Who do you think you are talking to? Does anyone here really want to shoot a Palestinian kid in the head? I hate the current administration's rubber stamp Israeli policy just as much as you do, yet we are still voting for Harris, who mouths administration policy on that subject. If anything, she has been more negative about it--about as much as she can be while still being part of this administration. It remains to be seen whether anything will change on that score after she takes office.
The distance between what I said (I am feeling depressed about the future of the country following the convention) and what you apparently read (I wish to personally attack future President Harris for being too imperfect) is making it very difficult to communicate. I cannot and have no reason to defend a point that isn't mine. I agree that Harris' position on Israel has been, like her position on damn near every subject, vague at best. Purposefully vague, as even many who like and support her campaign much more vigorously would agree. What I see as dangerously non-committal in the face of an imminent right-wing theocratic coup d'etat, they simply see as a clever way to get more votes out of the undecided middle. Which, it is. But that's why watching the convention left me feeling depressed and alienated. It is very clear that when the Trump regime or its descendants come for me, the response from the Democrats will be similarly muted and carefully diplomatic. Harris would happily defend me, I'm sure, against a bill to "Kill all gays tomorrow". But that's not how the assault will begin. Has begun, rather. The right's obsession with trans people is
not just about trans people.
FTR, I find it highly insulting and arrogant when you say things like "I don't understand how you made it as far through life without forming any sort of nuance in considering moral actions. Where did you get this dumbass idea that there is a "perfect" to begin with?" You really come off as a righteously moral asshole when you say things like that, and I would have expected better from you. I have nothing to do with Jesus or any other religious mythology.
Then why are you bringing up all this nonsense about "perfection"? I have never had such a childish view of morality, to my recollection not even when I was a child. There is more to ethics than "all right" or "all wrong", "perfect" or "flawed".
That's a really stupid moral argument, and it isn't mine. So where did you get it from? There may well be, but I am not
aware of, any non-Christian moralities that adjoin a person to be objectively "perfect"; it's just that one Bible verse that lays such an absurd responsibility and guilt on people, and I have always disagreed with it.
And I notice you did not bother to answer my question. It isn't obvious why someone of your high moral character would vote for Harris.
Lack of options and probably groundless hope for the future. There may be some hope for negotiation with a Harris administration, some time perhaps for cultural attitudes to shift. If Trump wins in November, there is no hope at all for either, not even a fool's hope, until after we've gone all the way through the fire. So how else will I spend my vote? Between "very little" or "nothing" is not much of a choice but it is the choice we've been handed. I don't hate Kamala Harris, despite what you seem to be implying. I don't think she can or will reverse our country's headlong march into authoritarianism, but who knows whether anyone could stop that. Frankly, I think people put way too much faith in presidents, and it has only made things more dangerous. I don't think that Kamala Harris is a "bad person", and should she win, I'll allow myself a day or two of celebration, before rolling up my sleeves and getting back to the grim day-to-day of my political and professional work. Much as I did when Obama was elected. It will still be a relief that Trump was
not elected. It will still be a victory that a woman, and Berkeleyite, and a person of mixed race, was able to break multiple iron ceilings at a go. It will open the door to a much more expansive imagination of what the White House can or could be for every generation to follow. A remarkable and indelible triumph for as long as our democracy lasts. I'm just, you know, still extremely worried about how long that will be. Harris is not personally responsible for the rise of the Alt-Right, not even Trump himself could claim that honor. He profitably jumped on board a gravy train that was already rolling; the fault lies with all of us, not just in a handful of celebrity politicians.
I do not agree that I am a person of "high moral character".
It's funny that you are now trying to castigate me for voting for Harris, when not that long ago quite a few people in this very thread were dogpiling me for saying that I was considering abstaining from this same election in the immediate aftermath of Biden/Newsom's publicity tour in Israel. I don't recall whether you were one of them, but clearly that option would be no more popular in general.
