Thread by @JewishWonk

I'll be voting for Harris today. A brief thread of my reasons why.

This is not to argue with Trump supporters, this is to share with anyone who is on the fence.

1) Economic issues.

I am a refugee from a country that collapsed. The scope of your imagination for what a "bad" economy is widens quite a bit with that experience.

Trump has dangerous ideas about the economy.

Trump wishes to implement global tariffs.

When this was tried previously by the U.S., it was a direct contributor to the global depression.

It kicks off trade wars with allies and enemies alike.
apnews.com/article/trump-…

Trump seeks to end the independence of the Federal Reserve. No advanced western democracy does this. The reason is simple: when politicians mess with monetary policy they do so for political reasons. It usually results in massive inflation.
brookings.edu/articles/feder…

Harris, by contrast, is proposing economic ideas that are meeting the challenges of the moment.

@Noahpinion wrote a great explainer for Harris's housing policies and how they would alleviate the housing shortage.
noahpinion.blog/p/harris-has-t…

Harris is also expanding upon a good idea for medicine already started by the Biden-Harris admin and used by most developed countries: have the government negotiate with big pharma for better prices.

If you or a loved one have diabetes or heart problems, you benefit.

2) Abortion.

This is treated as a culture war issue. It is bizarre to me that a medical issue is. It became extremely personal earlier this year when my wife learned at 13 weeks that our baby's heart had stopped and her body would not pass the fetus itself.

I am not a medical expert nor an expert on all of the abortion bans that Republicans have implemented at the state level around the country.

What I can tell you is that it is painful to learn a baby you wanted and planned for has no heart beat and your wife needs an abortion.

Grieving and having to make medical decisions rapidly is hard enough. Doing so while the government is meddling in your medical care is unacceptable.

If there is ever a Senate majority for securing abortion rights nationally, Harris will sign it.

Trump won't.

3) Presidents have the most unilateral power when it comes to foreign policy. They can deploy the most powerful military on earth. They can pursue diplomacy to strengthen America.

It is not a power to be taken lightly.

There were two world wars within decades of each other that took tens of millions of lives on every continent on this planet.

There have not been any since. That's not a coincidence. That's a result of the global architecture America built after being dragged into war twice.

The pillars of that global architecture are NATO and military alliances in Asia which constrain rogue powers like Russia and China. They promote respect for land borders.

Coupled with free trade, it has produced more prosperity and far smaller wars than what came before.

Trump seeks to abandon NATO. He seeks to force Ukraine into an unfair peace with a Russia that starts land wars in Europe, a direct cause of previous world wars.

We will not be able to avoid getting dragged into those wars anymore than we avoided WW1 and WW2.

How we can avoid that outcome is by upholding the American alliance system. By arming Ukraine to beat back the Russians and uphold the norms about borders not being decided through conquest.

That's what Harris offers.
cfr.org/election2024/c…

3A) A foreign policy issue of high personal importance is Israel. While anti-Israel activists win a lot of headlines, there are millions of Americans like me who believe America's relationship with Israel is in our national interest.

Trump, while paying lip service to Israel, prioritizes his support for Iran's closest ally, Russia.

A stronger Russia will result in a stronger Iran.

The same Iran that funds, arms, and trains Hezbollah and the Hamas 10/7 butchers.

Iran is currently supplying Russia with missiles and drones for its genocidal war in Ukraine. The same one Trump wishes to see Putin win.

Russia collaborates with Iran in propping up a Syrian gov that allows Iran to establish a land bridge to Hezbollah to provide them arms.

Trump's support for Russia doesn't just tacitly benefit Iran.

The last time Trump was in office he leaked Israeli intelligence from Syria to the Russians. Which they promptly shared with Iran.
timesofisrael.com/horrified-isra…

Trump's running mate Vance openly puts daylight between the U.S. and Israel. He would abandon Israel in the event of a more open war with Iran.
timesofisrael.com/vance-us-and-i…

While 80,000 Israelis in northern Israel have been displaced and many have been maimed and killed as a result of Hezbollah's unjustified year-long bombing of northern Israel, Trump campaigns in Michigan to end the "suffering" of *Lebanon.*

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1851658527187550629?t=LoEdGjG5JongTqV6w3vttQ&s=19

The message is clear: Trump is for Trump. If you're counting on him being a friend to Israel you're a frog carrying a scorpion on your back.

Don't ask Israel to do the same.

Harris, by contrast, supports continued U.S. military aid for Israel during the worst crisis in Israeli history.

She, like many in Israel, seeks to have the hostages returned and a ceasefire established.
timesofisrael.com/kamala-harris-…

What you may have missed in the coverage of Harris is that she is clear eyed about what Hamas represents for Israelis *and* for Palestinians.

She understands that Hamas must be replaced in Gaza.
whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…

Harris, unlike Trump, will not pursue policies that benefit Iran at Israel's expense.
timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

Harris is not abandoning her principles to win votes in Michigan. Whatever disagreements you may have with her Israel policy, what you see is what you get.

Nobody can truthfully say the same for Trump.