It is their job to offer you a choice worth making, not our job to lower our standards enough to find one or the other marginally acceptable. If you're at a car dealership or on election day and asked "ya want this'un or that'un?" it is your prerogative to respond "no".
The thing is you're going to leave that car dealership with a car. You have no choice. So choose the one that is less worse or else the choice will be made for you.
I also cannot vote for either. Both are incompetent, and we can argue forever who is worse. I would have loved to vote for any of the Dem governors whot had some experience running a state but Harris's coronation took that option away. Wrote in Mitt Romney.
I think that's all really fair. She's liberal. Very liberal. But, besides his disqualifications, I just think the overall policy from Washington will be better with her. We will have an R senate, no Chevron, plus a radically (at least historically) anti-administrative state SCOTUS. We will stay in Nato and have funding for Ukraine. And the economic jihad of 10-60% tariffs won't get unleashed on the world. It seems likely she would be the weakest president in generations, which would be great. We could finally have a presidency without a lets-get-this-thing-going 2 trillion spend up front. And Republicans always find an excuse to deficit spend like drunks on Black Friday when they have a trifecta, but always manage to rediscover fiscal restraint when a D is president. Which would be good.
I also worry that we've seen this movie before. And I'm not talking about the locking up political rivals and threats of shooting your citizens in the streets and putting kids in camps. I'm talking about massive tariffs and isolationism put in by "America First" republicans. It led to the Great Depression. But more significantly it killed the R brand so effectively we had 20 years of D total control, which led to the biggest expansion of government ever.
Donald Trump is, in my book, an evil man. An active danger to our people and our places. My feeling is we have survived bad tax policy and stringent environmental regulations. But we have never had to face what he is discussing. And what scares me most is that when reasonable smart Rs, forced alongside him for political survival, are asked about his ideas they're best response is that he isn't serious. He couldn't possibly do what he's proposing. It's all negotiation tactics. But he is trying to tell us he is deadly serious. He views anyone who doesn't support him as vermin, and the enemy. He thinks my blood is poisoned by my immigrant mother and grandmother. He wants the U.S. government to be more Hitlerian. He wants the right to shoot citizens down in the streets.
Maybe I'm wrong and all of this is just chatter. But if I'm not then I could never forgive myself. And I'm not willing to take the risk. But that's me. You feel really different and I respect it.
I am not as different as you think. And I appreciate and respect your thought process here. Unfortunately, when I embraced that same logic when Biden was elected, I saw our allies betrayed, our spending out of control, our culture upended, and our border erased. It’s not fair to the American people - though we produced this mess - but both choices are awful.
I would love to know more about a couple of those if you have time. Border erased - totally agree, glad the political pressure finally got the D's to at least say they care. Also agree on spending.
But I haven't really had foreign policy complaints about Biden (except Afghanistan.) He seems to fall in the strong bipartisan middle of supporting Israel and Ukraine. I'm pretty sure this is your day job, and you certainly know a lot more, but as a citizen observer I don't have a lot of complaints.
On culture I also don't totally get what you mean. Do you mean a liberalization in terms of LGBT issues or something else?
PS: Am I the only one shocked by Trump standing up and trying to get the pro-Hamas vote in Michigan? Is this not totally unacceptable to basically everyone in your party?
Read Brett Stephens latest column in the NYT for a whole bunch of reasons not to vote for Democrats. I am not voting for Trump either. Russia and Iran are our enemies and being soft on either one is dangerous. And right now I do not trust that I know in the future how either presidential candidate will deal with them. That's why I won't vote for one over the other. You can say that's a vote for Trump or that's a vote for Harris. So what. I have serious doubts about both.
Sorry, if you count yourself among those who A) sincerely believe J6 was an actual insurrection and B) was orchestrated and executed as such by Trump, I find it hard to take your thinking seriously on anything.
Conservatives are realists. They know the perfect candidate does not nor will ever exist. Subsequently they vote for the most conservative candidate who has a chance to win. Don't care for Trump personally, never did. But my vote against Kamala is second most important in my life, the most being a vote against Hillary in 2016. That of course, is a debt of gratitude we all owe Trump, like him or not.
It’s your call to take these views seriously or not. But I appreciate your take and suspect that many share it. There hasn’t been, as you say, a perfect candidate… ever.
I am just like you (though I am a former Democrat who is now a registered independent) I also cannot vote for Trump but want Harris to lose. I voted yesterday. I wrote in Ron DeSantis.
We have had generations of presidents who looked the other way when the greed of elites tore the guts out of the working class. Now Ibuprofen comes from China. China builds transformers for our electrical grid. How can you be a hawk of anything if you’ve compromised our defensive capacity? The most important people in the country, ordinary citizens, are the ones that were sold out again and again. Trump is the only candidate who has ever addressed this issue and that’s why they’ve tried to destroy him for ten years.
There’s a lot to say here, especially about serving China our lunch. I’ll try to write on this more, but on the question of waking America up to the threat we face from Beijing, 100 points to DJT.
Ms Pletka is right on once again. Not voting does send a message. They would have no moral authority to govern if the vast majority did not vote. A vote for a candidate does endorse them. Trump's win in 2016 showed what it takes to win and now we have this ridiculous politics. Two thirds of voting age people in the last election did not vote for the winner. I venture to say that no candidate ever received a majority of eligible voters.
The solutions to our societal ills will not be remedied through politics. We as individuals will make for a better society by living a virtuous life by building a moral character, hopefully with a little class, grace and style.
"None of the above" is not an irrational position. It is probably the moral one.
I'm with you.
I think it's time for Ms. Pletka to come out to the west coast. The Reagan library is a great place for speakers and it is in my backyard.
Ms. Pletka, I have viewed most presidential elections as posing a lesser-of-two-evils choice. I agree with you that the severity of disqualifications on each side this time pose a materially worse dilemma than we have ever faced. For the first time in my life, since voting for Nixon in 1972, I had decided not to cast a vote for either presidential candidate. Thank you for a clear-eyed description of the dreadful choice facing us this year.
I don't understand your position. This is binary choice, and yes, not choosing is also a choice - the real question is which is the better choice for the American people and this Republic.
We know Trump and we know how he has governed in the past. In fact his record is pretty darn good. We also know Kamala and we know how she has governed and it has been a disaster. Foreign policy is vested in the executive branch. You may disagree with the way Trump conducted foreign policy, but his record was exceptional. We have seen and heard Kamala's foreign policy actions and they have been disastrous.
Just looking at facts there is a clear choice and it does not point to Kamala or not voting.
Sometimes one has to take a stand. The man in the middle stands nowhere and for nothing other than himself.
Who said, "In a democracy we get the government we deserve"?
If we don't like our choice of politicians it is our job to change the culture - only then will politics change.
If Harris is elected the border will be wide open, and in a matter of four or eight years the Dems will have been able to turn the whole United States into a big California. I am a native Californian and I mourn for the loss of my state. I have seen what happens. I fear it. And for that reason alone I will vote for Trump, without apologies and even though it may cost me many of my friends.
As a Democrat, I need to say that this election is just as hard for people on my side of the aisle. I recently spoke to a D friend who said he still hadn’t decided whether he wanted to vote for Kamala or just leave the ballot blank. And like many of your friends, my vote for Kamala—while incredibly difficult (and I CANNOT stress that enough)—is by no means an endorsement of her, but simply a vote against Trump.
That’s probably been the worst part of this election cycle: not being able to talk enthusiastically about my party’s candidate. I am the black sheep of my family and circle of friends—most are old school conservatives, with some MAGA Republicans thrown in the mix. It’s been difficult to defend my decision to vote Democrat when I have not a single nice thing to say about Kamala or Walz. I remember how much fun it was to rally on behalf of Hillary in 2016 (yes, I will die on this hill) and Biden in 2020, and it absolutely pains me that I have not been able to rejoice in this election cycle one bit. The way I see it, we’re doomed either way (one way more than the other, IMO). And I’m not quite sure how either party gets out of the mess they’re in.
Dani, it makes me sad to hear this from you. Your one vote may not make a difference but an acknowledgment that a Harris win will be necessary to reclaim the Republican Party would have some value. Read Tom Edsall today. It’s clear that a Trump win would alter the nature of this country forever.
As I said in the piece, electing Harris to reclaim the GOP seems to me to be a risky proposition. I really appreciate your thoughtful reaction, however. PS Tom is a Democrat. He is not where I would go for advice about reclaiming the GOP. Dany
Dani. With all do respect, I believe you are very naive re Trump. You say that you feel that your erudite family, friends and colleagues are wrong and wildly exaggerate. This is not a moment to put the price of milk above the threat to our political systems. Trump is not being shy at all. If anything, I feel that his constant taunting is his way of telegraphing exactly what he plans to do. It is like a cry for help—he is begging normal people to shut him down. Elas, I am more risk averse than you. And, the Senate should have listened to Anita Hill too. Skylar
Oof, Anita Hill. Ghosts of Christmas past. I don't think I'm naive, but I may be wrong. I know I'm right about Kamala, but I don't know that I'm right about Trump. This is what I believe at this moment. The key thing is to respect that people see things differently, and recognize that it does not come from a bad place. That is how we move past this moment. DANY
Ok there’s much more- for example realizing that Putin has invited North Korean troops to assist in Ukraine. How long before Trump would realize he could do the same here to fight the “deep state”?
We have institutions for a reason. And last I checked, Trump’s assault on them did not result in a demand to redo those institutions— the electoral college, the Supreme Court, the filibuster. He has bad ideas. So does the other side.
It is their job to offer you a choice worth making, not our job to lower our standards enough to find one or the other marginally acceptable. If you're at a car dealership or on election day and asked "ya want this'un or that'un?" it is your prerogative to respond "no".
Thank you, Chris. Well said.
The thing is you're going to leave that car dealership with a car. You have no choice. So choose the one that is less worse or else the choice will be made for you.
Actually, I do have a choice. I don’t need to buy a car. Everyone else might, but I can go home on my scooter.
No Danielle. You will have a car confining and trapping you. One or another car becomes yours. Or you leave the country.
I'm starting to get lost in this analogy. But one thing is for sure: I will never be trapped into buying one particular car :)
I also cannot vote for either. Both are incompetent, and we can argue forever who is worse. I would have loved to vote for any of the Dem governors whot had some experience running a state but Harris's coronation took that option away. Wrote in Mitt Romney.
I think that's all really fair. She's liberal. Very liberal. But, besides his disqualifications, I just think the overall policy from Washington will be better with her. We will have an R senate, no Chevron, plus a radically (at least historically) anti-administrative state SCOTUS. We will stay in Nato and have funding for Ukraine. And the economic jihad of 10-60% tariffs won't get unleashed on the world. It seems likely she would be the weakest president in generations, which would be great. We could finally have a presidency without a lets-get-this-thing-going 2 trillion spend up front. And Republicans always find an excuse to deficit spend like drunks on Black Friday when they have a trifecta, but always manage to rediscover fiscal restraint when a D is president. Which would be good.
I also worry that we've seen this movie before. And I'm not talking about the locking up political rivals and threats of shooting your citizens in the streets and putting kids in camps. I'm talking about massive tariffs and isolationism put in by "America First" republicans. It led to the Great Depression. But more significantly it killed the R brand so effectively we had 20 years of D total control, which led to the biggest expansion of government ever.
Donald Trump is, in my book, an evil man. An active danger to our people and our places. My feeling is we have survived bad tax policy and stringent environmental regulations. But we have never had to face what he is discussing. And what scares me most is that when reasonable smart Rs, forced alongside him for political survival, are asked about his ideas they're best response is that he isn't serious. He couldn't possibly do what he's proposing. It's all negotiation tactics. But he is trying to tell us he is deadly serious. He views anyone who doesn't support him as vermin, and the enemy. He thinks my blood is poisoned by my immigrant mother and grandmother. He wants the U.S. government to be more Hitlerian. He wants the right to shoot citizens down in the streets.
Maybe I'm wrong and all of this is just chatter. But if I'm not then I could never forgive myself. And I'm not willing to take the risk. But that's me. You feel really different and I respect it.
I am not as different as you think. And I appreciate and respect your thought process here. Unfortunately, when I embraced that same logic when Biden was elected, I saw our allies betrayed, our spending out of control, our culture upended, and our border erased. It’s not fair to the American people - though we produced this mess - but both choices are awful.
I would love to know more about a couple of those if you have time. Border erased - totally agree, glad the political pressure finally got the D's to at least say they care. Also agree on spending.
But I haven't really had foreign policy complaints about Biden (except Afghanistan.) He seems to fall in the strong bipartisan middle of supporting Israel and Ukraine. I'm pretty sure this is your day job, and you certainly know a lot more, but as a citizen observer I don't have a lot of complaints.
On culture I also don't totally get what you mean. Do you mean a liberalization in terms of LGBT issues or something else?
PS: Am I the only one shocked by Trump standing up and trying to get the pro-Hamas vote in Michigan? Is this not totally unacceptable to basically everyone in your party?
Read Brett Stephens latest column in the NYT for a whole bunch of reasons not to vote for Democrats. I am not voting for Trump either. Russia and Iran are our enemies and being soft on either one is dangerous. And right now I do not trust that I know in the future how either presidential candidate will deal with them. That's why I won't vote for one over the other. You can say that's a vote for Trump or that's a vote for Harris. So what. I have serious doubts about both.
Sorry, if you count yourself among those who A) sincerely believe J6 was an actual insurrection and B) was orchestrated and executed as such by Trump, I find it hard to take your thinking seriously on anything.
Conservatives are realists. They know the perfect candidate does not nor will ever exist. Subsequently they vote for the most conservative candidate who has a chance to win. Don't care for Trump personally, never did. But my vote against Kamala is second most important in my life, the most being a vote against Hillary in 2016. That of course, is a debt of gratitude we all owe Trump, like him or not.
It’s your call to take these views seriously or not. But I appreciate your take and suspect that many share it. There hasn’t been, as you say, a perfect candidate… ever.
I am just like you (though I am a former Democrat who is now a registered independent) I also cannot vote for Trump but want Harris to lose. I voted yesterday. I wrote in Ron DeSantis.
We have had generations of presidents who looked the other way when the greed of elites tore the guts out of the working class. Now Ibuprofen comes from China. China builds transformers for our electrical grid. How can you be a hawk of anything if you’ve compromised our defensive capacity? The most important people in the country, ordinary citizens, are the ones that were sold out again and again. Trump is the only candidate who has ever addressed this issue and that’s why they’ve tried to destroy him for ten years.
There’s a lot to say here, especially about serving China our lunch. I’ll try to write on this more, but on the question of waking America up to the threat we face from Beijing, 100 points to DJT.
Ms Pletka is right on once again. Not voting does send a message. They would have no moral authority to govern if the vast majority did not vote. A vote for a candidate does endorse them. Trump's win in 2016 showed what it takes to win and now we have this ridiculous politics. Two thirds of voting age people in the last election did not vote for the winner. I venture to say that no candidate ever received a majority of eligible voters.
The solutions to our societal ills will not be remedied through politics. We as individuals will make for a better society by living a virtuous life by building a moral character, hopefully with a little class, grace and style.
"None of the above" is not an irrational position. It is probably the moral one.
I'm with you.
I think it's time for Ms. Pletka to come out to the west coast. The Reagan library is a great place for speakers and it is in my backyard.
Ms. Pletka, I have viewed most presidential elections as posing a lesser-of-two-evils choice. I agree with you that the severity of disqualifications on each side this time pose a materially worse dilemma than we have ever faced. For the first time in my life, since voting for Nixon in 1972, I had decided not to cast a vote for either presidential candidate. Thank you for a clear-eyed description of the dreadful choice facing us this year.
I think you are right.
I don't understand your position. This is binary choice, and yes, not choosing is also a choice - the real question is which is the better choice for the American people and this Republic.
We know Trump and we know how he has governed in the past. In fact his record is pretty darn good. We also know Kamala and we know how she has governed and it has been a disaster. Foreign policy is vested in the executive branch. You may disagree with the way Trump conducted foreign policy, but his record was exceptional. We have seen and heard Kamala's foreign policy actions and they have been disastrous.
Just looking at facts there is a clear choice and it does not point to Kamala or not voting.
Sometimes one has to take a stand. The man in the middle stands nowhere and for nothing other than himself.
Who said, "In a democracy we get the government we deserve"?
If we don't like our choice of politicians it is our job to change the culture - only then will politics change.
Totally fair. Notch one for team Marc. Love that guy, so I get it. I’m just not there.
If Harris is elected the border will be wide open, and in a matter of four or eight years the Dems will have been able to turn the whole United States into a big California. I am a native Californian and I mourn for the loss of my state. I have seen what happens. I fear it. And for that reason alone I will vote for Trump, without apologies and even though it may cost me many of my friends.
Thank you, Mark. And if it costs you friends, they’re not real friends.
As a Democrat, I need to say that this election is just as hard for people on my side of the aisle. I recently spoke to a D friend who said he still hadn’t decided whether he wanted to vote for Kamala or just leave the ballot blank. And like many of your friends, my vote for Kamala—while incredibly difficult (and I CANNOT stress that enough)—is by no means an endorsement of her, but simply a vote against Trump.
That’s probably been the worst part of this election cycle: not being able to talk enthusiastically about my party’s candidate. I am the black sheep of my family and circle of friends—most are old school conservatives, with some MAGA Republicans thrown in the mix. It’s been difficult to defend my decision to vote Democrat when I have not a single nice thing to say about Kamala or Walz. I remember how much fun it was to rally on behalf of Hillary in 2016 (yes, I will die on this hill) and Biden in 2020, and it absolutely pains me that I have not been able to rejoice in this election cycle one bit. The way I see it, we’re doomed either way (one way more than the other, IMO). And I’m not quite sure how either party gets out of the mess they’re in.
Leadership.
Dani, it makes me sad to hear this from you. Your one vote may not make a difference but an acknowledgment that a Harris win will be necessary to reclaim the Republican Party would have some value. Read Tom Edsall today. It’s clear that a Trump win would alter the nature of this country forever.
As I said in the piece, electing Harris to reclaim the GOP seems to me to be a risky proposition. I really appreciate your thoughtful reaction, however. PS Tom is a Democrat. He is not where I would go for advice about reclaiming the GOP. Dany
Dani. With all do respect, I believe you are very naive re Trump. You say that you feel that your erudite family, friends and colleagues are wrong and wildly exaggerate. This is not a moment to put the price of milk above the threat to our political systems. Trump is not being shy at all. If anything, I feel that his constant taunting is his way of telegraphing exactly what he plans to do. It is like a cry for help—he is begging normal people to shut him down. Elas, I am more risk averse than you. And, the Senate should have listened to Anita Hill too. Skylar
Oof, Anita Hill. Ghosts of Christmas past. I don't think I'm naive, but I may be wrong. I know I'm right about Kamala, but I don't know that I'm right about Trump. This is what I believe at this moment. The key thing is to respect that people see things differently, and recognize that it does not come from a bad place. That is how we move past this moment. DANY
Ok there’s much more- for example realizing that Putin has invited North Korean troops to assist in Ukraine. How long before Trump would realize he could do the same here to fight the “deep state”?
We have institutions for a reason. And last I checked, Trump’s assault on them did not result in a demand to redo those institutions— the electoral college, the Supreme Court, the filibuster. He has bad ideas. So does the other side.