Harris is the Only Choice

From My Heart

This post was originally published last February. It was updated on August 10 to reflect the fact that Pres. Biden had dropped out of the presidential race, and Kamala Harris had become the Democratic candidate.

In this post, I write from my heart as a Jew for my fellow Jews. I truly believe that in the coming election, we must all vote to elect Kamala Harris. For us, she is the only choice.

The Only Choice for a Progressive

If you are a Jew on the left wing of the Democratic party who is angered by Pres. Biden’s support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, consider what will happen if you sit out this election or vote for a third party. If you do that, you will help to elect Donald Trump as president. His supporters include the neo-Nazis and White Christian Nationalists who deny that you are really American.

Moreover, Trump's campaign is openly antisemitic. On December 19, the NY Times quoted a Trump campaign spokesman as saying,

Unsurprisingly, the all-Democrat appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump’s name from the ballot ....

"Soros-funded" means "funded by a rich Jew." The phrase implies falsely that the Democratic Party is controlled by rich Jews, and we must do what we can to prevent a candidate who spreads such lies from becoming president. Trump's Republican Party is dependent on a racist base that includes many, virulent antisemites. Do you really want to elect a government that will empower them?

Moreover, you know that there are many things we need to do in our country. We need to deal with the effects of climate change; we need to lighten the burden of student debt; we need to build a decent, national health care system; we need to provide a path to citizenship for our undocumented immigrants; we need to make sure that women can control their own bodies; and there are many other things we need to do. You know that if we elect Ms. Harris, we will make progress on at least some of those tasks, but if we elect Mr. Trump, we will make no progress, and on some issues, we will move backward. How much do you want to damage our country? How far do you want to set back the cause of social justice here? Would you be willing to sacrifice Social Security or Medicare? Would you sacrifice a woman's right to control her own body to protest our government's support of Israel's war in Gaza?

The Only Choice for a Conservative

If you are a conservative who is disgusted and angered by the antisemitism of the extreme left, you need to remind yourself where the real danger lies. The antisemites of the left are noisy; they march with placards; they sometimes harass Jewish students. But they have not gone into synagogues to kill people. Remember the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

The really dangerous antisemites in our country are on the extreme political right. It is the neo-Nazis and White Christian Nationalists who have made us afraid and who have caused every synagogue in the United States to increase its spending on security. We can tolerate noisy, antisemitic leftists, but we cannot tolerate people who walk into our synagogues to kill us, and we do not want to elect a president who will empower those killers. If you ask yourself which candidate is “good for the Jews,” you will find only one answer: Kamala Harris. If you sit this election out or vote for a Republican, you will empower our country’s most dangerous antisemites. Is that what you want?

The Only Choice

So, I say again, a Jew must vote for Kamala Harris in 2024. There is no other choice.