Len Damico

When Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee for President, Working Families Party asked all its members to weigh in on whether the party should endorse Kamala Harris. I was one of the 5% who said “no.”

Well, I voted this morning. And yes, I pushed the button for Harris.

Kamala Harris is a member of a Presidential administration that has aided and abetted Palestinian genocide with US tax dollars. As someone who believes in Palestine’s right to exist, who has participated in pro-Palestinian actions and donated to relief efforts, and who just thinks that genocide is bad as a general rule, this makes supporting her difficult.

Here’s the thing, though: I simply don’t see a way in which the situation in Gaza gets better under Trump.

Trump has encouraged Israel’s leadership to “finish the job in Gaza,” while Harris has at least taken meetings with Palestinian, Muslim and Arab groups to hear their concerns. Harris has shown little daylight between her position and that of the Biden administration’s unwavering support of Israel, but there is some. Her calls for pauses and partial ceasefires are not enough, but they are a start.

The further dangers of a second Trump regime are clear:

• A 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court has lead to unimaginable erosion of our rights as citizens and undermining of the administrative state. Trump appointed a full third of the justices currently on the Court. He cannot be allowed to nominate a fourth.
• More women will die as draconian anti-abortion policies, flowing from the Court’s absurd decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, are expanded nationwide.
• Trans people will be further demonized, ostracized and othered (in case you haven’t seen the “Kamala is for they/them” ad on TV ten thousand times in the last month or so).
• Immigrants, no matter their legal status, will not be safe anywhere in America.
• Foundational rights like free speech and birthright citizenship may erode and disappear.
• Our climate’s deterioration will continue to accelerate, unmitigated by the EPA (whose power was gutted by the court’s overturn of the doctrine of Chevron deference) or other policy initiatives.

For all these reasons, and many more, it is imperative that Donald Trump does not become president again.

When The Working Families Party announced their endorsement of Harris, the Party adroitly pointed out that “voting is not a love letter, it’s a chess move.” Voting for Kamala Harris was a move that allows us to continue to fight.