Contrary to what some newspaper owners think, this is the time for endorsements. Look elsewhere if you come here.
However, I will only focus on how I personally think about the Election, starting with the vote.
I wouldn’t choose either of them.
But that doesn’t mean I’m neutral about the outcome of the election. If I lived in a swing state instead of the District of Columbia, I might vote for Kamala Harris. I will definitely not vote for Donald Trump. However, since Harris will bring DC at least 30 points, “It’s a binary choice!” harangues leave me cold.
If I vote for Harris, it’s just a way to vote toward Donald Trump. I don’t think he has been a candidate, senator or vice president. I think he is very wrong on some issues. But as PJ O’Rourke said when endorsing Hillary Clinton in 2016, “She’s wrong about everything, but she’s wrong within normal parameters.”
I don’t think Harris is wrong about everything, but the framing is correct. Trump is simply unacceptable. The fact that he violates the American tradition of the peaceful transfer of power should not qualify him. All other reasons – and there are many – amount to shoving another ten pounds of manure into a five-pound bag.
Moreover, speaking about manure-shoveling, the willingness of most Republicans to play Trump trying to steal the 2020 election, is a reason to want people to lose. Sen. JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson have both embraced the shameful lie that we have a peaceful transition because Trump finally left office on time. It’s like saying that a prison riot doesn’t happen because eventually everyone goes back to their cells and serves their sentences.
Breaking this stranglehold that Trump has in the party is worth the conventionally bad Democratic president for four years, especially due to the fact that Harris will have a hard time to get much through Congress, not thinking about what is catastrophic.
Of course, Harris managed to surprise me and was better than I expected. But the most likely scenario would require him to move to the center. This is also good for conservatism. A more moderate Democratic Party would shift the center of gravity of American politics to the right, which is supposed to be the goal of the conservative movement.
If Harris is a failed president, it will be good for the party post-Trump (Hebert Hoover is good for Democrats, Jimmy Carter is a boon for Republicans). If he’s a successful enough president, then he works with Republicans on his “to-do list.”
So, I will choose strategically rather than emotionally. People invest a lot of cosmic significance to choose. Tell me how to choose, and I will tell you who, it seems, is the modern incarnation of Schmittian logic. I think this is pernicious nonsense. Elections together with job interviews and performance reviews, which we hire and fire civil servants. We do not anoint kings and queens. So, I’m going to write in some decent Republicans – Paul Ryan, Ben Sasse, I’m taking their advice – because I want to send a signal that I’m the choice for a sane Republican Party.
In short, I think beyond this election, because politics is a marathon, not a sprint. The Madisonian structure of our system assumes there will always be another election. We have elections all the time in this country, from dog catchers and insurance commissioners to governors and senators. Before the polls, this is how politicians and parties take the temperature of voters.
There is nothing understandable for those who believe that the fate of the world depends on this election. But that “Flight 93 Election” thinking is a big reason our politics is broken. It turns a political contest over competing policies into a religious war over the nature of reality. Conservatives, we’re told, aren’t conservatives if they don’t vote for Trump. Nonsense. I will not vote for him because I am a conservative, and I think this country needs healthy, sane conservatism.
Because of this opinion, many people told me that I should have the courage to be convinced and not only vote for Harris but shill for him. I got a lot of weird newfound respect from the left for refusing to lie to Trump. Really delicious. But I see no reason to lie to Harris either. That’s not my job.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.
