Political Change

 The 2024 elections are now less than four months away. I doubt that any of my Facebook or Twitter (I refuse to call it X) followers are unaware of my thoughts about what this election means or which candidates I support. I repost daily a number of political cartoons to call attention to the idea that at all levels, we elect people who support liberal ideas and policies: freedom of speech; freedom of religion (including all religions and protecting those who have no religious beliefs); freedom of the press; freedom of assembly; separation of church and state; and the right to due process and equality under law for all; ensuring the right to vote for all citizens. Government has evolved since 1789 and in the complicated world of today must be engaged with the economy, protecting private property while dealing with the inequality that has flowed from the underlying and continuing inequality we have lived with for centuries.

I support Kamala Harris and whoever her running mate turns out to be. Why? Because her opponent espouses everything that I believe is inimical to the Constitution and to the American experiment which has worked (imperfectly, but it works) since 1789. Her opponent now attempts to run away from Project 2025 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-e6YM-UcUU), written by the Heritage Foundation for him to implement as a unitary executive. Her opponent is misogynistic. He is twice-impeached and a convicted felon. He is now the oldest person ever to be nominated to run for the presidency. His mental capabilities are in doubt. There are many, many reasons he is not fit to serve in elected office.

And the same may be said for candidates of his once noble party at all levels – federal, state, local. The threat to democracy, reinforced continuously by statements from Harris’s opponent and many others, is reprehensible. I am writing postcards (https://www.facebook.com/bluewavepostcards/) and letters (https://votefwd.org/) to voters urging them to vote for democracy and not to let autocracy reign through nonparticipation. I repost Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters From an American each day on Facebook and Twitter. A historian at Boston College, her books and essays are first rate. There will be more to follow.