If the America I love falls victim to Trumpism, I want it to go down fighting • Georgia Recorder

Donald Trump should be the main issue of this election. He has led a conspiracy to overthrow our elected government, he has called for political violence in his own name and then refused to intervene to stop it, and he has publicly called for the U.S. Constitution to be “repealed” – his words, not mine – so that he, Donald Trump, could immediately return to power.

Trump wants to throw our allies at the mercy of Vladimir Putin and pardon those who attacked our Capitol. He has already sacrificed women’s right to self-determination on the altar of his political ambitions, and the restrictions that somewhat limited him in his first term on government personnel and laws are being dismantled in preparation for his return.

Next time there will be no guard rails.

Given that situation, this should not be a close election, and increasingly it is not. After Joe Biden’s performance in the debate, what should have been a referendum on Trump, his record, and his dictatorial ambitions has become something else, and the Democrats’ prospects have worsened. In a close election, little things count, and big things count a lot. A physically impaired candidate, a candidate who has difficulty expressing himself clearly, is a big deal.

My own vote is set in stone, but the people whose vote is set in stone are not the people through whose eyes we should be trying to see. The people who will decide the outcome of the election are those who are not happy with either candidate, those who are looking for a reason to swing one way or the other. The argument that Trump is unfit for office now has a counterargument, namely that Biden is unfit for office, which significantly clouds the outcome.

This situation is not the work of the media. It is not the result of a conspiracy. Anyone who watched the debate knows that it is the result of Biden’s own performance as a candidate. When people like Nancy Pelosi say Biden should drop out without actually saying so, you know the concern is serious.

The only viable option is Kamala Harris.

In an open field and with enough time, Harris would be one of a half dozen or more qualified Democratic candidates I’d be willing to take a closer look at. But it’s not an open field, time is very short, and Harris is Biden’s natural successor. Opening the convention to other candidates or trying to hold a half-baked “mini-primary” between now and August would multiply the existing chaos, distraction, and division by a hundredfold, and consume time and money that could be better spent elsewhere.

I can’t tell you with any certainty that Harris will do better than Biden. I know that the kinds of problems Biden is exhibiting won’t get better with time or under stress. If he and his staff were confident in his abilities, he would be making his case publicly and aggressively, rather than in carefully staged appearances.

My conclusion is that Harris has potential, but this version of President Biden does not.

Voters always say they are dissatisfied with the candidates presented to them by the two major parties, but dissatisfaction with these recycled candidates is much higher this year than in most years. In a Pew poll conducted in April, 49 percent of voters said they would want to replace both Biden and Trump if given the choice. Among Democrats, the figure was 65 percent.

Would replacing Biden with Harris be a bold, risky decision? Absolutely. But keeping Biden under these circumstances would be at least as dangerous. Either way, bold, risky decisions are all we have left, and I distrust anyone on either side of this debate who vehemently insists they know what the right answer is.

There is a huge amount at stake, a huge amount of unknowns and emotions are running high.

But if the America I love is going to fall to Trumpism, let it go down fighting. I want a candidate who can convincingly explain the progress of the Biden-Harris administration and aggressively expose Trump as the hateful, dangerous, and incompetent would-be dictator he is.

I fear the Joe Biden of 2024 will not be able to accomplish this task; I have reason to hope that Kamala Harris – a former district attorney, former state attorney general, former U.S. senator and vice president with four years of experience in the critical offices – can.