Contributed by Sharon Butler / Two Coats of Paint joins the voices that say clearly: Kamala Harris is the overwhelming choice for president. Whereas Donald Trump vowed to defund the arts, Harris has supported them throughout her career, recognizing the arts as essential to American identity, education, and economic growth. She collects vinyl and served on a museum board in San Francisco, and her stepdaughter is an artist. The stakes, of course, are much higher, especially this year. America’s democracy, its stability, its example, and its very decency as a nation are in jeopardy. To anyone thinking about sitting out this election or casting a “statement” vote for a third party candidate, we implore you to watch this video, consider the bigger picture, and vote for Kamala Harris.
Video (above): Watch the October 28 video of Vice President Kamala Harris’ closing argument speech to American voters that took place in Washington, DC.
Read: Jonathan Stevenson’s Oct 31 Guest Essay in the New York Times: With Election Day Near, Here’s a Reminder That a Second Trump Term Could Mean Mayhem.
AOC speaks to progressives on Pod Save America about the stakes of this election. (HT Angela Dufresne)
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Yes, thank you, Sharon! I cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post because Bezos stepped in and censored the editors’ endorsement of Harris. Here’s what I wrote:
To the Editors and the Publisher of The Washington Post:
I have subscribed to The Washington Post for too many years to remember with any accuracy, but I believe it’s been at least two decades.
Yet I have now cancelled my subscription (my current subscription runs through November 29th, 2025). I thought hard before doing this, but I believe it is the only right thing to do.
Mr. Bezos’s decision to block the Post’s editors from endorsing Kamala Harris for president was particularly shocking coming this close to the election, and made it stink of censorship.
Yet it would have been shocking even if it had come months earlier. Great newspapers and news magazines offer news and news analysis, on the one hand, and opinion pieces, on the other. Although the border between news and opinion is by nature somewhat porous (decisions of whether to publish or not publish a story always include an exercise of judgment as well as plain, old-fashioned “opinion”), contrary to what Mr. Bezos states, when a presidential election is at hand, readers of a great newspaper indeed want to hear the opinion of the editors.
This is especially true with this election, when Mr. Trump’s policy statements (such as they are) make clear he is a dangerous man who both admires autocratic leaders and embraces fascism.
To the point at hand: Some say cancellation of my WaPonsubscription hurts only the Post’s journalists. I am sorry for this, as I read many of them regularly. But the scope and consequence of Mr. Bezos’s decision give me no choice.
Here’s the nut of the matter: Given Mr. Bezos’s willingness to censor his editors before the election, I shudder to think of how he will behave with editors if Trump is elected president.
As I write this, while the Washington Post is in crisis, Mr. Bezos and his girlfriend are in Europe. He’s said that readers will come round to seeing how much better it is this way. It’s insulting.
This election is a moral test for all Americans. Mr. Bezos flunked it.
Yours,
Laurie Fendrich
Does ANYONE care that Harris has been part of an administration funding a GENOCIDE????????
Replying to Virginia Bryant: I am a political pragmatist, and I adhere to the principle that the perfect should never be the enemy of the good.
What, exactly, in a 2-party system like ours, is the alternative?