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Self in Society Roundup 55: Election Special
Harris is a decent candidate. Trump is a fascist. Vote against the fascist.
Copyright © 2024 by Ari Armstrong
November 4, 2024
To Reiterate: Trump is morally unfit to serve as president (or in any other elected office), and indeed he is a fascist.
Harris's Pitch: Kamala Harris presented a great speech at the D.C. Mall. She has turned out to be a very good candidate. Yes, she's wrong on some of the issues, but she's well within the range of normal center-left politics, and she has already backed away from her worst ideas regarding taxes and regulations.
Trump's Election Conspiracy Mongering: Trump is still saying he "shouldn't have left" office in 2021. Trump is an authoritarian who cares nothing about rule of law.
More Violent Rhetoric: Trump said he wouldn't "mind that so much" if "somebody would have to shoot through the fake news," i.e. journalists covering his events. Trump is a fascist.
Trump's Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric: Jazmine Ulloa: "Former President Donald J. Trump's third run for the White House has neared its end the same way his first one started: with relentless dehumanizing portrayals of immigrants. He has cast people crossing the nation's southern border as criminals, rapists and terrorists. He has warned the United States is under 'invasion' and an 'occupied country.' He has falsely accused Haitian immigrants in Ohio of eating pets." Trump is a racist.
Trump's Policies Kill Women: If only someone, anyone, could have warned people that abortion bans would kill women. ProPublica: "[Josseli] Barnica is one of at least two Texas women who ProPublica found lost their lives after doctors delayed treating miscarriages, which fall into a gray area under the state's strict abortion laws that prohibit doctors from ending the heartbeat of a fetus." See also a related article about another young woman who died.
Objectivists for Cuffy Meigs: As I posted to social media, "It's astonishing to me how some people who call themselves 'objectivists' rationalize political support for a man who encouraged a violent assault of the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to upend an election, who assaulted numerous women, who facilitated abortion bans, who lies continuously, who is an overt racist who sounds like he's quoting the KKK, and who threatens to weaponize the U.S. government against his political enemies. Trump is the spiritual brother of Cuffy Meigs." Remember, Ayn Rand was a pro-choice "childless cat lady" and immigrant who criticized Reagan for cozying up to the religious right.
Trump's Christian Nationalism: Elizabeth Dias: Trump "will champion his followers' brand of Christianity across American life and government. . . . Trump is promising to elevate not only their policy priorities but also their ideological influence. He says he will affirm that God made only two genders, male and female. He will create a federal task force to fight anti-Christian bias. And he will give enhanced access to conservative Christian leaders, if they elect him." (And yet, the same leading Objectivist who wrote two books warning about the coming of religious fascism to America now supports Trump, who welcomes religious fascism with open arms.)
Trump's Christian Nationalism II: PBS: "Trump has long cultivated strong support among Christian conservatives. He got about 80 percent of the white evangelical Christian vote in 2016 and 2020, and appears to be on track for a similar result this year. In the closing days of the campaign, some of his supporters have characterized Harris with terms like 'devil' and 'Antichrist.'" Notice that no one is claiming that Trump himself is Christian beyond mouthing support for the religion. Evangelicals view Trump as God's instrument; Trump views evangelicals as means to his power.
Trump's Anti-Science: NBC: "Trump and some of his top allies have increasingly embraced and spread anti-vaccine rhetoric typically linked to former independent presidential candidate and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr."
Trump's Anti-Capitalism: Aaron Ross Powell: Trump's "mass deportations and across-the-board tariffs" "would be terrible for the economy." Of all the claims made about Trump, the claim that he is a capitalist is among the most ridiculous. At best Trump is a cronyist. Oh, and as Noah Smith has pointed out, Trump also has said he wants to interfere with the Federal Reserve, which he would almost certainly do in a pro-inflationary way.
Tracinski on Project 2025: Only some fans of Ayn Rand have completely lost their minds over Trump. Robert Tracinski is among those who have not. He warns, "Project 2025 is a governing blueprint . . . to ensure that an incoming Trump administration can count on personnel unshakably loyal to Trump to execute an agenda that fully reflects MAGA priorities." See also Tracinski's articles pointing out that Trump's lies about Haitian immigrants originated with neo-Nazis and arguing that Trump's mass-deportation plans "will need a militarized state." Yes, Trump is a fascist.
Dalmia Calls Out Trumpist Libertarians: Shikha Dalmia: "The Libertarian Party, after a hostile takeover by a Holocaust-denying, white nationalist-friendly, ultra-reactionary faction, has gone full MAGA, inviting Trump to speak at its national convention—with the party's national chair even supporting Trump over her own party's nominal candidate. The mainstream libertarian movement has taken great pains to separate itself from the yahoos now in control of the party. But it too has settled into a heterodox, right wing–inflected bothsidesism. Trump is an affront to every professed libertarian commitment—individual freedom, openness, cosmopolitanism, free enterprise, fiscal restraint, limited government, a tightly constrained executive. . . ."
Arnold Endorses Harris: Arnold Schwarzenegger talks sense about the presidential election: "My Republicans have forgotten the beauty of the free market, driven up deficits, and rejected election results. Democrats aren't any better at dealing with deficits, and I worry about their local policies hurting our cities with increased crime. . . . [R]ejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets. To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious. . . . I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. . . . . [A] candidate who won't respect your vote unless it is for him, a candidate who will send his followers to storm the Capitol while he watches with a Diet Coke, a candidate who has shown no ability to work to pass any policy besides a tax cut that helped his donors and other rich people like me but helped no one else else, a candidate who thinks Americans who disagree with him are the bigger enemies than China, Russia, or North Korea—that won't solve our problems. It will just be four more years of bullshit with no results that makes us angrier and angrier, more divided, and more hateful. We need to close the door on this chapter of American history. . . ."
Harrison Ford Endorses Harris: Harrison Ford said, "I'm casting my ballot for Kamala Harris. . . . Do I agree with every one of their policies? Of course not. . . . [Harris and Walz] believe in the rule of law, they believe in science, they believe that when you govern, you do so for all Americans."
Sam Harris and Mark Cuban on the Election: They have some smart comments about the election. (I disagree with Cuban on some points of policy.)
Why Many Voters Love Trump: Here's part of what I wrote on social media: "Here's my brief explanation for how many people can support a truly awful candidate. First, a lot of voters really are truly awful. Look at how many people openly embrace Trump's lawlessness, his continual lies and conspiracy mongering, his racism, his praise of dictators, his demonization of the 'other,' his enthusiasm for violence, his nihilism Yes, Harris's insistence that inflation is due to 'corporate price gouging' and her blaming the rich for U.S. fiscal problems are basically at odds with what people can see with their own eyes. Another factor: Many voters just are not very tuned in to what is happening. They see politics basically as a game of lies, so they don't believe anything that Trump says or anything that others say about Trump. Here is what I think is a huge part of the explanation: Many people in the U.S. simply cannot image the country changing in any serious way. WWII is well behind us, and WWIII is unthinkable (however, it being unthinkable to many people hardly makes it impossible). The country has been largely stable for decades. 'It can't happen here,' people think. And, mostly, U.S. institutions did survive the first Trump presidency, despite his attempts to overturn the presidential election, despite a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump's supporters. So there's a lot to like about the U.S. system of government, still. But there's only so much damage American institutions can take before they start to crumble. And many people either can't image them crumbling or are enthusiastically taking an axe to them."
Bezos and Trump: Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, blocked that paper's endorsement of Harris. Some have speculated that he fears retaliation from Trump. One possibility is that he (realistically) thinks a Trump administration would be less enthusiastic about pursuing antitrust legal actions. This is one area where the Biden administration has been bad.
Baumann on Polling: Andrew Baumann discusses the shortcomings of polls with Get More Smarter. One problem: It's hard, at the margins, to predict who will turn out to vote. Another: Some types of people (especially Trump supporters) are less likely to respond to pollsters.
Signs of the Times I: When you steal someone's yard sign, not only are you committing an act of theft and trespass, you are violating someone's right to freedom of speech. Recently someone stole my Harris-Walz sign out of my yard. I replaced it with two Harris-Walz signs, plus my neighbor put one up too. You can't back down to bullies.
Signs of the Times II: Someone in my neighborhood put out a sign saying, "Biden Sucks, Kamala Swallows." This guy (yes, it's a guy) knows full well that kids regularly walk by his house. The sign will only encourage people who see it to vote against Trump, as it reminds voters that MAGA World is driven largely by hatred of women.
Signs of the Times III: Someone also posted a sticker in my neighborhood (in open space) advertising Revolutionary Communists of America. Sheesh. This is akin to posting swastikas.
Yes She Can: A song by Will i am.