I think it's pretty simple. A Kamala Harris administration will pursue a path familiar to any American who lived through the last half century. For better or worse. A Donald Trump administration has declared its intention to forge a very different style of American government. For better or worse.
Instead of bashing one candidate, let's bash both. Kamala is a flip-flopping opportunist. Donald is motivated primarily by flattery and revenge.
The flip-flopping opportunist is common in American politics, making decisions based on which way the wind is blowing. While this doesn't speak well of their personal convictions, it has a way of pushing them to the center where consensus is made. Kamala Harris is almost guaranteed to steal the Republican playbook for immigration reform and claim it for her own. Along with fellow Democrats they will lean into public education, public health, environmental issues, small business assistance, jobs creation, infrastructure, regulations, etc. They expect and will get pushback from Republicans, and end up in a compromised center common to American governance. If it goes like the other Democrat administrations it resembles, the economy will do better than it did under Republican administrations.
While our frothiest debates revolve around culture wars, they won't be the cornerstone of Harris policy, with the notable exception of reproductive rights and Supreme Court nominations, should they arise. It may be a simplification, but the Dems are asking us to tolerate the personal lives of others, while the Republicans are leaning towards rescinding those personal freedoms. It's a weird tack for a party that likes to celebrate freedom.
Donald Trump, the guy motivated by flattery and revenge, is a different story. It's a story unlike anything America has experienced. If I'm being generous, I'll credit him with disrupting a system that needs some disrupting. But at this point it's impossible to ignore that he's a wild card without any vision beyond his personal glory, with a blueprint to gut America's checks, balances and institutions, reduced to some of the least intelligent and qualified administrators, aides, and cabinet members because Trump values loyalty first and the sensible conservatives who once worked with him have declared him a f#&%ing idiot. And he is. His public pronouncements are stunning for their incoherence.
The Republican Party would like to be free of Donald Trump. The Democratic Party, too. Whatever you or I might think of Kamala Harris, she is a low risk option to make that happen.
