What's At Stake in November

We're getting to the end of the campaign, but that hasn't stopped Donald Trump and the Republicans from piling up the lies in an attempt to frighten people into voting for them. I'm not sure why Trump doesn't like the country, but he sure isn't shy about painting the United States in deep, dark shades. It's a far cry from the Harris smile and laugh, which says to me that she's got a far more accurate sense of what's happening in the country today.

And just in case you're waffling, or you don't think your vote will count much, here are some reminders about what's at stake in November.

We can now count JD Vance as an election denier, which means it doesn't matter what the votes say, if Kamala Harris wins the presidency, Vance and Trump will stop at nothing to get the results overturned. In that sense, January 6th will be remembered as a mere rehearsal for the mayhem I'm sure the Republicans are planning. It's a scary proposition, but, as opposed to Trump's dark musings, this is one terrible event that he has promised will happen. Every Harris supporter, and those who see the consequences of a palace coup, needs to vote Democratic on election day.

There's also the issue of climate change. Trump believes that it's a hoax and has committed himself to unleashing more fracking and drilling for oil if he's elected. This would be a disaster for the country and the world. Other countries are making great strides in their transition to sustainable sources of energy. We would instantly lose not only credibility in the world, but would also sacrifice our ability to attract investments to new energy technologies. And of course, we would be polluting the air and water and making more people sick because the president is ignorant of the facts.

And all you need to know about what Trump and the Republicans believe about the climate is in the misinformation and outright conspiracy theories concerning the two hurricanes that hit the country in the past two weeks. It's as if the conspiracies are now the news, and the real news is a minor point of contention that people can dismiss without concern. And even more moderate Republicans who try to get the truth out are being hammered down and ignored.

It doesn't stop with the climate. The continued conspiracies about immigrants--legal and undocumented--are the fuel to Trump's fire. He's now blaming immigrants for all of the country's problems from the economy to why people of color will outnumber whites within 20 years. What's really terrible about this is that he's creating victims who now face angry residents in their own towns for doing nothing more than moving there, getting a good job, sending their children to school, and contributing to their communities. They didn't take anybody's jobs; they filled in where the local population could not fill those jobs. And they buy goods from local merchants, which helps the town.

But to Donald Trump, these are horrible people. From a moral perspective, any presidential candidate who creates a situation where decent, law-abiding people are not safe in their communities because they've been singled out, is not qualified to be president. Yet people join in, or, worse, continue to support a man whose default is vile, xenophobic, nativist hatred.

He's done the same thing with the trans population, singling them out in a national advertising blitz as enemies of all that's decent in this country. Reasonable people can discuss the issue of gender and sports, or sexual orientation, or whether prison rehabilitation includes helping a person live the life they were meant to live, but to victimize another group of Americans, or to question whether someone who wants to transition to the gender they are meant to be, is reprehensible.

But wait! There's more!

Do you want more of your rights taken away? Want more justices who will take away your health care or ability to marry the person you love? Then by all means, elect Donald Trump and a Republican Senate. But if you care about justice and protecting ordinary citizens rather than the wealthy, then your only choice is Kamala Harris and the Democratic Senatorial candidate in your state (not all states are electing Senators). The last thing I want is for Donald Trump to be allowed to appoint more backward-thinking judges who believe that the law only protects ideas and types of people who were part of the country in 1789.

This is critical, and not an issue that you hear a great deal about, but conservative justices could change this country to reflect their views on marriage, religion in schools and the public square, and a narrow morality that, sadly, mirrors the amorality of Donald Trump.

As for foreign policy, a Trump presidency would be a most welcome gift for dictators everywhere, but especially for Vladimir Putin. Trump believes that Ukraine, not Russia, was actually behind the spying on his campaign in 2016, and of course he was impeached for trying to lean on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zalensky to get dirt on the Bidens. Trump’s plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine is very simple: Give Putin everything he wants, including the land that Russia has stolen, and disqualify Ukraine from joining NATO. It would be the most brazen act of appeasement since Munich in 1938. And Putin would certainly see it that way.

And then there’s Israel. In the end, my view is that the only way there will be security for Israel and peace in the region is for the Palestinians to have their own state without any influence from Hamas or Hezbollah. Otherwise, Israel will be forced to continue to fight wars to defend itself and the Palestinians will continue to live in unconscionable conditions. Kamala Harris has already said that she supports a two-state solution. Trump does not. His position is a recipe for more deaths and more violence.

This November, the stakes are incredibly high. Search for the facts and leave the conspiracy theories, the blame, the hatred, the victimization, the xenophobia, and the lies where they belong; out of the ballot box.