Trump is Dangerously Unfit for Office

A Matter of Conscience

I feel obliged to write this as a matter of conscience because there is so much at stake in this year’s presidential election. I am voting for Harris-Walz for two basic reasons.

1. Kamala Harris’ policy positions concentrate on providing greater opportunity and support for middle class and working class families. Example: A permanent child tax credit of $3,600 per child per year. Before the previous version expired, it help reduce child poverty by 50%. Study after study shows that hard pressed families spend additional monthly income on practical necessities like food, clothing, rent, car repairs, education and training.

   Trump’s economic program consists largely of across the board tariffs on imported goods, which would amount to a national sales tax, increasing inflation. The additional cost of tariffs is inevitably passed onto the consumer. The belief that Trump would be better for the economy rests on a wave on insubstantial nostalgia that ignores the disruptive effects of a worldwide pandemic which placed us on the verge of economic collapse and killed over a million Americans. Unless you are already rich, there is no reason to anticipate that the average person will be transported back in time to an imagined prosperity.

2. Donald Trump is dangerously unfit to hold the office of President of the United States. Over and over again, he has demonstrated a willingness to violate fundamental democratic principles in order hold onto power and prop up a fragile ego. Far from hiding this ruthlessness, he announces his authoritarian intentions right out loud. For instance.

• Trump and his minions attempted to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election. Undaunted, he is threatening to try it again if he loses.

• Trump consistently refers to migrants as vermin, criminals and terrorists, who threaten to poison the blood of real Americans. He has mindlessly repeated lies about legal Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio eating people’s pets, which led to bomb threats requiring a National Guard presence at local schools.

  People of all faiths subscribe to some version of “treat you neighbor as you would be treated.” Our immigration system is in dire need of reform, but demonizing people fleeing lawlessness and gang violence is a tactic only Hitler could love. As it turns out, Trump has expressed an admiration for Hitler, according to his Chief of Staff, General John Kelly. Furthermore, the mass indiscriminate detention and deportation of migrants Trump has Promised would deal a crippling blow to our economy by decimating an essential workforce.

• Trump has threated to use the National Guard and the military against his political “enemies from within” if he becomes president. His supporters tell us he doesn’t really mean it. When asked by friendly interviewers if he wants to modify these authoritarian threats, ,however, he actually repeats them. Could Trump actually get away with using the Justice Department and military to conduct campaigns of retribution against political opponents? Do we want to find out?

By spreading lies and outrageously false conspiracy theories Trump has caused real harm without holding public office. Imagine what he can do if he is elected this fall for four more years. We have had mediocre Presidents before, but we have never in our entire history, encountered anyone who is so far beyond the norms of honor and decency.

Sherrod Brown for Senate

Senator Sherrod Brown has served Ohio well as champion of ordinary middle class and working people. The negative ads against him are grossly untrue. He deserves our vote. Bernie Moreno would function as a Trump acolyte.

Finally, vote against gerrymandering, Vote YES on Issue 1.