Kamala Harris for president.

We the editors at InBetweenDrafts formally endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for president and vice president of the U.S. Here’s why.

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For the third time in eight years, Donald Trump is quite easily the worst nominee for American president in this country’s relatively short history as a sovereign nation. Not only for his rhetoric and demonstrable actions as both a one-term president and thrice candidate, but for what his entire movement represents: an era of fascism that is unfortunately being rubber stamped by a tragically high percentage of the American public.

And so, for this reason and many others, we the editors at InBetweenDrafts formally endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to be the next president and vice president of the United States of America, respectively. Normally, an entertainment website like ours would not consider it necessary or relevant to weigh in on presidential endorsements, but in light of traditional corporate media like The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and USA Today refusing to dutifully provide that context and framing for voters, we deem it our moral responsibility as an independent outlet to set the record straight on this crucial election.

Trump’s motivation to reclaim power is rooted in self-preservation, not public service.

Never in our lifetimes has there been this sharp a contrast between two presidential candidates running for office. Never have we seen such a clear distinction that can be evaluated on a measurable record of merit, as Harris has served the executive branch for nearly four years as vice president and Trump previously “served” as president for four.

We put “served” in quotation marks because it would be a disgrace to imply otherwise, as the man has so brazenly exploited the levers of power in this country to serve himself and only himself at the expense of the American people writ large. Even now, Trump’s motivation to reclaim power is rooted in self-preservation, not public service, as he currently faces several serious and credible court cases that could see him face prison time, unless he corruptly shuts down these investigations the moment he becomes president once again.

As a reminder, one of these cases involves his utter disregard for national security in stealing classified documents with nuclear secrets and refusing to return them to the government. Another case involves his insurrection plot to illegally stay in power after the 2020 election, in which he soundly lost yet still lies and contests as “stolen” without evidence, even to this day.

We still remember what kind of a president this man was.

In a sane country, these factors would already be enough to dismiss any rational notion of reelecting a man who is now a convicted felon due to crimes he committed during the 2016 campaign. And in 2023, a jury found him liable for sexual abuse. We still remember what kind of a president this man was. A man who failed the United States when it came to the Coronavirus pandemic, a crisis that saw higher death rates per capita than most countries in the entire world, including our neighbors to the north, Canada.

Even before his failure to lead our nation during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he instituted unconstitutional “Muslim bans,” while now in this election he laughably attempts to coax Muslim Americans into voting for him over Harris due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, despite her calls for a ceasefire and Trump reportedly praising Israel’s prime minister after one of their worst attacks earlier this month. Oh, and he’s also curried favor with far-right Neo-Nazi groups like the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers.

We reject a radical transformation of this country into a Christian Nationalist theocracy.

As president, Trump installed three Supreme Court justices, each of whom were selected for him by the Heritage Foundation in order to strip bodily autonomy from women all over this country through the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The same Heritage Foundation that laid out their blueprint for the next four years if he wins, titled Project 2025. A blueprint that would see a radical transformation of this country into a Christian Nationalist theocracy in which the freedoms and protections of us as citizens would quickly vanish in favor of forced adherence to the ideology of the state and its crony capitalist plutocracy.

If all of that wasn’t somehow enough for the undecided voter, we still have to reckon with Trump’s purported, racist plan to deport tens of millions of people from this country, both documented and undocumented. A measure that would be a level of ethnic cleansing perhaps never seen in modern history if carried out to the full extent he promises. For the same reasons we vehemently oppose the current ethnic cleansing happening in Gaza and will call for the Harris administration to stop all aiding and abetting of these war crimes, we know that a second Trump administration will cause all that harm and more for countless people around the world. Including right here in the U.S.

We can’t simply ignore history.

Trump has repeatedly and vociferously promised to institute broad tariffs that the vast consensus of economists agree would effectively raise prices of most imported consumer goods by at least 20% or even as high as 70%. For those who claim that this won’t really happen, or that all of this is merely “hyperbole,” we can’t simply ignore history. We can’t say that a man who wants to do evil things but is deluded by their implementation is somehow still a viable candidate for president. We can’t ignore that the man has already gotten us into trade wars during his tenure as president, which cost taxpayers billions in subsidies to bail out the people his policies directly harmed, mainly American farmers.

He’s a liar, a grifter, a con artist, and a boorish fool who cares more about attention and stroking his own ego than improving the lives of others. We all know this. We’ve seen it firsthand for years. All denials to the contrary have repeatedly been debunked, disproven, and dismissed. He’s told us exactly who he is, and it’s one of the few things he’s been truthful about over this last tiresome decade in which he’s constantly been the focal point of American political discourse for reasons that stretch plausibility.

We can’t afford to fail this next test.

America has faced many tests over the last three centuries. Tests that either sharpen or erode the nation’s commitment to democratic principles. The War for Independence. The Civil War. The Great Depression. World War II. The Vietnam War. The Cold War. September 11th. The Coronavirus pandemic. The January 6th Insurrection. Sadly, America has failed some of these tests, especially recently when a man named Donald Trump plainly and inarguably damaged this country’s constitutional framework by inciting a riot to storm the U.S. Capitol, called for a termination of the Constitution, and attempted to seize power through the illegal use of fake electors.

And you may recall that he also put his own vice president in harm’s way in order to carry out his coup in 2021. Isn’t it so strange how not enough media pundits care to acknowledge the fact that Mike Pence has now been replaced with JD Vance, who privately called Trump “America’s Hitler” and publicly called him “repehensible” and an “idiot” before later kowtowing to his movement as a billionaire-funded power grab that will all but ensure that if January 6th happens again, Trump will have someone as his vice president who won’t put country before tyranny. Don’t believe us? Vance has already publicly stated that he would not have certified the 2020 election.

Harris and Walz’s records speak for themselves.

We have a chance this year to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and their records speak for themselves. Harris supports common sense economic policies that are supported by most Americans, like expanding Medicare, raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy (many of whom pay a lower rate than the working class), and providing relief for small businesses. While we have plenty of concerns and disagreements with major pieces of Harris’s agenda and record, we also recognize that patriotic opposition to her administration does not inherently threaten our constitutional protections as citizens.

As governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz signed laws to eliminate child hunger, codify abortion rights, and reduce gun violence, despite only having a one-vote majority in the state government. It should be noted, by the way, that Minnesota concluded 2023 with a $17.5 billion budget surplus under Walz’s watch. And we certainly believe that Harris’s fantastic decision to pick Walz as her running mate is a positive indicator of how she will lead this country over the next four years.

We don’t need fascism in America.

We don’t need four more years of Donald Trump and his cavalcade of chaos. His weirdo ideas and weirdo allies who can’t even get through a single rally without insulting millions of Americans with racist “jokes.” We don’t need fascism in America, but if we elect Donald Trump and JD Vance even in light of all the horrific, disqualifying, and deeply unpatriotic values they so obviously and transparently represent, then fascism is what we’ll get.

Make no mistake. Kamala Harris is almost 100% guaranteed to win the popular vote. She is almost 100% guaranteed to secure more votes than Donald Trump in the number of millions, perhaps by a larger margin than Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. It’s blatantly obvious that most Americans do not want Trump to be president again. But due to one of the secondary American tragedies of our current era, we’ve allowed this nation to march on with a clearly undemocratic election system, in which a handful of votes in a few small states wield exponentially higher representational authority than millions of other American citizens in other states.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz deserve a public that holds them accountable.

If Kamala Harris and Tim Walz do manage to put a period on this decade of democratic destabilization, then there is no doubt they should take a deep, hard, look at making sure we never face a crisis of American conscience like this ever again. If they’re elected, every person in this country should feel free and empowered to question their decisions and hold them accountable. After all, there’s a reason the fiefdom lord of The Washington Post is willing to bend the knee to Donald Trump. He knows who the real fascist is and has chosen to protect his own interests, accordingly, at the expense of the credibility and agency of the editors and writers under his thumb.

It’s perfectly reasonable and justified to criticize Harris as a politician and wish to see her improve her stances on a variety of issues, namely her foreign policy agenda. But to equivocate her failings with Trump’s consistent, even cartoonish lack of integrity, competency, and decency is beyond misleading. It’s an egregious lie in its own right.

What comes next.

If we face four years or more of a dictator in waiting like Donald Trump, then the free speech we take so much for granted in this country will almost certainly become a thing of the past. We’ll be saddled with a rambling maniac whose thirst for revenge against his enemies won’t stop with undocumented immigrants or LGBTQIA+ people or Muslims or Jews or Haitians or Puerto Ricans or your neighbors and mine. It will continue until he no longer has to face any and all opposition that takes aim at his pathetic, fragile excuse for an ego.

Nevertheless, we resist Donald Trump and support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as the next president and vice president of the United States of America. If you’re not sure yet how you plan to vote before or on Election Day on November 5, 2024, please check out Vote.org to make sure you’re registered and know what you need to do next. Please note that some states allow same-day voter registration and other accommodations.