Perhaps the most striking thing about the presidential race is that the polls keep telling us about “razor-thin” margins. It’s safe to assume that, if Trump loses, the closer the race, the bigger the trouble in the aftermath. For at least two reasons this race should not even be close.
First, Harris has secured 11 blocs of voters, who, if they actually vote, should clinch her an uncontestable victory. This includes a growing number of Republicans, some of them influential, and a substantial number who have worked directly for Donald Trump and say he is unfit for the job. In a recent guest column for the Columbus Dispatch, I spelled out these voting blocs and why Harris backers need to reach out to Republicans for help to make this election not even close:
Second, this race sets a young, joyful, healthy, smart, biracial woman vice-president against an old, white, angry man, a former president and convicted felon who faces another 52 felony charges in Florida, Georgia, and Washington, DC. When threatened, human nature, and especially Trump’s nature, will put his own safety first, every time. No wonder he has been increasingly aggressive in public. This race is only close because Trump voters ignore his legal peril.
Three weeks after Election Day, in New York City Judge Merchan will sentence Trump for his 34 felony convictions. Over forty per cent of sentences for similar crimes in New York have included some prison time, according to the New York Times. Do Trump voters honestly think this man will attend to anything other than his own legal survival in the face of 86 potential felony convictions during his first year of a second presidency?
I suppose we should credit Trump’s campaign with helping his backers forget this fact about Trump’s legal troubles. Our nation has never seen a presidential candidate who is also a felon and possibly headed to prison. So we forget about it, not daring to believe it’s true.
But another Trump presidency will begin with his top priority being ridding himself of the threat of prison time. The border, abortion, and your grocery bill will wait until he feels safe. His topo priority will be to try to dismantle the judicial system that threatens his safety. Shame is dangerous in the hands of a man with presidential power.
So, in these final days, how can the margin of Harris’s victory widen enough to reduce trouble in the aftermath? Maybe if we help Republicans find an honorable way to vote this once for country over party, it will save us: