And an election shall come to pass
Dear Lindsey, Daniel, Dylan, and Emma:
Remember my previous two open letters about the imminent presidential election? Shred or delete both of them if you haven’t done so already. They were written worlds ago, before Joe Biden unselfishly withdrew from contention and turned the race on its head.
This will be my last message to you before the critical vote on November 5, actually a process already underway in many states through early balloting. But before I offer my clear preference for a candidate, I’d like to take a final run at trying to deconstruct the most vexing, perplexing, norm and form defying, truth-distorted campaign I’ve ever experienced, and yet one, ironically, that presents me with a clear, unambiguous choice.
When I cast my first ballot in the early 1960s, the voting threshold was 21, and now it’s 18. What makes this election cycle especially meaningful for me as your zaydie, is that this is the first time all four grandchildren can vote for a president. I know each of you takes this responsibility seriously and considers it both a privilege and civic duty.
Therefore, I’d like you to reflect with me on all that’s come to pass since my last letter.
Kamala Harris seamlessly became the Democratic candidate, enjoyed a coronation at the convention, eviscerated Donald Trump at their first and only debate, and watched her poll numbers climb. Since then, she’s campaigned tirelessly and relentlessly but has been criticized for supposedly avoiding interviews and not offering policy particulars, both of which I find to be baseless.
Ms. Harris has been ramping up interviews (even on Fox News) and has been quite specific about an agenda. Her top domestic priority centers on creating massive new middle-class housing construction and growing opportunities for home ownership through downpayment grants. She would also increase tax credits for child care, provide forgivable loans to entrepreneurs, fight price gouging, widen health coverage for in-home services, balance climate initiatives with energy requirements, defend election integrity and the rule of law, and restore women’s reproductive rights to at least the status they had before Roe was overturned.
She also envisions tough border controls and prosecutions, immigration reform, a rebalancing of Trump-era tax legislation which now favors the super wealthy (an advantage Mr. Trump would make even greater if elected), and crime and gun controls that are sensible, straightforward, and bipartisan, winning the backing of many in the law enforcement community.
The personal background and biography of Ms. Harris speaks to her relatability to the middle class and its prosperity. Nowhere is this more evident than in her proposal to drive down drug prices and make Obamacare even more affordable and comprehensive. Conversely, her opponent clearly intends to try once again to destroy the system. When she asked him point-blank at their debate with what, he weakly replied, with “concepts”.
Internationally, Mrs. Harris would continue as a staunch supporter of Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Donald Trump, incredibly, blames for starting the war against Russia. As a believer in allies and alliances, she’s likely to endorse eventual NATO and European Union membership for Kyiv. She’s also vowed to continue tough trade and military policies against China in concert with our Pacific partners, including Taiwan.
Regarding Israel, Ms. Harris pledges the same ironclad defense and security assurances given and delivered by President Biden. She is clear-eyed about the threat posed by Iran and its proxies, and harbors no illusions about who perpetrated the awfulness of October 7 and should be held accountable. Her calls for humanitarian assistance in Gaza reflects a larger concern for global health and healing, not a compromised pro-Israeli stance.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the political divide, Mr. Trump escaped two assassination attempts and reacted by spewing a greater volume of bombastic and bizarre screeds against his new opponent. When he scowled, Ms. Harris smiled. When he went lower, she became more buoyant. As his vision for America darkened, hers brimmed with optimism. And when he challenged her racial identity and IQ, she shrugged it off as warmed-over twaddle.
As questions about age, fitness, and cognitive acuity once asked of Mr. Biden now came to dog Mr. Trump, his supporters remained as baked-in as ever. The 78-year-old convicted felon and billionaire (on paper) added “the enemies within” fiction to his repertoire of rebarbative ramblings about Haitian immigrants eating dogs, and disaster relief being withheld for political reasons. (Recall Mr. Trump’s actions when he visited Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017 and condescendingly tossed packages of paper towels at residents of the battered island.)
While Ms. Harris began receiving the endorsements and active support of prominent Republicans like Liz Cheney, her father, Dick, and retired FBI Director William Webster, a dozen of Mr. Trump’s former top advisers and military chiefs publicly repudiated him as manifestly unfit for the office. He has been notably unsuccessful in wooing Democrats to his side.
With only days to go before the most consequential election in generations, one in which democracy itself is at stake, the optics and contrast between the two candidates couldn’t be starker. And yet, after all the sound (bytes) and fury, point and counterpoint, ad blitzes and social media saturation, a polarized electorate that lacks a robust, persuadable center is keeping the race virtually and agonizingly deadlocked.
Polls suggest slight movement in several battleground states favoring the Democratic nominee, and a similar Sunbelt trend for the GOP standard-bearer. The results are within the margin of error and don’t reflect a breakout for either one. The slightest financial tremor, global crisis (aren’t there enough already?) or political misstep between now and November 5 could spell the difference for either. (Or maybe not, since the needle hasn’t moved after each new revelation, charge, or countercharge.)
For a moment, consider voters who may not make their choice until they enter the polling station or fill out mail ballots. Whether they are Never Trumpers, MAGA-maniacs, double haters, or intransigent opponents of a woman of color breaking two glass ceilings at once by winning the nation’s (and the world’s) highest elective office, this small but crucial segment of the electorate could figure decisively in the popular result since both candidates are scouring for every voter at the margins.
Then, factor in the distinct and competing interests of Jewish, Latino, African American, Asian, and Arab American cohorts. Each represents a different center of gravity, but each is far from monolithic. Will Jews and Blacks rally as overwhelmingly as they have in the past for the Democratic ticket at the top and also down-ballot? Will Latino and Arab constituencies express their grievances by moving in significant numbers to the Republican camp?
Next, delve deeper into gender subsets. Will Ms. Harris be able to narrow Mr. Trump’s considerable lead with white male voters who lack college degrees? Can she convince skeptical Black men that’s she’s tough enough for them to make common cause with her? And can key unions who have withheld their usually reflexive endorsement of the Democratic nominee convince the rank and file that Mrs. Harris will continue the pro-labor policies of the Biden administration?
Conversely, can Mr. Trump cut into his opponent’s over-the-horizon lead with women on the issue of reproductive rights? So far, his wobbly response that the states retain the option of choosing their own abortion policies has rung mostly hollow. Even former First Lady Melania Trump strongly disagrees with her spouse, stating publicly that a woman should control her own body and calling for a return to the status quo before Roe was overturned.
And next, to the really dicey part, the actual tabulation of the results. I don’t necessarily expect a decisive outcome on the evening of November 5, or even the next day. Trump partisans have had four years to put in place the infrastructure to challenge, undermine, corrupt, and delay the count if the arithmetic is not going their way. One only hopes that the Justice Department, appropriate state watchdog agencies, and Democratic truth squads are fully deployed to counter bogus challenges. Election security and integrity, from the White House to your house, is very much being tested.
By now, dear grandchildren, it should be obvious that I am going to vote — with enthusiasm and hope — for Ms. Harris. After conversations with each of you, I know your hearts and intellects align with mine. Our republic cannot absorb the chaos, coarseness, and callousness of another Trump term. His amorality, lack of depth or curiosity, fascist tendencies, grievances, misogyny, narcissism, vulgarity, flouting the law, stoking hate groups, and toadying to the worst dictators on the planet feed into an increasingly disturbed persona.
The man who instigated the January 6 insurrection and called it “a day of love,” who threw his vice president under the bus when his life was in danger, who refused to release his medical records, or pledge that he would abide by the results of the election, needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history as the one-term, worst president we’ve had to endure.
Jonathan E. Lazarus is a former editor of the Star-Ledger and now writes and edits copy for the Jewish Standard and New Jersey Jewish News.
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