Why This Jewish Israeli-American Is Voting For Kamala Harris
I'm voting as much for Harris as against Trump
A shorter version of this article appeared in the October 1st edition of the Jerusalem Post.
Actually, I already voted. I emailed my ballot last week and the hard copy is on its way to the Middlesex County Clerk’s office. I guess because there are people in the office who see these absentee ballots I also had to sign a waver acknowledging that my vote is not secret. Like I’d ever keep it a secret!
My vote has two components; anti-Trump and pro-Harris. I have never really been beholden to either political party and over the course of my life I voted for both Republicans and Democrats. This is the 12th presidential election I’m voting in and only the 4th time I voted for a democrat.
For so many reasons Donald Trump is simply a non-starter for me. I’m not a deranged anti-Trumper in that I can actually give him credit for good things that happened under his presidency, such as the Abraham Accords and Operation Warp Speed. But it’s not really about the nuts and bolts of his presidential actions per se. If Mike Pence had been president instead of Donald Trump during those 4 years doing the exact same things policy wise, it would have been a whole different story. Like any other president, I would have been happy with some things he did and not others, but it all would have been in the range of normal politics.
Two issues for me with Trump are his behavior and his lack of moral grounding. Pence would not have denied the results of an election. He would have conceded, like every president before him. He would not have called state officials asking them to "find" votes, and he would not have told crowds of his followers that the "election was stolen", egging them on to violent protest. He certainly wouldn't have a wide array of criminal indictments and convictions on multiple counts. He would have shown fidelity to classic conservative values and, as he proved on January 6th 2021, to the constitution itself.
When he was president, Trump was surrounded by many good, decent patriots who respected the office and the constitution and who protected the country from his ignorant, petulant behavior. This time around he claims that he learned from his mistakes and has promised to surround himself with only MAGA loyalists. There will be no guardrails to protect the nation from his worst instincts.
Trump is given to the most base behavior. He’s a misogynist and a sexual predator. He often engages in what seems to be psychopathic behavior; from his mocking of handicapped journalist Serge Kovaleski in 2016 to the recent revelation by his nephew that Trump said, regarding his great nephew with disabilities, that "he should just let him die". That latter is disqualifying to me on a very personal level as the father of a child with special needs. The danger of having a person with such tendencies as the leader of the free world with virtually unhindered access to America's nuclear arsenal should be as obvious as it is terrifying.
Kamala Harris on the other hand, exhibits none of these disturbing tendencies. As a district attorney and attorney general she has shown that she understands the law and its importance. As a senator she upheld the Constitution and understood the gravity of that role. Even if I had major political concerns about her, which I don't, I would still maintain that she would not pose a threat to foundation of what makes America a great constitutional republic.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are good, decent, normal folks. In so many ways they represent the best of America. They care about many of the same things I do. They see America as bright, hopeful and full of good, decent, hard working people, including immigrants who helped build America and whose hard work and dreams for a better life continue make the country thrive. This, as opposed to the dystopian hellscape painted by their opponents.
As a Jew I am concerned about the recent rise in antisemitism in the US. It exists on both the Right and the Left. But it’s the antisemitism of the right that concerns me the most. While I don’t believe that Trump himself is overtly antisemitic, he peddles too easily in antisemitic tropes and associates too freely with hardcore antisemites. As Yair Rosenberg writes in an article in The Atlantic titled, “The Anti-Semitic Revolution on the American Right”,
Populism and isolationism have legitimate expressions, but preventing them from descending into anti-Semitism requires leaders willing to restrain their movement’s worst instincts. Today’s right has fewer by the day. Trump fundamentally refuses to repudiate anyone who supports him, and by devolving power from traditional Republican elites and institutions to a diffuse array of online influencers, the former president has ensured that no one is in a position to corral the right’s excesses, even if someone wanted to.
The antisemitism of the Right is far more organized, violent, armed and intertwined with the power base of the Republican Party. Egregiously, Trump recently explicitly stated that if he doesn’t win the election “the Jewish people will have a lot to do with a loss”. There’s simply nothing to compare with that on the Left. As conservative columnist Mona Charen recently wrote in an article on her Substack titled “Why Jews Should Reject Trump”,
The progressive descent into open antisemitism since October 7th is grievously disturbing. But most Democrats are not progressives, and even most progressives don’t endorse the kind of extremism on display at American campuses. That remains the purview of the left-most fringe. They are not allies of Vice President Harris or Tim Walz. They don’t bid fair to become leaders of the Democratic party in the foreseeable future.
On the right, by contrast, the haters have been mainstreamed. As our grandparents would have warned, “That’s not good for the Jews.”
As an Israeli who has lived through nearly a year of hell since October 7th I am greatly indebted to the unprecedented support of the Biden/Harris administration. We can only speculate what another president would have done, but it’s hard to imagine an administration with the isolationist tendencies of Trump/Vance going to incredible lengths that the Biden/Harris administration has.
I know that many believe Trump will act toward Israel as if he’s a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, but for me that’s not an asset. As I see it, blind support of Israel’s right wing coalitions isn’t good for Israel or the US.
A president who clearly cares about Israel, like Harris, will sometimes offer very needed tough love, especially as a counterbalance to the extremist, theocratic and supremacist elements of Israel’s current government. The very “loose canon” persona people love about Trump and believe has a protective effect on the international stage could see him easily triggered to turn on Israel with the slightest perceived offense as he did with Netanyahu in 2020 because the prime minister had the temerity to congratulate Biden on his electoral win. Here’s Charen again,
As for Israel, the GOP’s support is robust . . . for now. But it’s foolish to imagine that it will last. With growing Republican hostility to alliances and America First as the party’s dominant mode of thinking on foreign policy, Israel cannot remain the asterisk for long. Besides, Trump’s unshakable attachment to Putin puts him two degrees of separation from Putin’s pals, which include Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. Who knows how that would play out in a second Trump term?
I could list several points on which I agree with the stated policies of Harris/Walz and a probably a few I don’t, but it’s not all that relevant. When a democracy is functioning properly it forces compromise and moves politicians to govern and legislate from the center. A great example is the bipartisan border protection bill both parties hammered out earlier this year to address the important issue of illegal immigration. In normal times the bill would have been signed with great fanfare.
As if to highlight this dichotomy, Trump had his MAGA acolytes kill the bill in order protect his campaign. Harris, on the other hand, has promised to sign this bill or one like it. She will work to right the ship of US democracy; Trump will endeavor to sink it.
There’s a reason that over 700 former US security and military personnel from both parties have publicly endorsed Harris-Walz. It’s the same reason that growing numbers of high-ranking Republicans from Mike Pence to Dick Cheney are either refusing to vote for Trump or are explicitly endorsing Harris. Cheney put it succinctly,
In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump
Geoff Duncan, former Lieutenant Governor of Georgia was more eloquent. He's a staunch conservative republican who has also endorsed Harris.
I think it’s important to reinforce the fact to Republicans around the country that just because you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, doesn’t mean you’re Democrat…
It just means you’re a patriot…
You’re doing your duty as an American to step up to the plate and reclaim this country’s future…
There’s some lifelong Republicans like me that are extremely conservative, but just have seen Donald Trump act in ways that should never be rewarded with another job called ‘president’
In contrast to the indecency of Donald Trump and JD Vance I decided to wholeheartedly vote for the decency of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. That’s really what it comes down to for me.
Agree on so many points! Thanks.
Thank you ❤️❤️