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Voters, as they did in 2016 and 2020, face a stark choice in this year’s presidential election. A choice between Democrat Kamala Harris, the current vice president, who was previously a U.S. senator from California and that state’s attorney general, and Republican Donald Trump, the former president who still denies that he lost the 2020 election, who continues to praise his supporters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol and our democracy on Jan. 6, 2021, who was twice impeached for his misconduct and has since been convicted of felony crimes and indicted on dozens of other charges.
To us, the choice is clear. Harris, as both a politician and longtime prosecutor, has demonstrated a respect for the norms of our government. Trump, many members of his past administration have warned, is motivated by self-interest and revenge, and has a record of working to undermine the cornerstones of our democracy.
Harris’ path to the Democratic presidential nomination was unusual and short. We wish there could have been a more robust process to determine who would replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee when he dropped out of the presidential race in July after a disastrous debate performance in which he appeared confused, frail and not up to serving another four years in the White House.
That said, we do not fear that Harris will take America down a dark path. Her policies, which have sometimes shifted, are mainstream and focus on rebuilding America’s middle class.
Trump would take America to a dark place. This isn’t speculation. He has done so before. His four years as president began with a divisive inauguration speech and his installation of Cabinet members with little respect for science, ethics and legal norms. Tens of thousands of Americans died unnecessarily because of his mismanagement of the COVID outbreak. During his term as president, income inequality grew, respect for the U.S. among world leaders (at least those who were not dictators) plummeted as Trump turned his back on decades-old agreements and obligations.
As Bangor native, former Republican U.S. senator and Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen said: “He shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office ever.”
Trump’s three conservative appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court enabled the overturning of the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision that had previously secured the right to an abortion. Trump’s claim that this is what Americans wanted — to have states make their own laws about reproductive freedom, including enacting dangerous abortion bans — is as fallacious as it is cruel. In states that have already enacted strict limits on abortion, maternal and infant mortality has risen and far too many women unnecessarily suffer from a lack of necessary medical care.
The same court has gutted environmental and safety regulations and forged new, shaky, legal grounds that could protect Trump from the legal consequences from his actions, which include allegedly mishandling classified documents and working to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Further, Trump’s endless lying, inhumane demeaning of immigrants and threatening of those who disagree with him are disqualifying for our nation’s leader.
Despite deep concerns about what Trump would do if he is returned to the White House, we can’t emphasize enough that our electoral differences need to be settled peacefully at the ballot box. Recent attempts to assassinate Trump are abhorrent. Despite deep divisions in our country, we make decisions on our leadership by casting ballots, not by trying to kill those with whom we disagree.
Since taking over from Trump in January 2021, the Biden/Harris administration has largely rebuilt an economy devastated by the COVID pandemic. Inflation, which soared early in their administration, has fallen, although the prices for many necessities remain too high.
Biden and Harris helped shepherd vital legislation through a closely divided Congress. The bipartisan infrastructure deal, passed in November 2021, included the largest investments in transportation, internet connectivity, drinking water and other vital resources, investments that have grown employment and innovation across the country. The Inflation Reduction Act may not actually be able to claim credit for the reduction in inflation, but it lowered prescription drug prices for millions of older Americans and made huge investments in renewable energy to combat climate change and to create jobs in a growing sector of the economy. Together with the CHIPS and Science Act, it spurred $500 billion in new investment in new factories in the U.S.
Building on her time as vice president, Harris has shown that she will take climate change seriously and that, as president, she would work to further strengthen America’s energy independence while growing and diversifying our renewable energy supply. Harris has shown that she respects our allies and will work to strengthen our ties with nations that are essential to counter the rise of authoritarianism and terrorism around the world.
Harris will continue work to build and strengthen the middle class with support for tax policies that help families, increased access to affordable housing and affordable, comprehensive health care.
The White House and consensus-minded legislators have so far been stymied on comprehensive immigration reform, in part because of Republican opposition to legislation that combines border security with needed improvements to our system for vetting and accepting new Americans. This will remain a top priority for the next president, a challenge we believe Harris would meet with responsible and reasonable solutions.
Trump, on the other hand, has sunk to inexcusable low levels in his outrageous lies about immigrants, such as repeatedly saying that members of the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the dogs … they’re eating the cats,” and calling immigrants “vermin” who are “poisoning the blood” of our country. His pledge to deport millions of migrants is inhumane, impractical and would harm our economy.
We certainly don’t agree with all of Harris’ proposed policies and wish she had been open to more scrutiny much earlier in her campaign. But she and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are smart and tough leaders, who are also compassionate, reasonable and competent.
We recommend ranking Harris and Walz first on your ranked-choice presidential ballot.
