America deserves a president like Kamala Harris (The Republican Editorial) - masslive.com

Skip to ArticleSet weatherBack To Main MenuCloseQuick Look-Change your current location »Current -Mostly SunnyTonightLow -Mostly SunnyTomorrowHigh -Mostly SunnyView full weather reportAll Access + The Republican online newspaper  – Start today for $1 America deserves a president like Kamala Harris (The Republican Editorial)Updated: Oct. 23, 2024, 2:37 p.m.|Published: Oct. 18, 2024, 2:20 p.m.By The Republican EditorialsWith the start of early voting Saturday, residents of Massachusetts are again taking part in our democracy’s most essential practice. The tradition of going to the polls is familiar. But this is no typical election.The stakes of this year’s presidential contest are higher than at any time in our nation’s recent history.They transcend what can happen in a four-year presidential term.If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.Footer NavigationContact UsContact MassLiveContact The RepublicanSubscriptionsMassLive.comNewslettersBreaking news push alertsThe RepublicanE-edition LoginSubscriptions and CirculationMassLive MediaAbout MassLive MediaAdvertise with usSponsor ContentAccessibility StatementFollow UsFacebookWorcester FacebookRed Sox FacebookPatriots FacebookBruins FacebookTwitterYouTubeHS Sports TwitterSports TwitterInstagramHS Sports InstagramRSSMassLive.com SectionsNewsSportsEntertainmentPoliticsOpinionHigh School SportsBettingLivingReal EstateObituariesClassifiedsAutosJobsMore on MassLive.comCareers at MassLiveArchivesCommunity rulesThe Republican ArchivesThe Republican Special SectionsPlace an adYour Privacy ChoicesPrivacy Policy|User Agreement|Ad ChoicesDisclaimerUse of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy,  and Your Privacy Choices and Rights  (updated 1/1/2025).© 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.YouTube's privacy policy is available here and YouTube's terms of service is available here.Ad Choices
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America deserves a president like Kamala Harris (Editorial)      
Updated: Oct. 18, 2024, 2:22 p.m.|Published: Oct. 18, 2024, 2:20 p.m.     
By The Republican Editorials      
With the start of early voting Saturday, residents of Massachusetts are again taking part in our democracy’s most essential practice. The tradition of going to the polls is familiar. But this is no typical election.    
The stakes of this year’s presidential contest are higher than at any time in our nation’s recent history.    
They transcend what can happen in a four-year presidential term.
If Vice President Kamala Harris is elected, we are persuaded she will pursue policies that support working families and small businesses, continue essential infrastructure investments, advance historic alliances abroad and respect the rule of law, including our system of checks and balances among branches of the federal government.     
If Donald Trump regains the White House, he has made his intentions clear. Trump’s increasingly vengeful, chaotic and self-centered views do not serve the national interest. A second Trump term would threaten cherished American ideals of fair play and the rule of law – qualities that have defined civic life in the United States for nearly 250 years.      
The rule of law includes accepting the outcome of elections. Trump continues to lie about the 2020 vote that removed him from office; he won’t say whether he will accept results next month.     
For many reasons, this is not just another election. It is a referendum on whether Americans want, by electing Harris, a president to attend to their interests and needs, a president who will continue the core principles that have served America so well for the past 90 years.    
Or, in the case of Trump, whether they want a leader who demands blind loyalty in his pursuit of personal power, a president who will turn his back on the rule of law here at home and alienate our allies abroad.    
That choice is frighteningly stark in 2024.    
The people who know Donald Trump best call him unfit for office. The reasons should be familiar by now to every voter, regardless of party.    
Former Vice President Mike Pence witnessed Trump’s effort, after he lost his re-election bid in 2020, to subvert the Constitution as he encouraged a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol in a bid to prevent the election of Joe Biden. “And anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again,” Pence has said.     
Consider just one day at the end of the first Trump term – Jan. 6, 2021. For a reminder, look up video footage on YouTube. The sitting president lit the fuse on a violent mob that attempted to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. Members of Congress voted for the second time, in January 2021, to impeach Trump, in part for his actions that day.     
Rather than be chastened, Trump refers to those who took part in the insurrection as “warriors,” “hostages” and “patriots” and has said he will pardon “a large portion” of them if returned to office.
America deserves a president like Kamala Harris who will lead with restraint, discipline, principle, factual information, personal integrity and humility.      
Trump possesses none of these qualities. He is a convicted felon who faces sentencing soon after Nov. 5. His conduct in and out of office should utterly disqualify him in the minds of voters. And yet the contest is close, in part because some voters think Trump is kidding about his most outlandish claims.     
We think it more likely his former associates are right about him. This candidate’s character references simply do not check out.     
On the campaign trail, Trump’s lies constitute an assault and battery on the body politic. His falsehoods are legion and are compounded in social media echo chambers, some of them controlled by his ally Elon Musk. He has called Harris a “fascist,” when in fact he is the candidate who favors authoritarians like Vladimir Putin and who has said he would be “a dictator” on “Day 1.”     
In Trumpworld, up is down and down is up, making it harder than it should be for voters to make informed choices.
On the stump, Trump is a harbinger of doom. He repeated this past week that if elected he plans to go after his political enemies. Forget the notion of the loyal opposition. In this candidate’s mind, his 2024 rival, and Democrats more broadly, are the “enemy from within.”      
At a town hall event in Pennsylvania, Trump claimed his political opponents had “weaponized our elections. … They are so bad and frankly, they’re evil.” He has said he will use the offices of the federal government, including the Department of Justice, to harass and punish people who he views as adversaries. That’s become a long list. If you think that claim is just bravado, keep in mind that at least 10 times during his first term, Trump sought to make government agencies target people he saw as adversaries, including John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and James B. Comey.     
In September, 111 Republican Party officials, including members of Congress and past cabinet secretaries, wrote an open letter urging people to elect Harris, terming Trump “unfit to serve.” Trump, their letter said, “promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests, and betrayed our values, democracy, and this country’s founding documents.”    
Other former Trump administration officials see him as unfit as well, including a chief of staff, national security advisers and secretaries of state, defense and education. At no point in our history have so many insiders broken ranks to denounce a former commander in chief’s fitness for the Oval Office.     
The Trump they served proved bad enough. The evidence is clear that if this candidate wins a second term, America will see a different Trump, one validated by the election results and no longer constrained by a wish to remain electable – as well as one newly immune, thanks to a Supreme Court stocked with his appointees, from legal accountability for actions taken in office.     
If he loses, Trump has said that civil unrest – read, a repeat of the Jan. 6 violence – is possible based on a belief by his supporters, orchestrated by the candidate himself, that the outcome was somehow unfair.      
A Trump loss will, for that reason, be difficult for the   country to digest. We fear for public safety, win or lose.     
With the high court on his side, and the makeup of Congress in play, a Trump victory would open a dangerous and potentially violent chapter in the American story.