So, I see a couple of statements about the Presidential* election, arguing that it doesn’t matter who you place in office – that they’re “all the same”, etc. You see it every year, every election. People not just saying their vote won’t count, but that no vote matters because all the candidates are the same.
And to a certain extent, absolutely. It’s all part of a greater system, two party politics reinforces itself without a real additional choice, capitalism limits political opportunity and distorts everything, and nothing can really be fixed without a more transparent education and media environment – but – leaders DO matter, and there IS a difference. And you CAN determine the difference even when you can’t confirm the facts.
It’s not in policies per se – both candidates have said one thing, done another. Whether out of necessity, politicking, or they simply changed their minds about things. Both have exaggerated, been demonized, and demonized the other. I think there’s false equivalency here, but it’s hard to prove that in a murky, polarized media environment.
But ATTITUDE is irrefutable. I’m not talking about the general positivity brought by Harris’ speeches and the abject doom and gloom presented by Trump. I’m talking about how they got to where they are.
Trump, whether you buy him as a “successful” businessman or simply a charismatic grifter, has built those successes on short-changing builders, shirking regulations, avoidance of taxes, delaying of lawsuits, and cheap money-making ventures that don’t qualify as “scams” simply because people buy in willingly. All of these things ARE smart business decisions. But whether it’s reality television or selling Bibles – THIS kind of business success isn’t the sort of thing that translates to success for a government. The United States can’t be run as a business because a business exists to make a profit, and a government exists to protect its constituency. Trump has, over the years, stumbled from one business venture to another, and even his Presidency seems more an accident of spite. His entire campaign was a disorganized, chaotic mess that caught almost everyone by surprise by WINNING the election precisely because no-one took it seriously. Including Trump, as evidenced by the absolute lack of preparation for entering the office (something that Project 2025 is trying to correct for and take advantage of).
Harris doesn’t come from a rich real estate family that loaned her millions and millions of dollars. She came from a science family that had to move around a lot and then she went to law school. Being self-directed is a huge thing when you’re talking about a leader. She worked her way from prosecutor to attorney general to senate learning politics along the way, and showing an interest in the ROOTS of problems, not simply in attacking their symptoms. This is something that she was assigned as Biden’s Vice-President : don’t fight the fight on the border, go down to South America and try to address why the Hell people keep coming here.
People might argue that lawyers are the devil, and that “learning politics” is a root of many evils. But a prosecutor isn’t the one responsible for getting criminals off their charges, and politics is what we’re hiring these people to do. Congress “broke” because we got a bunch of new people in (Tea Party) who didn’t know how to compromise, who demonized working across the aisle, and who thought politicians shouldn’t be politic**.
Voila. Deadlock.
If I want my toilet fixed, I hire a plumber. If the first one fucks up, I do better research and hire another. I don’t get pissed off at plumbing and hire a reality TV star who writes angry gags about shitters.
My friend saw problems in policing after Freddie Gray was killed by cops in Baltimore, so he joined the police force to fight the good fight from the inside. Years later he acknowledges that to really SOLVE the problems he fights every day; he should’ve run for office.
A prosecutor sees a lot of symptoms and can’t treat the problems. People had already committed the crimes by the time they got to her office. An Attorney General has better tools to fight those problems. A Senator could do it better. A President can’t solve almost ANY problems single-handedly, but must lead, have vision, and conviction.
Trump’s got a literal record. Voting, criminal, media, going back his entire Life because he was born rich and spent plenty of time in the spotlight long before he decided to enter politics. He has vast financial holdings that show what he values, and he’s got to make sure nothing hurts crypto-currency, capital gains, or his bottom line. Because that’s what he’s spent almost 70 years accumulating.
Kamala Harris has plenty of votes and statements available to peruse as well. She’s built something very, very different. Trump has stumbled from opportunity to opportunity. Kamala Harris climbed and fought.
And don’t even go down the “Harris is a DEI hire” because that’s truly an ignorant position.
Anywho – I’m mostly just talking to myself, organizing my thoughts. Because in Maryland, my vote [for President] probably DOESN’T matter. If the third-party candidate wasn’t an anti-science anti-vax “the water will turn your kids transgender” conspiracy theorist I could [probably] vote for him sans worry that I was endangering Maryland’s blue-state credentials***. But anywhere else, you better believe your vote matters, and there IS a difference betwixt the candidates. To pretend otherwise is to bury your head in the sand and pretend there’s no fight to be fought, because that is ACTUALLY more comfortable than to believe there’s work to be done.
*”Presidential” of course meaning the election of the President, not that the participants ACT Presidential, per se!
**I totally know that being “impolitic” isn’t anything new, but behind the scenes there were still people working together even as they cursed one another in public.
***PROBABLY because : Larry Hogan.