Do You Still Believe in America? Vote Kamala Harris

With the most important Election Day in our history upon us, choosing Kamala Harris is the only reasonable choice for a country in need of healing

“I believe in America.“

Those were the opening words uttered by an Italian immigrant in the epic 1972 crime saga The Godfather. Since its inception, fortunes have been won and lost, families raised, and through it all, through war, depression, and a baby boom, America, a country built by immigrants, endures, albeit far from cleanly.

Throughout all our trials and tribulations, from civil wars to civil rights, we made our way through the miasma of this country’s deepest sins, and we did so by holding our noses in uneasy alliances, with a desire for a preservation of the common good.

So, if all that’s true, why does Election Day 2024 feel like a day where the bough will break, sending the cradle of our society into an endless freefall?

For a man, who managed to be impeached twice, and exonerated only because his acolytes and sycophants in Congress refused to convict him, only to later be convicted on 34 felonies tied to being elected in the first place finds himself in the position to retake the very office that he already proved to the world he was uniquely unsuitable for has to be a work of the very worst fiction.

And yet, here we are.

Here we are less than 24 hours from the most critical test of American democracy, and if you listen to the media, it’s neck and neck, a virtual tie. If anything, this is meant to parallel and highlight the current division amongst fellow Americans. Politics has always been a contact sport, but now, people treat it as an actual spectator sport, where they are more fans than constituents, where the support is ardent, and lines are deeply drawn.

It’s hard not to feel a sense of dread for what should be our proudest day as a country. Election Day is where we show the world how it’s supposed to be done, how American Exceptionalism is democracy manifest, and yet we now go to the polls either to save the country, or to let evolve into something darker.

There are people who believe Trump is the only way out of a hole that he had a role in digging, but they don’t see it that way. To them, Trump is the beacon out of a world they don’t understand or feel a part of. Terms like “DEI” and “woke” serve as specters meant to frighten or possess them. They feel this way because that’s what Trump (and others) have so expertly sold. The sad reality is that in the 21^st century, there were so many willing to buy.

Voting for Kamala Harris certainly seems like a better option on the surface alone, but it’s not without massive complications. These complications are incidental, because it would be hard to argue that with only three months to campaign that she hasn’t run a virtually flawless campaign.

However, there is an argument.

So much of what the Harris turbo campaign did correctly is equaled by what the campaign, and maybe the Democratic National Committee itself, did wrong by marginalizing voters who have genuine grievances. The block of Muslim and Arab Democrats in Michigan and other areas who are rightfully angry about the Biden Administration’s response to what has become a genocide in Gaza had a right to address those grievances, and yet were shunned.

That is a significant stain on what is an otherwise solid and inclusive campaign. We can recognize what is wrong while also focusing on what is right, and because of that, the time has come to focus on what is right now so that we may better address everything else that needs immediate attention.

Make no mistake, despite the bumpy roads and blemishes, there is only one choice to make tomorrow, and that is to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. It’s easy to say that this is a referendum against Trump and how does that help us with the economy and all the other things that matter to you and yours, but it’s clearly larger than that.

Whether it’s the promise of inflicting Project 2025 en masse, or the threats of mass deportations, Trump is not trying to heal a fractured society, he’s trying to render it completely. There isn’t a single policy that Trump or his minions presented to date that doesn’t involve inflicting some measure of pain upon segments of our society.

Whether it’s controlling women’s bodies or levying insane tariffs that will only raise the prices of goods for all Americans, everything Trump wants to do is either self-serving or destructive to some portion of the American people.

And for those who think Trump would handle the wars in Gaza and Ukraine any better than Biden, guess again. Trump’s solution for Gaza is to simply let Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu do whatever he likes. While it may feel like a betrayal for Harris not to say anything substantive concerning Gaza, and an even deeper betrayal to send former President Bill Clinton out to essentially chide those Arab/Muslim voters in Michigan, both progressive movements and Palestinians will suffer under Trump than they ever would under Harris, and it’s not even close.

Power requires compromise, and that means sometimes the prudent path isn’t the most desirable. This also goes for our paper-thin alliances with non-MAGA Republicans like Liz Cheney. By giving conservatives like her a seat at the Harris table is not a capitulation or a surrender. It’s realizing that Trump threatens more than just liberals, and if this is true, that means Trump and MAGA aren’t just a problem for liberals, but a problem for all Americans, even those who think they would fall under Trump’s favor.

America is greater than Donald Trump. America owes itself more than Donald Trump. Voting for Kamala Harris doesn’t cure our ills, but it gives us a chance to at least try.

Kamala Harris would be a competent and hopefully effective leader. She represents a fresh clarity that will serve to move society forward by giving one more example that everyone in this country has a chance to be someone regardless of race, gender or sexuality because America includes all of us, not just some of us.

By the time you read this, chances are your mind is already made up and your vote is cast. Whether you voted for Trump or Harris, the work to hold this society together continues, regardless of our desired outcomes. For us to survive, democracy itself must survive, and I hope that we afford ourselves a path forward that holds us together for four more years.

To be sure, if Trump wins, the world won’t disappear overnight. We will still have to get up, go to work, pay the bills and take out the trash. Life will go on, but for many, that life will be different, and for some, unbearable. As a society, we stand to lose far more than we will gain with him as president, so a vote for Harris doesn’t just line up with my political views, it aligns with my desire for this country to hold itself together once more.

America is greater than Donald Trump. America owes itself more than Donald Trump. Voting for Kamala Harris doesn’t cure our ills, but it gives us a chance to at least try. For me, that’s enough, and I hope it’s enough for you as well.

To the Trump voters who may read this, it may be too late for any measure of peace now or after, but I certainly hope there is. For everything we disagree on politically, we like some of the same things as well. We need to focus on the ties that bind instead of the issues that divide. We don’t have to love one another, but damnit, we must live together.

The American experiment as we know it must succeed, and the only way to do that is to believe in America one more time.

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Hashim R. Hathaway (Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and deadbeat father to NeverDaunted.Net.