Be a Patriot. Vote
Voting is how We the People hire those who will help do what the Constitution requires: “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” That’s the job, so the question is which candidates to hire.
Having hired hundreds of employees during my career, I can testify that the most important quality is sound character: honesty, competence, a positive attitude, an open mind, optimism, a willingness to admit mistakes, and respect for others.
Foremost is honesty. Without it, the other qualities can’t be relied upon because we can’t be sure if the person is being truthful. Who wants to work for—or be led by—someone whose word can’t be trusted? Sadly, too many candidates lack this trait including those who have fallen for The Big Lie, the belief, with no evidence, that President Biden lost the 2020 election.
More than 60 federal and state courts, including judges of both parties and independents, found election results accurate. Curiously, those who deny the presidential result accept the accuracy of other contests on the same ballot including, in many cases, their own election. The only significant election fraud is by those fertilizing distrust.
So who should we hire with our votes? Above all, no one who is dishonest including no election deniers. We need to flush out officials who refuse to face facts or, knowing the facts, lie about them anyway. Too many Republican politicians have been poisoning our country for too many years. They’re not patriots. They’ve encouraged violence, especially the January 6 attack on our Capitol but also threats to election workers and officials who are just trying to do their jobs.
Let’s hire patriots who are proud of our country and optimistic about helping make it “a more perfect union.” Let’s hire leaders who can build a civil society where hate and division are replaced by mutual respect and public policies arrived at through constructive compromise.
Last week, the ex-president said, “America is like a garbage can for the world.” Referring to immigrants as “garbage” when they have sacrificed much to seek a better life (as my ancestors and probably yours did) is pure racism.
No one is born racist; it’s learned, and Trump learned it. What he failed to learn is self-discipline. His speeches have always wandered off topic, but lately they’ve become bizarre, irrelevant, and even crude. Last week he talked about a champion golfer’s genitalia. A week earlier, he told an audience that they didn’t need to hear more about policies and spent a half hour on stage swaying and grinning to music. Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz said, “If this was your grandfather, you’d take the keys away.”
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris’s quick wit—and character—showed when she smiled and told some hecklers, “You’re at the wrong rally. You want the smaller one down the street.” She didn’t ask anyone to “punch ‘em in the nose” as her opponent once did.
The ex-president brags about his good economy, and it was, but he never mentions that the economy grew for a record 75 consecutive months under Obama and continued to do so at about the same rate through Trump’s time until the global pandemic recession. Trump’s economy was Obama’s. Trump’s chief economic impact was huge tax cuts for the rich and corporations which added about $2 trillion to our nation’s debt.
The Economist is a British news magazine relied upon by corporate and government leaders worldwide for its honest, unbiased, carefully fact-checked analyses of global developments. The cover story of the October 17 issue called America’s economy “the envy of the world” and “bigger and better than ever.”
Productivity is solid, unemployment low, wages rising, inflation barely above normal, and the dollar strong. Credit goes to Federal Reserve policies that avoided a post-pandemic recession, to Biden-Harris legislation on infrastructure, climate/energy, and pandemic recovery, and to “America’s world-beating ingenuity” in science and technology. Be a patriot. Vote to keep our economy “the envy of the world.”