Can We On This Day, Election Day . . .?

  Most politicians try to make their opponents seem inept and threatening. But no politician in recent memory has falsely demonized his opponents to the extent that Donald Trump has.

 —Can we on this day, Election Day, bring at least a modicum of civility back to American politics by defeating Donald Trump?

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Yes, the attacks by the Harris campaign on Donald Trump have also been unusually sharp. But those attacks have been supported by many of those who worked with the former president during his first term—including his vice president. 

Can we on this day, Election Day, reject the presidential aspirations of a former president who was called “fascist to the core” by the general who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under him, who was said by his own chief of staff to have praised Adolf Hitler?

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Yes, most politicians do sometimes stretch the truth. But no politician in American history has lied as incessantly, as wildly, as shamelessly as Donald Trump.

 —Can we on this day, Election Day, bring some grounding in truth back to American politics by defeating Donald Trump?

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No politician has stoked phony fears and fanned the flames of paranoia as has Donald Trump.

     The United States economy is today outperforming that of every major country in the world. Inflation is down. Violent crime is down. Unemployment is low. The two misbegotten 21st-century wars in which US troops fought have ended.

     Yes, there remains plenty of room for improvement. The world situation remains fraught, and American policy toward Israel has failed. We have still not developed a constructive and effective immigration policy. Meanwhile, many too many Americans struggle to get by.

      But it is shameful and absurd to portray the United States in 2024 as a series of “hellscapes.” Yet, that is what Donald Trump has done.

Can we on this day, Election Day, reject this dystopian characterization of America and recommit to solving this country’s and the world’s very real but hardly new or unique problems.

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In much of the world today tyrants still rule and citizens are denied the right to criticize their governments or choose their government in free and fair elections.

Can we on this day, Election Day, agree that the United States will not again be governed by a man who attempted to keep himself in power by overturning the results of a legitimate election? Can we today finally reject once and for all this would-be tyrant and make sure the United States remains a democracy?

Mitchell Stephens

Mitchell Stephens, one of the editors of this site, is a professor emeritus of Journalism at New York University, and is the author or co-author of nine books, including the rise of the image the fall of the word, A History of News, Imagine There’s No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World, Beyond News: The Future of Journalism, and The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th Century Journalism. He lives in New York and spends a lot of time traveling and fiddling with video.

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