrants are “eating the dogs, eating the cats, eating the pets” stands an even chance at once again having access to the nuclear launch codes! It is a definite sign of our times that nearly half of our body politic has devolved to the point of supporting such a candidate. The frightening part is that facts and scientifically based information do not matter as they accept all coming from the former President’s mouth as factual truth.
As alluded to above, the Democratic ticket is our sitting vice-president whose resume contains a history of service as district attorney of a major city and a state attorney general. Her running mate is a sitting state governor and former six-term congressional representative who is a retired Army National Guard senior enlisted man. The MAGA/GOP challengers are a twice impeached one term former president who was convicted on thirty-four felony counts of fraud earlier this year with sentencing pending and a Yale-educated former Marine and currently sitting U.S. senator who has seemingly reinvented himself multiple times. One ticket promotes a reasonable plan for governing going forward, the other is reviving prior grievances and promising to take the nation back to the social unrest and economic disastrous times of the previous administration with “concepts of a plan.” One side exudes hope and joy while the other side preaches gloom and doom. On a personal level, I’ve always been leery of anyone who publicly roots for America to fail. Looking at the two campaigns side by side one can almost visualize what they represent.
Truthfully speaking, what passes for the former president’s campaign rallies and especially his speeches during them would be pathetically laughable if the consequences of his victory were not so grim. There are several valid reasons so many people in government and business fear a second term of the 45th president. Chief among them is the candidate’s blatant unfitness for the office. For the first time in history there is a competitive candidate for the highest public office in the land that carries with him such baggage as being twice impeached as president, convicted of 34 felonies of 91 counts thus far, still facing charges related to a violent insurrection against the federal government in an effort to stop the certification of a legitimate presidential election and these are only the major legal issues. There is also a litany of minor ones along with a lengthy list of ethical violations too long to list here. What is comforting is knowing that a legion of high-profile Republicans whose ethical scruples have prompted them to come out publicly against their own party’s candidate. It also helps to know that many of those same Republicans support the ticket opposing that of their own party.
By far the most sobering part of the 2024 Vote is all of which very much hangs in the balance. With one candidate being a convicted felon that still must face sentencing, he is pulling out all the stops in terms of mis/disinformation for the sake of garnering all the votes he possibly can, and nothing is sacrosanct. As he has done in the last two elections, he is muddling the water way ahead of the vote count with accusations of mass voter fraud and ballot tampering. His minions in the Congress have done all they can to marginalize and limit voting access of communities that are likely to not vote for him. They have also gone so far as to pack state election boards with his devotees. Nothing is off limits to him in his ultimate quest to avoid prison. The only thing more frightening than that is what most Americans stand to lose in the event he does become President again. As it has been stated elsewhere, if he has gone to the trouble of writing a playbook he will use it. That playbook is known as Agenda 47. Contained therein is a radical makeover of the federal government as we know it with expansion of executive powers, abolition of the Department of Education and an array of other extreme modifications. There will also be proposed at the very least a federal abortion ban despite his denials about it. Many of us recall the damage done to our financial portfolios when he as president ham-handedly began to try to manipulate tariffs in early 2018 and nearly tanked the market. We shudder to think what we would have to deal with should that happen again. We can also count on another seven trillion added to the national debt after tax cuts to his billionaire backers. Suffice to say, there are no real positives in the election of a failed president with a lengthy rap sheet.
Whether you like the sitting VP and her running mate or not, we must realize she stands on the side of the Constitution, the rule of law and institutional norms. Make no mistake about it, the top priority of the Democratic nominee is to preserve the American democratic process and safeguard liberty for those who are marginalized. It might help to know that “perfect” does not exist. Like the rest of us, the top and the bottom of the ticket opposing MAGA may have flaws as people, but they are honest and seasoned public servants. At the end of the day what more can we ask for? That is something to pass along to any of those few undecided voters we might encounter on the way to the polls in a few weeks.
Thanks for reading.
