Donald Trump and Kamala Harris offer a stark contrast on leadership. (Photo: Screen Cap)
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part analysis of campaign promises by Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican challenger Donald Trump. Part I focuses on the economy, inflation and taxes.
In this election, we need to ask ourselves who we are and what this nation will hold going forward.
Will it be a cynical place of detention camps and Dickensian social inequality, or one that invests in a diverse and vibrant future for all.
Donald Trump represents the former. Kamala Harris represents the latter.
Trump may brag about making America great again, but Harris embraces the spirit of those post-World War II years when the nation pulled together to create a social and economic miracle.
Kamala Harris for President: Part One: The Economy, Inflation, Taxes
When millions of men returned home from the war, they were eager to settle down and start families, But they faced daunting hurdles to return to civilian life.
The country they left was largely rural, and dotted with small towns. The country they returned to was an industrial giant that demanded skilled workers of all kinds.
The government, stung by the bitterness of abandoning World War I veterans, was determined not to do it again and created sweeping social programs to assist the transition.
The most sweeping, of course, was one of the most successful social programs in history — the GI Bill. It paid for veterans to go to school and learn skills the newly industrialized country needed.
The government also provided billions of dollars in subsidies to build moderate income housing. Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, took advantage of those programs to create the family wealth that floated his son through numerous business disasters.
The government also provided subsidized VA and FHA loans to buy those houses. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created to facilitate the mortgage industry. Were those programs communist or socialist?
Quite the contrary, they made America what it is today, and turned the baby boom generation into the strongest, wealthiest middle class in the history of the world.
In the post-World War II era, the federal government formed a unique social compact with the nation. It not only lifted up veterans, but also African-Americans, an historic underclass that suffered for decades under the boot of Jim Crow.
Millions of immigrants, arriving from all over the world, also benefited from social programs designed to smooth their transition into American society and contribute their strength and diversity to our culture.
Today, as we move into the 21st century, the nation again faces daunting challenges and a booming younger generation that needs help getting a leg up.
Related: Trump, Republicans Have Turned Immigration Debate Into Absurd Theater; Here Are the Facts
Harris’s proposals and her presidency will build on that legacy.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, has vowed repeatedly to tear up that social contract. But he has never made clear, exactly what he’ll replace it with.
His promises have been scattershot; seemingly changing from audience to audience in a transparent attempt to pander for votes. But certain clear trends have also emerged.
Foremost, Trump has lied about almost everything, from the economy, foreign policy and crime to his cynical exploitation of immigrants.
Trump and his MAGA sycophants have tried to scare suburban women by demonizing immigrants. It hasn’t worked. Suburban moms know better and are voting in droves for Harris.
Related: Donald Trump’s War on Women: A Scary Future Rides on 2024 Election Outcome (Video)
They see immigrants everyday landscaping, cutting lawns, trimming trees, coaching community soccer and baseball, helping to take care of elderly parents, fixing their houses, working on the roads, babysitting their kids, housecleaning and more.
Immigrants who arrive in this country are overwhelmingly grateful to be here and just want to work and seek a better life.
Trump and Republicans have focused on a few bad apples, who have committed crimes, including murder. Those incidents are tragic and regrettable, but they present a wildly distorted picture. Citizens statistically commit far more crimes than immigrants.
Trump’s answer to a non-existent problem is to vow to deport 10 million immigrants, both legal and illegal, no matter how long they’ve been in this country.
His plan includes building huge concentration camps and unleashing the police and the Army on communities in a witch hunt for suspects, who will be denied due process, a fundamental right under the Constitution.
And, yes, they acknowledge, some citizens may be rounded up, too. They will be thrust into a purgatory of gulags until the Trump administration can somehow sort things out. This is not America.
When it comes to immigration, Trump can’t keep his lies straight.
His claims that 10 million or 20 million, or some other fanciful number of immigrants have been released into the country under Biden. They are gross exaggerations.
From Feb. 2021, the month after Biden took office, through Oct. 2024, Department of Homeland Security data show 6.5 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The figure includes both the 5.8 million apprehensions between legal ports of entry – the number typically used for illegal immigration – and a little more than 700,000 migrants who arrived at ports of entry without authorization to enter the United States.
Of those 6.5 million encounters by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), only 2.5 million people have been released into the U.S. They are asylum seekers with notices to appear in immigration court or report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the future, or other classifications, such as parole.
At this point, voters can neither believe nor trust Trump or his running mate, JD Vance.
Both have proved to be pathological liars, pushing egregious falsehoods, from Ohio immigrants eating cats and dogs to the biggest lie of all — the supposed theft of the 2020 election.
Donald Trump’s Agenda 47 serious overlaps with Project-2025
In one sense, Trump has become a victim of is own prevarication. Not only are his promises hard to believe, so are his denials.
Chief among them is the Heritage Foundation’s odious Project 2025. Trump once embraced it but has since tried to distance himself.
One thing is clear out of the debacle, the Heritage Foundation didn’t hire 19 former Trump officials to draft Project 2025 just to let it gather dust on a shelf. It’s meant to be a blueprint for a Trump administration.
Trump will say anything until he is in power, but there is no guarantee they won’t try to impose Project 2025’s most draconian policies on America.
Just recall Trump’s three Supreme Court picks; they lied under oath and said the abortion ruling, Roe v Wade, was settled law. Then turned around and repealed it.
At first, Trump bragged about being the architect of Roe’s demise; then he tried to claim most people, including legal scholars, wanted states to decide the issue.
He lied. A torrid backlash followed and may ultimately sow the seeds of Trump’s demise in the election. After that, how can he be trusted?
Trump and MAGAs are just as far out of touch with traditional Republican ideals.
Republicans need to realize MAGA does not represent them. MAGA is in the grip of Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Viktor Orban, Xi Jinping, and other dictators Trump wants to emulate.
They are working together to undermine the nation’s international standing.
The latest Reagan Institute survey clearly finds a growing desire for American leadership in the world in the style of President Ronald Reagan, who defeated the Soviet/Russian empire.
The American people believe a strong U.S. role in international affairs benefits both our country and the world.
There is broad, bipartisan support for defending our NATO allies, providing security assistance to Ukraine and Israel, and taking serious measures to deter Chinese aggression, according to the survey.
Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House in 2025 poses a grave risk to our nation’s security.
In a stunning revelation, the journalist and author Bob Woodward revealed that Trump, since leaving office, has had at least seven phone conversations with Putin, who has vowed repeatedly to destroy the West.
“Trump was the most reckless and impulsive president in American history and is demonstrating the very same character as a presidential candidate in 2024,” Woodward writes his new book, “War.”
During his first term, Trump destabilized the Middle East and undermined NATO with his disastrous foreign policy.
Trump unilaterally moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, inflaming Middle East tensions.
Trump killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani causing Iran to step up its support of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamic groups, leading to Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7
Trump did nothing after Iran attacked a U.S. base and wounded 100 soldiers.
Iran funded Hamas, Hezbollah, and other radical Islamist groups all during Trump’s administration, despite his claims to the contrary. All those tunnels in Gaza weren’t dug in the last three years.
Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal signed by more than 27 nations, causing Iran to restart its nuclear weapons program.
Trump sold out the Kurds, our ISIS allies, allowing Turkey to attack them and take part of their homeland.
Trump sold out our Syrian allies and turned over U.S. bases in Syria to Russia, decreasing U.S. security in the region.
Trump’s Abraham Accords were a bust. Israel called it a joke and Saudi Arabia refused to sign it.
Trump sold billions of dollars in weapons to Saudi Arabia, bypassing Congressional approval, which the Saudis used to attack the Houthis in Yemen.
In one of Donald Trump’s more despicable lies he claimed no U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan for 18 months during his term in office. But 68 U.S. servicemen were killed in Afghanistan during that time, and four soldiers died in Niger in a botched raid.
Trump has never acknowledge any of them. Yet, he has politically exploited the deaths of 13 service members who died during the Afghan evacuation under Biden. This is nothing but rank hypocrisy.
Throughout his first term, Trump also did nothing to address the war in Ukraine, and 30,000 people died on his watch. Now he says he can end the war with a phone call, which can only mean capitulation to Russian aggression.
His position on Ukraine flies in the face of 74 percent of Americans, who believe that the war in Ukraine is important to US national interests, according to a Pew Research poll.
A majority of U.S. adults – including 52 percent of Republicans – support the spirit of Article V of the NATO military alliance, that an attack on one NATO country represents an attack on all.
Nearly 6 in 10 adults say they would favor the U.S. deploying U.S. troops to defend a U.S. NATO ally, if it were attacked by Russian forces. Yet, Trump has threatened to pull out of NATO.
Trump says the nation faces bigger enemies than Russia, China and Iran. He has voiced a disturbing message about the “enemy within,” suggesting he is prepping his followers for violence.
He’s made clear he intends to use the power of the federal government, including the military, to go after them.
“The crazy lunatics that we have — the fascists, the Marxists, the communists, the people that we have that are actually running the country,” Trump said at a rally in Wisconsin. “Those people are more dangerous — the enemy from within — than Russia and China and other people.”
When given the opportunity to hedge, he’s doubled down. This is the ranting of a mad man.
Although, Trump and MAGAs bristle at the comparison. Trump fits Hitler’s psychological profile almost to a tee, based on the findings of a secret study conducted during World War II.
Indeed, the parallels are almost too scary to contemplate.
The Nazi leader focused on a perceived ‘enemy within’ – namely the Jews — to launch his reign of terror on the world.
In Trump’s case, immigrants, both legal and illegal, “deranged Democrats and left-wing “sickos” are his “enemy within.”
He has called immigrants “vermin,” a Nazi trope, said they are “poisoning the blood” of the nation and said they possess “bad genes” that make them criminals, a reference to Nazi eugenics.
He’s increasingly threatening them in violent terms on the campaign trail, including deploying combat troops against American citizens.
Hitler suffered from three “morbid tendencies,” classified as “Shamanism,” “Epilepsy” and “Paranoia,” according to his psychological profile.
The first referred to Hitler’s hysteria and compulsion to feed off the energy of Nuremberg Rally-style audiences. Trump is also obsessed with mass rallies.
“Epilepsy” referred to Hitler’s cold and ruthless streak, but also a tendency to lose heart when his ambitions failed. Trump is a bully who cruelly disparages anyone who opposes him with mocking, degrading names, but is a coward at heart.
Most alarming, however, was Hitler’s paranoia.
By this, the study meant the Nazi leader suffered from a “Messiah complex,” in which he believed he was leading a chosen people on a crusade against an Evil incarnate.
Trump also exhibits a Messiah complex. He often invokes God, and his followers think he is a divine messenger.
Hitler demonized Jewish people denying them their humanity to fuel hate and justify detention, deportation and ultimately genocide.
Trump is in full demonization mode, as well.
He lacks human empathy, a moral code and “fidelity to the truth,” says Stephanie Grisham, a former Trump White House press secretary.
That’s the biggest reason of all not to vote for him.