Why I'm Voting For Harris And Against Trump
I wanted to record this historic moment
For my kids and grandkids, I’ve documented why I am voting FOR Kamala Harris for President in the 2024 election. I trust they will ask me about this historic time decades from now when my memory is frayed. I don’t want to forget. I also wanted to document why I'm voting AGAINST Trump. I suspect they’ll have a hard time believing such a flawed man was ever a US president.
I love those smiles!
FWIW, I wish US elections only lasted 2 months (or less). Any political ads outside that period should be illegal. All this “free” speech is depressing and divisive.
Why I am voting for Harris:
She protects civil rights and finds win/win solutions
She can unite a nation
Her husband's ex-wife supports her
She is a good person
Why I'm voting against Trump:
He’s a name-caller
He’s not bright
His “policies” are dangerous
He’s a very bad man
Why I Am Voting for Kamala Harris:
She protects civil rights and finds win/win solutions
Kamala Harris supported marriage equality before the Democratic party did. 89% of EU countries recognize same-sex marriages. You know who doesn’t? Russia. Yikes.
She also found win/win solutions while treating folks compassionately as a prosecutor. She supported decriminalizing marijuana; see the Marijuana Justice Act. She supported efforts to help people convicted of non-violent drug offenses via the Back on Track program so their lives wouldn’t be destroyed.
“In 2005, Kamala Harris, District Attorney for San Francisco, launched Back on Track (BOT), a reentry initiative aimed at reducing recidivism among low-level drug-trafficking defendants. Combining strict accountability with real opportunities for self improvement, BOT reports that less than 10 percent of its graduates reoffend—a success achieved, moreover, at a fraction of the cost of traditional prosecution and jail time.”
More of this, please.
Instead of name-calling and demonizing, a US President must find solutions that protect basic rights and treat people compassionately.
BTW: Recidivism in the US is about 66% for people convicted of a crime. The US spends $80B a year, way more than other similar countries, and focuses on incarceration, not rehabilitation.
Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries. (2024, October 22). In Wikipedia.
She can unite a nation
Many prominent Republicans are supporting the Harris/Walz ticket. So many groups jumped on board within days of her campaign launch: Black women, Black men, Black queer men, South Asian women, Latinas, Native women, and “White Dudes”, which I joined.
Presidents need to unite and align disparate groups. They are not dictators, so they have to influence people hopefully with facts and emotion. The Biden/Harris administration passed bipartisan legislation to rebuild America, lure back manufacturing, and reduce the cost of healthcare, just to name a few. They did this by working with, not alienating, others.
Her husband's ex-wife supports her
Harris’s husband’s first wife, Kerstin Emhoff, is a vocal supporter of Harris. If you’re divorced and share children with an ex, you know how challenging it can be to keep the peace even when all parties are mature.
Trump’s family history is very checkered. He’s not a family person, imho. I’m not bothered that Trump has been married 3 times but he’s a serial philanderer–he cheats! His first marriage ended when he was caught cheating. In his third marriage, he diddled a porn star when Melania was at home with their newborn. Not sure why I’m surprised Evangelicals LOVE him. Ewww.
She is a good person
Watch how Kamala Harris responds to a Latina woman who shares the heartbreaking story of her mother who died before she could complete the requirements to become a citizen and get proper healthcare.
Here’s Kamala hugging a voter (that woman’s face is my heart).
Have you ever heard Trump talk with such kindness and respect to anyone???
Why I’m Voting Against Donald Trump
Name callers don’t solve problems
Donald Trump calls people names ALL THE TIME. Who calls someone they don’t like or disagree with a NAME? A naughty child.
Name-calling makes things worse by fostering division and disrespect. A President needs to unite people of different views and align them on a shared vision of the future.
He’s not bright
Trump has Boss Hoggs cunning, but he isn’t smart. Consider these facts:
He suggested people inject bleach into their bodies to kill the corona virus; this would kill you. Accidental poisonings increased in the US after his remarks.
Trump said COVID, a pandemic, would go away in April; it’s estimated that more than 200,000 Americans died unnecessarily because Trump’s administration downplayed the seriousness of the virus; unvaccinated people in “Red” states are still dying at a faster rate
Many of his former aids, who are very successful and accomplished people, have called him an “idiot” (General John Kelly), “moron” (Former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson), “dope” (H.R. McMaster) and worse
His lack of intelligence is understandable. He worked for his dad and then he ran his own, very small company because he came from money and inherited over $400M. People don’t tell the boss he’s dumb.
His “policies” are dangerous
Trump brags about overturning Roe v Wade. Banning and restricting abortion is hurting women. Infant mortality is up in states with strict abortion bans and women are dying because they can’t get the care they need in a timely manner. Here’s what’s happening to Texas women.
I have a daughter and nieces and expect to have grandaughters. I view this one issue as a life or death matter.
I have gay family members and friends. Their fundamental civil rights are under attack. Crime against the LGBTQ community is up. Project 2025 if implemented, will roll back marriage equality and codify into law an outdated and hateful ideology–marriage is between a man and a woman.
And I think “othering” migrants is evil. Dehumanizing people isn’t civilized or moral. The bill Trump killed would have been a good start to actually addressing immigration challenges.
You can visit his official agenda on his site. He likes to use language like “war”, “death penalty” to solve problems. Did the War on Drugs solve the drug problem in America? No. Did the War on Terror stop terrorism? No.
He’s a bad man
He lies, cheats, and abuses people. Constantly. Here are 30K instances of him just ignoring the truth. He admitted he lied to the Canadian Prime Minister and laughed about it. Just the other day, he lied again about the Exonerated Central Park 5. Trump said they killed someone; a woman was assaulted by another man but she lived and the man was eventually caught. Trump knows this but to this day, decades later, he repeats the lies because the assailants are black/brown folks.
“The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”
General John Kelly, Trump’s former Chief of Staff
Trump is famous for not paying employees and contractors what he agreed to. Google this for yourself. So many stories. Mark Cuban commented on Trump bragging about not paying overtime recently.
69 women have accused Trump of sexual assault. Trump is a serial sexual predator and was found liable of sexual assault by a jury, not the media or liberal elites. Watch the deposition in which he repeated that celebrities have privileges like groping women without permission. Is it OK if he gropes your daughter? Where do you draw the line?
His former employees don’t support him
Do you know Trump better than folks who worked for him? The people who know him best say he’s dangerous and refuse to support him.
Here are a few who refuse to endorse him: Former Vice President Mike Pence, Former Chief of Staff General John Kelly, General James Mattis, Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Here’s a list of 24 but there are now hundreds from across the political spectrum that refuse to support him, including former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Do you honestly think all these people have Trump Derangement Syndrome and are just jealous of his “success”?
Name one other person who has had this much controversy, been charged with so many crimes, and was completely innocent. I won’t wait for an answer…
Here are just a few more horrible acts he’s responsible for that are absolutely disqualifying:
He tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election
His “charity” was shut down and he was forced to repay charities he stole from
His “university” was not a university and was shut down for lying and defrauding students
He would have been indicted according to Volume 2 of the Mueller report, if he wasn’t the president
So so many more…I’m too exhausted
In conclusion…
Trump knows what philosopher George Lakoff has demonstrated. The human brain processes facts and lies the same. They are posited as true by default. Trump repeats the lies to reinforce them.
I’m so tired of his nonsense that I lacked the energy to refute and fight back…until recently.
Kamala Harris has brought so much hope for better, more hopeful days.
One last thought…To me, the biggest surprise about the rise of MAGA isn’t that a demagogue like Trump can rise to power. It’s that 70+ million people believe complete and unprovable lies and this doesn’t appear to be THE story. Do we think the rise of Trump is a bug??? I fear it’s become a feature. Wah wah.