The Case for Kamala Harris as President | Bearing Drift

I have donated and worked hard to elect a number of Republican candidates over the years, and there are a number of Kamala Harris’s policies with which I may disagree. I also voted for Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. But I voted for and support Kamala Harris in the general election because there is no question in my mind that Trump poses a threat to democracy and the rule of law. We can correct bad policies through a subsequent election, but it is much harder to regain your democracy once you have lost it. There will be no John Kelly, Jim Mattis, Mark Esper, or Dan Coats to provide guard rails on Donald Trump in a second term.

There is a reason why Trump quotes and admires the autocrat Viktor Orbán of Hungary. Trump is a narcissist who is an inveterate liar who seeks unlimited power without regard to the rule of law. He has been found liable for gross sexual assault and has been taped saying when you are a celebrity you can do anything you want, including grabbing women by the genitalia. That’s not locker room talk. That is an insight to a person’s soul and a confession that he will gleefully abuse a position of power.

Trump tried to overthrow one election. Is there really any question in your mind whether he would try to do it again if he lost this election? I respectfully submit that we should not let someone who cravenly seeks unchecked power in order to abuse it anywhere near the most powerful office on earth. There is a reason why so many people who served in his administration vehemently oppose Trump’s election, including his secretaries of defense, military joint chief of staff, national security advisor, and chief of staff.

Nor are his espoused policies remotely conservative. He would hand Ukraine over to Putin. He says he doesn’t like Taiwan and that Taiwan should pay the U.S. protection money like businesses pay protection money to the mob (Rogen interview). He wants to impose 200-300% tariffs on all imports, not understanding that those exorbitant import taxes get passed on to the consumer. Every respected economist across the spectrum says that policy alone will drive up inflation and trigger a deep recession.

He wants to put the addled Robert Kennedy Jr. in charge of health care. I understand the power of our tribal nature. I fully understand how insidious cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias can be. But I ask my Republican friends, many with whom I have worked shoulder to shoulder on countless campaigns, to step back and ask themselves: what would Ronald Reagan think of Donald Trump? What would you think if a Democrat acted like Trump and said many of the vile things Trump says and how he cozies up to Putin and other autocrats?

I know many of the people I call friends would set their proverbial hair on fire. I have friends who have or will vote for Trump and they remain my friends. They simply cannot bring themselves to believe that this nearly 80-year-old man poses such a danger. But I ask them this. What if you’re wrong? Do you really want to take that chance?

William H. Shewmake is a senior contributor for Bearing Drift.