Ballots are arriving for the 2024 presidential elections, and this may be my last chance before you fill in that circle or punch out that chad that I can talk to you about your choice.
Now, I strongly suspect that if you are reading this column, you are likely voting for Kamala Harris. I figure there’s likely also a rare possibility that you might be intending to cast a ballot for Kennedy or Stein, or might be intending to sit the one out for whatever reason. Heck, as unlikely as it seems to me, there might even be someone out there reading these words who actually is intending to vote for Donald Trump. I’d be shocked, but in 2024 it feels like anything is possible. Unfortunately.
Let me also make this clear from the get go: I am indeed voting for Kamala Harris. It’s a pragmatic vote. I think she’ll do a decent job, but I’m under no illusions that she will deliver a strongly progressive administration. Rather, I expect to once again find myself frustrated by incremental changes and centrist messaging.
When she took over the reins from Biden in this election, initially, I was fairly enthusiastic. I was hesitant, given some of her history. But the messaging at that time was spot on. Ditto when Tim Walz was brought on, given his own work on trans and other issues in Minnesota.
Something changed for me, however, at the Democratic National Convention. While I did see transgender faces during the notation, the word itself was missing. Any allusion to trans-ness was carefully couched — in a year when Sarah McBride is likely to become the first trans person in Congress.
If anything, it smacks of cowardice that transgender people have not been directly addressed by the campaign. Doubly so given how much the Republican Party is hammering on people just like me.
The Republican Party has spent some 65 million dollars since August to vilify transgender people, including ads during several high-profile sporting events. Likewise, Trump’s speeches have increasingly included attack lines aimed at transgender people.
I’m sure it is deliberate that the Democratic Party has opted to not respond to these talking points, assuming that by not addressing them, they take the wind out of them. For me, however, not responding to them is not making me feel all that wanted. If you cannot say something now, how can I be assured you’ll say something when we see trans rights eroded by SCOTUS, by Congress, or by another several hundred bills across the country?
Yet, in spite of my frustration, I am voting for Harris. In fact, I have already filled out and returned my ballot, on the very day it arrived in my mailbox. That vote was obvious, a no brainer.
It was years ago, during Obama’s first term, that I really began to understand that you do not elect a president per se, but a presidential administration. You elect a president and vice president whom you trust to make good decisions about who they bring into their cabinet, and let those people do the job of moving the administration forward. The president may set the agenda, yes, but every department under them does the real work.
We saw what could happen with a good administration, as Obama’s White House moved forward on trans rights through the administration. We also saw different factions in the Trump White House strip away trans and LGBTQ+ rights.
On top of this, you also get to vote for the candidate you can persuade to do good work. Harris — compared to her opponent — can be pushed to be better. We can advocate, and we can make her and her administration act on our behalf. At the very least, it would be a possibility.
In a second Trump administration, particularly one that has published their playbook, Project 2025, things get that much worse for transgender and nonbinary people, along with, well, anyone who is not a full-throated supporter of Donald Trump.
This is a presidential campaign that has grown darker and more fascist in even in the last few weeks. This would not be a presidency that one could convince to do good.
Heck, it isn’t one we could plead with to not do evil.
Likewise, I think there’s an obvious elephant in the GOP’s room. Donald Trump is not looking well. Sure, he’s always seemed a bit off, but lately he has gotten that much worse. The word salad he has often spewed has taken on a rambling cadence, and he’s often forgetting what he’s talking about. His speech has become slow and slurred. He just doesn’t look well.
Can you really be sure that Trump will last another four months, let alone four years? If not, then you’d best be really sure you would be OK with JD Vance as president. I may not believe that Donald Trump is in this for more than saving his own skin — even if I’m sure we’ll be happy to let others in his administration push awful, anti-democratic policies — but JD Vance strikes me as more a true believer, who will gleefully try to hurt as many people as possible.
I hate that nearly every election I’ve voted in has been about voting against awful people, not about voting for a candidate that fully fits my desires, but here we are. I dearly hope that you, too, will be willing to do your part this year, too. Our lives may literally depend on it.
Gwen Smith is, like so many others, horrified of what may come. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.