Please Get Off the Fence

I rarely blog about politics because I’m mindful that you, my readers, represent myriad political views. But this election is so important, so critical to the survival of America’s democracy, so decisive to preserve the freedoms we take for granted, that I’m suspending this practice today. What follows is a personal blog of 20 reasons why I think Kamala Harris deserves your vote and 10 suggestions for simple things you can do in the short time between now and election day.

If you are excited about reelecting Donald Trump—a convicted felon, fraud, and rapist, an impeached insurrectionist, an inveterate liar, and an increasingly unstable personality in American life—please stop reading. I don’t believe there is anything I can say to sway you. (If you do continue reading, I hope we can stay friends.)

If you are already committed to voting for Harris, you may not find much original here, though I hope you might share this synthesis with any friends, family, and colleagues who remain uncertain how or if they will vote.

I mainly want to address those of you who are sitting on the fence of indecision. Many of you believe that the differences between the candidates are negligible, that “the system” is the problem, or that politics are irredeemable. What you do in the next three weeks may well determine the future of our nation—and I want you to carefully reconsider throwing away your vote through indecision, third parties, or inaction. And that’s why I’m going to ask you, beg you, to vote for Kamala Harris for President.

My Own Politics

Just to be transparent, I want to clarify that I’m not a Democratic Party activist. I often call myself a Green Libertarian. I believe in strong communities that are not overridden by a powerful state. I like truly free markets where innovative small businesses can compete fairly against global corporations. I’m skeptical of big government, big business, big labor, big anything. Every week, I publish in The Main Street Journal, my first Substack publication, examples of local investing and local economy building because I believe we must build the world we want from the ground up.

I am also not a long-standing fan of Kamala Harris (though she is growing on me). I find her short on substance and long on rhetoric. I worry that she will try to solve major national challenges like housing through top-down federal programs rather than bottom-up community engagement. On the policies I care deeply about—like overhauling securities laws to facilitate more local investment—she is a sphinx. And I worry about her limited experience when it comes to critical issues like foreign policy.

But perfection is a poor standard for electoral decision-making. And Donald Trump has shown clearly that he is no friend of the decentralist democracy. Let’s get specific.

20 Reasons to Fear—and Vote Against—Another Trump Administration

For those of you who believe that this election is between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who believe you can afford to abstain from voting, who are happy to throw away your vote on a third-party candidate, I want to give you my top 20 reasons why we need your vote against Donald Trump. This list is hardly complete, and to keep this essay reasonably short, I will not add long explanations or citations (though the evidence for each point is overwhelming).

An Imperial Power Grab – Trump will greatly expand presidential power and reduce, thwart, and undermine traditional checks and balances. Armed with Supreme Court immunity from criminal prosecution, he has promised to use the Justice Department to prosecute his enemies (like Liz Cheney) and pardon his friends (like Steve Bannon). He has promised to purge the regulatory agencies of experts who might limit his authority with inconvenient facts and analysis. He will try to deny broadcast licenses to unfriendly media. And he may attempt, as he did in his first term, to use the Insurrection Act to deploy the military against peaceful protestors.
An Evisceration of States’ Rights – Unlike many other conservatives, Trump is not a decentralist. He believes in exercising central power to crush contrary policies in blue states. That’s one of the central strategies articulated in Project 2025—to use, for example, the federal Comstock Act to ban the mailing of contraception and abortion medications to women in red states.
Limits on Voting – Another potential check on Trump’s power in danger is voting. Trump is committed to disenfranchising as many likely Democrat voters as possible—especially the young and the poor—through voter roll purges, early voting limits, onerous identification rules, hand counts of ballots, and disqualifying unfriendly metros. He still won’t admit that he lost the last election, and he certainly will never endorse important reforms like those in the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
The Freeing of Insurrectionists – Like the Joker running Gotham City, Trump has promised to pardon and release the thousand or so criminals—sorry, “hostages”—who took over the Capital and bashed the heads of 138 police officers. Back on the streets will come the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the 3 Percenters who Trump will encourage, once again, “to stand back and stand by” to smash dissent. Is this really how we want to protect public safety?
No Accountability for the Insurrectionist in Chief – The cases against Trump for fomenting January 6 and stealing top-secret documents will be dismissed. State cases against him in New York and Georgia will be ignored. And the lawlessness that led to two impeachments in his first administration will undoubtedly worsen in the second. On Earth One, we understand that January 6 was the closest we came to losing our democracy since the Civil War. That Trump might escape accountability for his actions—for saying “so what” when his Vice President was in danger of being murdered—will set the stage for many more crimes against democracy in his next term.
The Decay of National Health Care – The Affordable Care Act brought health insurance to 43 million Americans. Despite his ridiculous claims that he tried to save the ACA, Trump, in fact, repeatedly tried to repeal it—with nothing to replace it. Even now, he has nothing more than a “concept of a plan.” Making health care unaffordable for tens of millions of Americans again will greatly increase insecurity, misery, and crippling debts across the country.
A National Abortion Ban – Seeing how many conservatives are now voting down abortion bans, Trump is pivoting and saying that he will veto any national ban. Don’t believe him. Too many anti-abortion groups have provided too much money and support for Trump to ignore their wishes. Women in blue states will have nowhere to hide.
A Christian Nation – Trump owes bigly not just to the “pro-life” movement but also to Evangelicals. And he will use the organs of power, wherever possible, to dissolve the barriers between church and state, to grant subsidies and favors to Christians, and to punish and devalue everyone else. This means pushing everyone else—gays, lesbians, trans folks, Jews, Muslims, even progressive Catholics—into one closet or another. (I adore my Christian friends, but I don’t believe that any religious group deserves special treatment in a pluralist society.)
Worsening Gun Violence – The Trump narrative around crime is another one of his lies. The most recent statistics from the FBI show that most categories of violent crime have plummeted this past year. The one exception is gun violence, which now is one of the leading causes of death for young people. The “American Carnage” Trump warned against has materialized in the proliferation of assault rifles and gun mass murders. Trump has done—and will do—nothing to reverse this problem. He is completely in the pockets of the most extreme elements of the National Rifle Association.
An End to Climate Protection Policies – Trump has already shown that he believes that climate disruption is a “hoax” and that he will tear up any international agreements on the subject (as he did with the Paris Climate Accords). Instead, he has entrusted environmental policy to fossil fuel lobbyists and climate deniers. (That Bobby Kennedy Jr., a self-described environmentalist, overlooks this point is truly inexcusable.) The Biden-Harris administration, in contrast, provided the biggest boost to renewable energy in history through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Cruelty toward Immigrants – A centerpiece of Trump’s campaign is the ejection of more than ten million illegal immigrants from the country. Even if you believe this is good policy—I don’t, because immigrants are ultimately great local business creators—the brutality shown by Trump’s acolytes like Stephen Miller in the child separation policy is morally indefensible. The recent episode of dehumanizing legal Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, where Trump falsely spread rumors about their eating cats and dogs, is a sneak preview of what’s to come. I worry about a country where millions of people will be rounded up, put in detention camps, abused in custody, and summarily flown elsewhere. My family’s history tells me that other undesirable groups, like the Jews, might be next.
A Love Affair with Dictators – I’m dismayed that Trump refused to say publicly that he would like Ukraine to win its battle against Vladimir Putin’s aggressive war machine. As many of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers in his first term admit, this is part of a larger pattern of his embracing dictators in Hungary, Turkey, North Korea, and the Mideast. That’s why they refuse to endorse him for a second term. As a Jew with Ukrainian roots, I hope you will forgive my being particularly upset that Trump will give Russian troops a permission slip to slaughter Ukrainian civilians, kidnap their children, burn down their villages, and take over their land. Putin’s success jeopardizes other European countries like Poland and Lithuania. If you want to stop Putin, you cannot possibly vote for Trump.
Stronger Support for Bibi – Along with many Israelis, I believe that one of the biggest security threats to Israel has been Bibi Netanyahu himself, who has in recent years undermined the possibility of Palestinian statehood, surreptitiously supported Hamas financially, ignored warnings of the October 7 attacks, and taken revenge on Gaza with shocking indifference toward human rights and decency. That said, it’s inconceivable that anyone critical of this behavior—Michigander Arab-Americans, I’m talking to you—would sit out this election. Everyone knows that Trump will give Bibi an unlimited license for worse behavior. Is that really what you want? Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race who will shift U.S. Mideast policy to be more even-handed.
A Resurgence of Inflation – Many Trump voters are upset that prices are higher and blame Biden. But inflation was a worldwide phenomenon during COVID, and our nation recovered faster than almost any other major country in the world. Inflation is now well below 3%—and most economists believe it’s behind us. But if you are still worried, understand that a vote for Trump will mean massive new inflation. His tariffs will greatly increase the costs of imported goods (some estimates are that the typical American family will spend more than $4,000 more per year). And his deportation of millions of low-wage immigrants will lead to rises in construction and food prices.
Fiscal Mismanagement – The first Trump term of office busted the national debt with a massive tax cut for corporations and high-income earners. A second Trump term will ensure that these cuts—which do nothing to stimulate the economy and exacerbate inequality—become permanent. Trump has shown no fiscal discipline. Every week on the campaign trail brings a new irresponsible promise to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, Social Security benefits, and SALT payments, with no proposals for how to pay for them. This is why many mainstream economic analysts predict a lower and more manageable debt with Kamala Harris. Higher debt means more inflation, a weaker dollar, and greater risks of recession.
Greater Unaffordability of Everyday Goods – I understand that you’re angry about more expensive food and housing, about the skyrocketing cost of college and health care. But directing this anger at Kamala Harris, when every developed country in the world has experienced worse post-COVID inflation than ours, is ludicrous. Trump has no plan, no idea, really, about how to reduce these costs. As I’ve pointed out, deporting immigrants and raising tariffs will make food and other essentials more expensive. I don’t think Harris has great plans yet, but she has something. Expanding the housing supply is a necessary (if insufficient) solution to making homes more affordable. Protecting the Affordable Care Act will allow you to keep your health care.
A New War on Labor – I appreciate that many card-carrying union members will vote for Trump because they detest environmental regulations on their industries. Teamsters, for example, want to drive their trucks freely and not have to pay carbon taxes. But let’s be clear-eyed about what happened in the first Trump Administration. Every major piece of pro-labor legislation—from higher minimum wages to union organizing protections to health and safety protections in dangerous industries—was shot down. At the end of the day, Trump loves big business, not labor. Joe Biden, in contrast, is widely understood to be the most pro-union President in U.S. history.
Awful Racism – The first Trump Administration was an endless parade of racial animus: the Muslim ban; the antisemitic marchers in Charlottesville who Trump called “good people”; indifference toward police killings of Black men like George Floyd; the attacks on “Black Lives Matter” protestors. In his years out of office, Trump has taken to Truth Social every day to attack Black and Latino lawyers, prosecutors, and judges, often calling them “racist.” The daily stream of division and racial bile will likely become a torrential flood under a second Trump Administration.
Endless Disinformation – Every day, the American public will be buried in lies, attacks, and outrages in ALL CAPS!!!! tweets. Prepare to be exhausted. That’s the point, of course. If we’re focused on what was said yesterday, we cannot possibly organize for the future. Trump wants to grind down our energy, our focus, our ability to create a better America.
Mentally Unstable Leadership – Many of you believed, as I did, that Joe Biden was too old to run again. We saw his feeble performance in his first and only debate with Trump and said—that guy must be removed. We are now witnessing the same mental deterioration of Donald Trump, who will be governing us well into his 80s. As Peter Baker of the New York Times recently wrote: “He rambles, he repeats himself, he roams from thought to thought—some of them hard to understand, some of them unfinished, some of them factually fantastical. He voices outlandish claims that seem to be made up out of whole cloth. He digresses into bizarre tangents about golf, about sharks, about his own ‘beautiful’ body.” Do you really want to give this madman the nuclear button for the next four years?

If you think the above is too partisan or dystopian, consider several final points. Everything above is not a guess—it is based explicitly on what Trump has promised or done. Hard-core MAGA supporters are excited by every single item on the list (even #20). And, the failure to accomplish the list above during the first Trump administration occurred because of incompetence, which will not be repeated during the second.

Some conservatives, like Peggy Noonan and Brett Stephens, have complained that Kamala Harris’s policies are too few and too invisible. There’s some truth to this, but it also reflects the fact that a candidate who normally has a year or two to prepare for a presidential run had no prep time whatsoever.

That said, the list above shows that what we know enough—more than enough—to make an informed vote: The policy differences between a Trump and Harris presidency are stark. And if you waste your vote—by staying home, by complaining about candidate imperfections, by writing in names like “Mitt Romney,” by voting for third parties—you will make the nightmare of a Trump dictatorship more possible. You have the power to keep him out of the Oval Office once and for all. Use it.

Your To-Do List

Three weeks remain. Here are ten suggestions for how you can help make history:

Share: Please share this blog with anyone and everyone you can think of.
Vote: Vote as early as possible and encourage those around you to do the same.
Focus Your Persuasion: Do not waste time trying to change the minds of hard-core MAGA supporters—they are impervious to information and logic, and time is short. Focus instead on principled Republicans (such as those who voted for Nicky Haley), self-declared independents, and low-participation Democrats like young people. Search your family and personal network (LinkedIn, Facebook, Outlook, etc.) for people who fall into these categories, and start conversations. Today.
Focus Your Mobilization: While it’s important to turn out people everywhere, it’s especially important to mobilize people in swing states. These states include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. If you know anyone there, reach out—again today.
Turnout Matters: Help people you know and love—who are challenged by attention, disabilities, age, overseas deployment, etc.—to vote by mail or in early ballots, if possible.
Keep Your Calendar Open: Be a part of the Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) in the fall by working with your local Harris-Walz Campaign/Democratic Party to make telephone calls (if you do not live in or near a swing state listed above). If you live in or near a swing state, set aside time to canvas in person. These efforts are largely aimed at Democrats and Independents who are low or intermittent-frequency voters.
It’s Okay to Lose Some Friends: As we reach out to people in our networks, a few will treat us as the proverbial skunk at the dinner party. Why mix up a perfectly good friendship in the down-and-dirty of politics? Because, honestly, too much is on the line. Friends worth keeping will respect your commitment.
“Hell No” to Third Parties: Do not allow anyone you know and love to vote for a third party. These candidates will almost certainly make a Trump victory more likely. Remind them that Ralph Nader was 100% responsible for the election of George W. Bush in 2000, and Jill Stein was 100% responsible for the election of Donald Trump in 2016. (I believe we need third parties, by the way, but candidates should start locally for the school board and city council, preferably in ranked-choice systems.)
Moolah: Give money to the Harris-Walz Campaign. Or better still, to the Movement Voter Project which mobilizes voters in swing states. Every dollar invested today will save hundreds in losses if Trump is elected.
Lead: Each of us has the power to make a difference. Commit to reaching 100 people, each of whom will reach 100 people, and so forth. We can influence millions.

This will be a razor-close election decided by a tiny number of votes in a tiny number of states. Gandhi once said, “Everything you do in life will be insignificant, but it’s very important that you do it.”

– Michael H. Shuman, October 2024 (shuman@igc.org)

PS – If you need more persuasion, please read this essay from the New York Times. Or this one from the New Yorker. Or these testimonies from dozens of people who worked with Trump who are warning us never to let him near the presidency again.

PPS – The future is in your hands.