Editorial: Harris’ policy proposals are clearly superior to Trump’s
Published: 10-04-2024 10:01 PM
Modified: 10-06-2024 7:10 PM |
In endorsing Hillary Clinton for president in this space in 2016, we asked which America voters wanted to live in: Donald Trump’s — full of sound and fury, anxiety ridden and resentment driven, conspiracy-minded and fact averse; or Clinton’s — a world flawed, like the candidate herself, but one which remained dedicated to the proposition “that people are capable of living together peacefully, if occasionally uncomfortably, and solving their problems through democratic self-government.”
To our dismay, but not complete surprise, the voters chose the dark side. The question now, eight years later, is whether, having tasted the bitter fruit of that experiment — four years of turmoil and vitriol and lying — Americans will give Trump the chance to finish what he started in his first term, culminating in the violent insurrection of Jan. 6. Trump has left little doubt that if he regains office, he intends to claim and exercise powers consistent with authoritarian rule.
For instance, he makes no secret of his intention to use the machinery of the federal government, including the Justice Department and the IRS, to prosecute and persecute those he perceives to be his enemies. He also intends to deputize local law enforcement and the National Guard to help federal authorities round up 11 million undocumented immigrants, herd them into detention camps and summarily deport them. He promises to bring violence to bear on those engaged in retail theft.
Should you think that these are only dark fantasies incapable of being put into effect, bear in mind that the U.S. Supreme Court has issued an open invitation for just this kind of subversion of democracy by proclaiming that presidents enjoy virtually unlimited immunity for official acts. That is, contrary to the intentions of the nation’s founders, that they are above the law.
Fortunately, the Democrats have a stronger candidate to oppose Trump than they did in 2016. Not only does Vice President Kamala Harris carry lighter baggage than Hillary Clinton, she and her running mate, Tim Walz, have a much closer connection with ordinary Americans and a deeper understanding of their aspirations and struggles. She manages to be at once tough-minded and empathetic, outstanding qualifications for the presidency. We endorse her without reservation.
Harris’ policy proposals are clearly superior to Trump’s, insofar as he has any beyond self-aggrandizement. For instance, her approach to border security is balanced one. Rather than mass deportations, Harris supports both boosting enforcement and creating more pathways to legal immigration. On economics, her focus on alleviating the high cost of housing, particularly for working- and middle-class families, is most welcome. Trump promises more of his same on the economy, irresponsible tax cuts combined with increased tariffs that promise to reignite inflation. Harris would continue the Biden administration’s vital support for Ukraine; in his debate with Harris, Trump declined to answer affirmatively when he was asked if he wanted Ukraine to prevail against Russian aggression unleashed by his buddy, Vladimir Putin.
In some sense, though, the policies are beside the point. At bottom, this election is about whether the rule of law and democratic norms will continue to guide our national life during a Harris administration, or whether they will be ground down to the vanishing point by Trump.
Trump has largely remade the Republican Party in his own image, and his victory would reflect and reinforce that ugliness. The party’s organizing principle now is telling Americans how they should live their private lives.
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A vote for Harris is a vote for preserving and restoring what we will call the liberties of everyday life: the freedom to read what you want without government censorship; the freedom to love your cat, or whomever you want, without official derision; the freedom to send your children to school without the fear that they are walking through the valley of the shadow of death; the freedom to welcome newcomers from other countries to your community without becoming the target of hatred stoked by political opportunists; the freedom to make your own reproductive and family planning decisions rather than being dictated to by a Supreme Court majority, including three Trump appointees, or the politicians they have emboldened in statehouses around the nation.
We are not asserting that a Harris victory would turn these things around in four years; the country has a long way to go to regain its bearings. But it would guarantee that the problems of everyday life continue to be addressed through a political system that maintains the democratic faith.