Apparently, if his latest Washington Post column is any gauge, George Will is as nauseated by the presidential election as I am:
Of this mercifully truncated presidential campaign we may say what Samuel Johnson said of Milton’s “Paradise Lost”: No one ever wished it longer. Why prolong this incineration of the nation’s dignity?
Donald Trump, a volcano of stray thoughts and tantrums, is painfully well known. There is nothing to know about Kamala Harris, other than this: Her versatility of conviction means that she might shed her new catechism as blithely as she acquired its progressive predecessor.
I think this assessment is pretty much on the money as well:
Many of the nation’s 59 prior presidential elections have been choices between mediocrities, with some scoundrels thrown in (and into office). This year’s choice is, however, the worst ever.
This measured judgment is validated by pondering, one by one, previous elections. To understand how far the nation has defined mediocrity down, consider the campaign’s pitiless exposure of the candidates’ peculiar promises and reprehensible silences.
On foreign policy, Trump and Harris have different styles of being incomprehensible. He is pithy, promising to settle Russia’s war against Ukraine “in 24 hours,” details someday. She is loquacious, as when explaining the Middle East to CBS’s “60 Minutes”: “The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region … We’re not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end …”
He will not say Vladimir Putin is an enemy. She will not say Israel has a right to fight as fiercely against genocidal enemies next door as the United States fought in World War II against enemies oceans away.
But I’m afraid this is wishful thinking:
Whoever wins, both parties should be penitential about what they have put the country through. And both should begin planning 2028 nomination processes that will spare the nation a choice that will be greeted, as this year’s has been, by grimaces from sea to shining sea.
Already senior Democrats (part of that nomenklatura I’ve mentioned), are declaiming that however small the majority by which Kamala Harris prevails, she will have a mandate. Trump always thinks he has a mandate so that reaction of his would be no surprise.
Putin is indeed our enemy, all of Russia is. We went out our way to make it so. We wanted Russia to be an enemy. Every Russian leader from the collapse, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin, and even Medvedev, wanted Russia to be in the EU and NATO. From Lisbon to Vladivostok, in Putin’s words. We started the war with the coup in 2014, removing the democratically elected government and installing the Banderite junta. Three times, Minsk I and II and at Istanbul, Putin negotiated settlements that would have Ukraine intact, except Crimea. Three times we sabotaged those agreements.
Now, Russia will not negotiate with any Western country. They will destroy Ukraine and impose whatever settlement they choose.
We are indeed the Evil Empire. The regime in Washington is evil. It is also violent. The US has started more than 80% of all the wars and military interventions that have occurred since WW II. And we are openly aiding and abetting the genocide of the Palestinian and, now, Lebanese peoples.
Do you imagine Tuesday’s election will change anything? Only the actual physical destruction of the regime in Washington will change anything.
Tuesdays election will change many things!
I am going to say this while I have the chance.
Blame Joe Biden that the choice is between Trump and Harris; he is unusually directly responsible for both parties nominees.
I am unclear about why POTUS needs to talk about Israel’s right to defend itself. The issue is whether we should be drawn into the broader war they seem to be intent upon. While we have given them nearly unlimited material and intelligence support, helping shoot down missiles, etc what would we get out sending our own troops to fight?
Steve