(Photo adapted from an official White House photo by Lawrence Jackson)
This last week the billionaire owners of both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times prevented their newspaper editorial staffs from endorsing Kamala Harris for President of the United States. The rationale given for these interventions are thin gruel indeed, and belie the reasons that everyone already knows are behind the actions: These billionaire owners know an actual fascist has a reasonable chance of once more becoming president of the United States. This fascist does not care about the First Amendment to the US Constitution, or indeed any part of the US Constitution at all; he wants and intends to be a ruler with unlimited power — and the US Supreme Court, in a ruling this summer that will rank as one of the all-time misbegotten court decisions in the history of the country, has decided that US Presidents effectively have that unlimited power for “official acts.” They cannot rely on this fascist to restrain himself, or for the increasingly compliant courts of this nation to restrain him. Besides, at least one of these billionaires has government contracts.
So they are pulling their punches and hedging their bets. In this, they are cowards, but they are also calculating, and because of those calculations, are being pre-emptively compliant to the fascist. If Harris wins, they will have lost nothing; Harris, they know, is not a fascist, and even if she remembers their cowardice, calculation and compliance, she will do nothing about it. But if the fascist wins, well. They have ready evidence of their fealty. Billionaires are not overly bothered by incipient fascism, after all.
Indeed, it’s already well in evidence that at least a plurality of prominent billionaires would prefer fascism at this point; it’s easier to flatter and bribe than it is to comply with regulations. Their concerns are not the concerns of the millions of Americans whose rights and prospects will be threatened by a fascist in the White House. They never have been. They never will be. A fascist in the White House is all right with them.
Make no mistake: Donald Trump, in his words and actions of this election season and beyond, has shown himself a fascist. The will to power; the anger; the assertion that the “enemy within” (i.e., anyone who does not bow the knee) is a greater threat than the foreign despots he is so cravenly in the pockets of; the desire to use the military to attack and punish American citizens; the contempt for the rule of law; the intent to enforce loyalty to him as a condition of government employment; the almost certain attempt to implement the policies in the Project 2025 playbook; the bald declaration to be a dictator from day one.
Those who worked with him in his first administration openly call him fascist, and they would know better than anyone else; they saw him day to day, restrained only by (some of) his underlings’ dedication to the actual rule of law. Those underlings, the ones so fervently warning us against Trump now, will not be there to dissuade him in a second administration. The guardrails, as they say, are off. At this point, anyone who says that Trump isn’t, by action and intent, a fascist, is either ignorant or complicit, or some combination of the two.
In any other year where Kamala Harris was the Democratic candidate for the President of the United States, she would have my endorsement. She’s an incredibly smart and canny politician with a track record of supporting things that are important to me, a long and thoughtful sheaf of policies that she wants to implement if she gets into office, and someone who, has a prosecutor, attorney general, senator and vice president, has shown herself a good steward of the law of this land, and a dedicated servant of its people. She is, simply put, a no-brainer for the role. She’s not perfect and I don’t expect her to be, and I don’t imagine her tenure as President will be a cakewalk, especially in this current political climate. But at the end of the day it’s difficult to find anyone with a better track record to be president than she already has. In any year, she would likely be the best candidate. In any year, I would be happy to give her my vote.
This isn’t any year. The distinctions between the two candidates could not be any sharper, and the consequences for the future of the country couldn’t be greater. It’s tiring to live in an era which each presidential election is the most important election in the history of our democracy, but here we are, and it is what it is. On one hand you have a lifetime public servant who is dedicated to continuance of American democracy, imperfect as it may be, and to the idea that the US should be a place of opportunity for all of its people. On the other hand you have a convicted felon who wants to rule by fiat, backed by a cadre of authoritarians, starting with a bought-and-paid-for Vice Presidential candidate, who want to detonate a century of social and economic progress, and shove anyone who is not white, straight and male (and, critically, already rich, even if they are white, straight and male) as far down a hole as they can.
Note well that the above is focusing only on what’s best for the United States; for the rest of the world, politically, economically and ecologically, the consequences of this election will be as stark, if not more so. The choice is between stability and the strengthening of alliances, and, bluntly, a plunge into chaos. Whatever place and people you are concerned about, a Trump administration will make their problems much worse; any argument one might have otherwise is either unduly hopeful or tragically naive. The only international beneficiaries of a second Trump administration will be despots. They will be delighted to have him back. A little light flattery, and they can do whatever they want to whomever they like.
I am deeply tired of Donald Trump and everything about his shitty, selfish, criminal and hateful self, a man whose only lasting legacy to this point is encouraging the worst parts of the American public to free themselves of any social bond to their neighbors and to be be just as awful as their idol. Kamala Harris fucking laughs, and seems happy, and actually appears to like people, not just tolerate people she needs something from. It would be too much to say she embodies the better idea of what the US could be — that’s a lot to put on anyone — but I will say that at least when I look at her, I know that there’s a chance that the better idea of what the US could be is possible. I can’t look at Trump at this point and see anything but hate and anger, and the worst of what we are as a nation.
I deserve better than Donald Trump. We all do, even and including the people who will, to me unfathomably, give him their vote once again.
The billionaire owners of the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times can hedge their bets about the possibility of a fascist in the White House, unrestrained by the rule of law and the idea that Americans are citizens, not subjects. The rest of us, including me, cannot. I want the United States that Donald Trump can’t, never could, and would never want to, give us all. That United States is one I believe Kamala Harris is working toward, and would continue to work toward as President.
In any year, Kamala Harris would be my choice for President of the United States. In this year, she is the only choice. She has my vote. She should have yours as well.
— JS