Many principled folks, when approaching the question of who to vote for in an election, think in terms of issues. (Some of my own research, in fact, has been based on this very premise.) To decide on the best candidate, we size up each one’s viewpoints on immigration and guns and Gaza, and choose whoever best matches our own positions.
This seems like a sensible enough approach. And I commend those who do enough research on the candidates (and think sufficiently about their own stance on the issues) to do it. Nevertheless, it has a critical weakness: namely, we don’t know what many of the important issues will even be until the future gets here.
Consider: when Bush and Gore were duking it out at the start of this century, nobody knew that 9/11 was right around the corner, and that the next two presidential terms would be dominated by the issue of terrorism. Vanishingly few people in the summer of 2008 foresaw that the financial crisis would be as devastating as it turned out; they were busy evaluating Obama and McCain on other metrics. And in 2016, when Trump and Clinton were skirmishing on women’s rights and a border wall, who knew that the most important job of the president ultimately chosen would be to navigate us through a pandemic?
For this reason, I recommend a different approach: choosing a candidate who has good leadership skills in general. It’s perhaps a fool’s errand to search for candidates who pre-commit to our own (undoubtedly naive) views on whatever happen to be today’s hot topics. What we want is a decision maker and problem solver who can adapt to whatever the coming onslaught turns out to be.
When I choose a President, I’m looking for someone who:
- has strong moral character
- is calm under pressure
- understands their role to be a public servant, not someone to be served
- can make gutsy calls when necessary
- defers to the opinions of domain experts on specific problems
- surrounds themselves with advisors who have diverse and informed opinions
- exudes empathy for all Americans
- is humble enough to admit mistakes and try new approaches
- reaches out wholeheartedly for bipartisan compromise
- seeks to strengthen existing alliances and seek new allies
- gives other nations the benefit of the doubt, but never compromises our nation’s security
- stands up to totalitarianism, and promotes democracy worldwide
- perhaps most importantly of all: represents America to the world, as a place of promise, opportunity, acceptance and hope
From everything I have seen (and I play close attention to current events), I believe that Kamala Harris has all of the above qualities in spades. She is a strong, selfless, open-minded and charismatic leader with a proven track record of seeking solutions and serving others. I think she has a chance to be a truly exceptional President, one whom history will look back to for inspiration. “First woman to be President” won’t be her headline, but merely the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question. “Electrifying and unifying leader” will be her banner, and if we still have paper currency in the future, she’ll be on some dollar bill.
I am proud to endorse Vice President Harris, and will be supporting her campaign for all I’m worth!
A last word. I know that some of my fellow Christians, no matter how much regard they have for Kamala, and no matter how much they try to talk themselves into voting for her, find themselves shipwrecked on the issue of abortion. I get that. I do. But let me offer you the same advice I did one of my loved ones: save your pro-life vote for a future election. Not this one. Because it doesn’t really matter what the laws are on abortion or anything else if we don’t have a nation of laws. If we lose our democracy, we lose everything. And Kamala’s opponent has signaled unequivocally that that’s where he wants to take us.
In the midst of all the misinformation, please don’t forget:
- Trump has stated that parts of the Constitution should be “terminated” because he lost power (his justification for this is the non-existent voter fraud he alleged happened in 2020). (Dec. 3, 2022)
- He suggested that perhaps term limits wouldn’t apply to him: “We’re going to have a great eight years, and then another four years, because we’re going to do it right. And then another four after that! Because we’ll never, ever, ever let them take it away.” (Jun. 16, 2019)
- Despite several people directly asking him whether he would govern as a dictator, and having a number of opportunities to clear that matter right up, he still refuses to outright deny it. He always hedges and dodges the question. (Original comment Dec. 7, 2023)
- He has threatened to use his power to punish his personal “enemies,” pursue legal cases against the laywers/jurors/judges who played a part in convicting him, and threatening criminal indictments of the Biden family and anyone else who has gotten in his way. (Sep. 30, 2024) He has also said that his first act in office will be to direct the DOJ to drop all crimes for which he has been charged (there are 88 of these as part of four separate legal cases). (Sep. 6, 2023)
- He openly admires (and even fawns over) autocrats and strongmen: Victor Orban, Jair Bolsonaro, Recep Erdoğan, Philip Duterte, Vladmir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Mohammed bin Salman, even Xi Jinping. He very clearly wants to be like them. He was also visibly frustrated in his first term as president that the US system and social norms prevented him from having the same power that they did. (Constantly.)
- Earlier this summer, he told a crowd of his supporters, “please just vote for me one more time. Just one more. After that, we’ll fix things so you won’t have to vote any more.” (Jul. 26, 2024) He was confronted about this statement multiple times and has continued to dodge the question. It’s hard to interpret his statement as anything but a dog whistle that votes won’t matter anymore, because he’ll stay in power non-democratically.
- He stated that just as in 2020, he may not accept this fall’s election outcome. (May 1, 2024)
- Finally, when he lost a Presidential election, he incited a violent mob of supporters to come to Washington D.C., march on the U.S. Capitol building, and prevent the counting of votes which would certify his loss. (I swear I’m not making this stuff up.) He even directed Vice President Pence to violate the Constitution by refusing to allow the procedure, and expressed indifference when the mob threatened Pence’s life. (Jan. 6, 2021)
These are facts. And they are undisputed.
My advice for my pro-life friends is thus simply this: save it. The next time (hopefully very soon) we have a plausible, well-intentioned pro-choice candidate running against a plausible, well-intentioned pro-life candidate, you can cast your ballot for the latter and feel good about it. But that’s not what the 2024 election is about. It’s about whether we can even save the ability to make such choices at all.
So when you cast your ballot this year, I urge you to ask yourself the following question: “which of the candidates best demonstrates the character qualities I want to see in a leader?” For my many fellow Christian friends, I would phrase it like this: “which of the two candidates is more Christ-like?” If you can look in the mirror and honestly tell yourself that Kamala Harris’s opponent is more Christ-like than she, then I guess there’s nothing more to say. The differences between you and me really do go all the way down.
— S
Leave a Reply