The Spectator’s Endorsement for the 2024 Presidential Election

Vice President Kamala Harris shares her name with the Hindu Goddess Lakshimi (Kamala is another name for Sri-Lakshimi); her mother, Shyamala Goplan Harris, bequeathed this bit of cultural heritage to Kamala to give her strength, proudly declaring that “a culture that worships goddesses produces strong women.” Harris spent the formative years of her career as a prosecutor in Oakland, California, cracking down on Oakland’s drug epidemic and defending rape victims in front of unconvinced jurors. She asserted in a case involving a 14-year old, “ Look, I know you don’t like her … but the penal code was not created to protect Snow White. This kid is a child who needs to be protected from predators.” Now, after serving as the Vice President of the United States, the Democratic nominee for president faces another type of criminal: former president and convicted felon Donald J. Trump. 

Foreign Policy: While Harris aligns with Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza and calls for the return of the Israeli hostages, she has been openly critical of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. At the 2024 Democratic National Convention, she stated “what has happened in Gaza in the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.” As president, she will likely continue the Biden-Harris Administration’s military funding of Israel, which is insufficiently mindful of the suffering she has called for an end to. At the same time, Trump’s views on the conflict are based on a long-standing support of Israel enshrined in support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition to a sovereign Palestinian state. He has criticized the Biden-Harris Administration’s ceasefire proposal, claiming that they are “giv[ing] Hamas time to regroup and launch a new October 7 style attack.” Despite the Biden Administration’s strong support for Israel, Trump accused Biden of “trying to hold [Netanyahu] back.” He promises to continue “giv[ing] Israel the support that it needs to win” and hopes they will “get [the conflict] over with” — presumably at the cost of many more Palestinian lives. The Spectator believes that a Harris administration will be much more invested in resolving the dispute with sensitivity to both sides of the conflict, including support for a two-state solution.

Regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Harris has and will continue to support Ukraine’s defense of their right to sovereignty. The Biden administration provided up to $64.1 billion in aid since Russia’s planned and unprovoked invasion. In a recent interview, Harris stands behind Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy, proclaiming the continuation of her unwavering support. In contrast, Trump has been extremely critical of Biden’s support of Ukraine, describing Zelenskyy as “one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen.” It is ironic that he meant this pejoratively, since he has been a salesman for most of his career. He has also openly admired Vladimir Putin, and would sell out Ukraine to promote Putin’s agenda.

Climate Change: Harris is determined to fight climate change, while Trump refuses to take it seriously. The Biden-Harris Administration has implemented numerous policies to curb climate change, which Harris is expected to continue under her presidency. Harris’s current policy promises an America Forward tax credit to invest in several key industries, including developments in clean energy. In 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration reintegrated the United States into the Paris Agreement after Trump’s 2017 withdrawal from it, which he promises to reinstate as president. In contrast, Trump called climate change “one of the great scams of all time.”  His climate policies include rolling back laws that incentivize clean energy usage and increasing the production of fossil fuels— which are directly contributing to rising sea levels, amongst other environmental consequences. 

Healthcare: A Trump presidency would likely decrease healthcare accessibility for the working and middle class. In 2017, Trump attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which 23 million people rely on for affordable health insurance. He appointed three conservative judges to the Supreme Court, creating a conservative majority that overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade in 2022, which allowed 13 states to ban abortion outright. Trump has extolled and bragged about the decision— though he now claims not to support a national abortion ban.  His political and moral flimsiness on the issue stands in direct contrast to Harris’s open embrace of abortion rights. She’s endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Reproductive Freedom for All, and promises to use her presidency to reinstate the protections of Roe v. Wade. Harris also promises to “make affordable healthcare a right, not a privilege.” She will maintain the Affordable Care Act, and plans on updating it to cover in-home treatment for the elderly. She also intends to expand the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, which would lower the price of prescription drugs nationwide. To further support Medicare, she will increase taxes on people with incomes over $400,000, and increase the corporate tax rate to 28 percent; in contrast, Trump plans to serve the one percent, cutting taxes for them and reducing the corporate tax rate to as low as 15 percent.

Immigration: Trump has scathingly criticized Harris’s work as Biden’s “failed Border Czar;” in a post on X, he quoted a Fox News headline that falsely claimed the Biden-Harris Administration had allowed 13,000 migrants with murder convictions to cross the United States  border. In reality, throughout her Vice Presidency, Harris concentrated on addressing migration from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Her crackdowns on asylum seekers contributed to a substantial decline in illegal border arrests. Harris promises to revive a bipartisan border security bill which would have increased the number of ICE agents, asylum officers, immigration judges, and fentanyl inspection machines at the border—a bill which conservative senators killed. Meanwhile, Trump proposes the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” As president, he claims he will use the military to round up undocumented immigrants, allow ICE raids on workplaces, and reinstate the immigration policies from his first presidential term, including his “zero tolerance” policy (which intentionally tore apart immigrant families). Despite Trump’s assertions, Harris will continue to maintain the border and moderate immigration—just without Trump’s belligerence. 

Conclusion: 

Kamala Harris represents a new way forward for America; Trump is a threat to American democracy.  His Project 2025—a manifesto he attempts to disavow, despite being drafted by at least 140 former Trump staffers—includes dismantling the Department of Homeland Security, eliminating the Department of Education, and withholding an abortion pill from the market. With two right-wing Supreme Court justices awaiting retirement, a Trump presidency could come with two younger conservative justices, whose impacts will far outlast the president’s. 

It’s also imperative to remember that just three years ago, Trump incited a violent attempt to overthrow the government: at a rally at the Ellipse on January 6th, 2021, Trump asserted, “I've been in two elections. I won them both and the second one, I won much bigger than the first,” despite there being no credible evidence showing widespread voter fraud. At a rally on January 6th, 2021, he told supporters, “We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore,” instructing them to “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue” to protest, directly preceding the violent raid on the United States Capitol Building. As a result of the attack, at least 140 police officers were injured, and 5 people died. We cannot have a president who cannot acknowledge facts, and who will encourage violence to fulfill his irresponsible repudiation of the truth. 

Thus, the Stuyvesant Spectator endorses Kamala Harris for president.