Mick Hartley

Self-confessed conservative Andrew Sullivan in the Sunday Times today: yes, he'll vote for Harris, but…

The mail-in ballot has been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks. I keep putting it in the unpaid bill pile, because it evokes the same instant response. Long ago, I made the decision to vote for anyone but Donald Trump in this election, and now I find myself putting it off.

I regard him as unstable, unhinged, a man who violated the most basic norm of democracy — the peaceful transfer of power. And yet, eight years after he lumbered ominously into view, his appeal still lingers. It may even be peaking.

It may seem incomprehensible to many, but it is simply a matter of fact that this absurd man has dominated American politics and culture for nearly a decade, is more favourably viewed than ever, has survived two impeachments, multiple damning lawsuits, two assassination attempts and is now within spitting distance of the most astonishing comeback in American political history.

It is, in part, his demagogic genius. Say what you want, but he has campaigned with relentlessness, drama and gusto. The energy of this nearly 80-year-old may be a function of his mental illness, but it’s still impressive. His campaign has seen him in classic American imagery: glowering in court; having an assassin’s bullet graze his ear and somehow miss him; a peerless photo-op in an apron at a McDonald’s; a vast spectacle in Madison Square Garden; and a series of crystal-clear promises: Deport The Illegals; Cut Your Taxes; End the Wars.

For a clue as to why so many Americans are voting Trump:

Culturally, the Biden administration went full on in imposing a new regime of wokeness. They hired on the basis of race and sex — from the cabinet to every single department; they replaced biological sex with subjective gender, allowing boys to compete with girls in sports and children to undergo irreversible sex reassignment even before they had experienced puberty (even though they have stated such surgery should be reserved for adults). They saw all Latinos as a single, liberal racial bloc (and called them Latinx for trans inclusion!), and gays and trans as a single “queer” entity. And they regarded any opposition to these leftist moves as proof of bigotry. As woke leftists trashed the reputation of higher education in America, and veered into violence and grotesque antisemitism, the Biden administration seemed helpless….

Then Biden decided to run again in 2024 and no one around him stopped him — even as they knew he was incapable of governing for four more years. So the Dems had no real primary, no contest to find a tested younger leader, looked deceptive and corrupt, and crashed and burnt this summer, nominating a mediocre party hack who had the worst vice-presidential approval ratings in history. If the Democrats had tried their hardest to re-elect Trump, it is hard to see how they could have done any better.

Harris started strong, shutting down any internal opposition, putting on an impressive convention, and giving a superb speech and sharp debate. And then she stalled. She had nothing, it seemed, to say. Her inability or refusal to answer simple questions in plain English became cringe-worthy. Before July, almost every Democrat and legacy media institution knew she was a non-starter, a terrible campaigner, and a dreadful manager. Then they willed themselves into disbelieving it. But denial became hard to sustain when you’re looking at Harris’s slow car crash.

For me, the last straw was her CNN town hall. After a day off to prep, she still could not tell us what her first Congressional priority would be, what policies of the last four years she would change, how she would prevent illegal immigration, and why she was now in favour of building the wall she once called “stupid, useless, and a medieval vanity project”.

When asked to name a weakness she had that she might overcome, she went full David Brent: “I mean, I’ve … I’ve made many mistakes. And they range from, you know, if you’ve ever parented a child you know you make lots of mistakes to, in my role as vice-president? I mean, I’ve probably worked very hard at making sure that I am well-versed on issues and I think that is very important. It’s a mistake not to be well-versed on an issue and feel compelled to answer a question.”

The entire event was a disaster: a near parody of why normal people hate the way politicians talk. Every answer seemed to be a form of damage control. And her body language … Well, it is not reassuring to think a person who cannot crisply answer a straight question will have to make split-second life-and-death decisions as president. She seemed like a party functionary — maybe a decent low-level cabinet member. But president? Sorry, but it didn’t and doesn’t add up. Most honest Democrats I know feel the same way.

But yes…she's still preferable to Trump.

Whoever wins, this new world will endure. If Harris pulls out a win, we’ll see a more gradual shift. If Trump wins, the ride could get very bumpy, and he could push America’s fraying social fabric and its constitutional stability to the edge. He is utterly reckless, and now he has no guardrails at all. I’m a conservative, and for me, the risk of destabilising the rule of law, the legitimacy of elections, and the peaceful transfer of power is what will make me hold my nose and vote Harris. Some risks are not worth taking.

If Harris flames out in office, America will survive. If Trump goes down with a fight in his final term, the fragile forces holding the republic together could collapse entirely. He delegitimises everything. And what he hasn’t delegitimised has been winnowed into fact-free chaos on social media. And if it comes to choosing between the resilience of the American republic or his own narrow, temporary self-interest and ego, Trump will not hesitate to sacrifice the republic. That’s who he is. That’s why I and others will never bend the knee.

But I’m also a realist. And it may be way past the time to stop any of that.

Wish us Americans luck this week. We truly are going to need it.