Who’s the extremist in the race for president?
Kamala Harris’s most recent speech praised the late Republican Sen. John McCain, former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, and promised to have a Republican in her cabinet. Former President Donald Trump‘s most recent comments called for using the National Guard and military against “radical left lunatics” planning chaos on election day.
It would be pretty hard to say that Trump is reaching out to middle America. He remains the extremist in the race. But maybe some people think Trump’s extremism is just what we need—revenge on America’s politically correct elites. Why not eliminate the old America even if it means letting Trump rough up his enemies, enrich his friends, and politicize every aspect of the federal government? What have we got to lose?
Former President Donald Trump greets supporters during a campaign rally at the Grand Sierra Resort on Oct. 11, in Reno, Nevada.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Well, plenty, actually. If you have a spouse, or children, or a home, or a 401(k), or a job, you have a lot to lose by electing a man whose former top general recently labelled him a dangerous fascist—a lawless person who wants the power to do whatever he wants to you or your property. America was founded to oppose exactly this. America came to dominate the world by opposing this. America is a magnet because here no one is free to mess with you or your stuff without answering to the law.
And that magnet has attracted money that makes your home, your job, and your 401(k) more valuable. The world trusts the dollar and puts its money in our stock markets because we play by the rules. Have you seen anyone anxious to invest in the countries run by Trump’s thuggish friends Russian President Vladimir Putin and Korean leader Kim Jong Un? Isn’t lack of the rule of law a major reason foreign investment in China has been dropping? People won’t put their money where rulers can change the rules on a whim or turn the machinery of government against anyone who stands in their way—just as Trump has promised to do with his enemies if he is elected.
And no, Trump’s extremist talk isn’t just harmless bluster. He wasn’t just being a good old-fashioned storyteller when he made up stories about FEMA not helping Republican hurricane victims. Some people believed his lies, including the militias hunting FEMA agents in North Carolina, just like some people believed his lies about immigrants in Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, leaving Aurora castigated by crackpots and Springfield besieged with bomb threats.
Is it true that despite all of his extremist talk things were more peaceful during Trump’s term than President Joe Biden‘s? Yes, there is now war in Ukraine and in the Middle East. But what about the chaos in the United States during Trump’s term?
If Biden is responsible for the wars that broke out far from our shores during his term, wasn’t Trump responsible for the three dead and 35 injured during the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville? Shouldn’t he have prevented the hundreds of police and protester injuries along with the deaths of at least 10 people during the George Floyd riots, not to mention the $1 billion in property damage? Is he not to blame for the over one million Americans who died following his minimizing the danger of COVID-19? Is Trump not even more directly responsible for hurling an angry mob at the United States Capitol in 2021 where more than 140 police officers were injured and as many as nine people died? Which instability is worse for American families—chaos and violence at home or abroad?
Nobody can say Vice President Kamala Harris has ever been responsible for similar violence. And has she led a left-wing extremist campaign? Is she just a DEI diva? She could have doubled down on DEI in picking her vice president. But instead, she picked Tim Walz, a paunchy middle-aged white former football coach with a hunting license. Harris is not exactly extremist.
Still, maybe you think this means Harris is too ill-defined, and think that at least we know what we’re getting with Trump. Sure, we do. The trouble is that it’s something really, really bad.
Thomas G. Moukawsher is a former Connecticut complex litigation judge and a former co-chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Employee Benefits. He is the author of the new book, The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
