The great divider: Harris’ character and sanity are known and reliable. Trump has no center, no core touchstone – except as lying, unprincipled, transactional con man
Like her or not, endorse her proposals or not, Kamala Harris is a legitimate, rational, and adult person whose ambitious career reflects full commitments to indefatigable work and the ladder of success. She’s no saint, though nearly free of scandals (big deal with media scouring every detail) and surprisingly free of provable lies (despite constant campaigning and media frenzy). Starting as a West Coast liberal, then as CA Attorney General meant leaning leftward, a pragmatic moderate progressive voicing her key constituency. As senator, she did not hog the limelight, nor instigate major legislation, instead learning DC ropes. Her premature run for the White House fell short but impressed one paramount figure, Joe Biden, embracing a forceful, articulate, winning VP more than able to throw a punch and puncture GOP fraud and phonies.
Who doubts that internal, enduring character across one’s life, ups and downs, speaks volumes, the best predictor for how one solves problems and makes final decisions? She is a team player who admits she doesn’t know everything, so welcomes expert input; Trump is exactly opposite, the semi-literate super-egotist who “alone can fix everything.” So, in this final week, I think it useful to collate descriptive words and phrases that expose each’s public, demonstrable image and brand, to the degree an empty shell boasts the internal compass of “character.” If my comparison appears one-sided, that’s because one candidate openly reveals her values, agenda and moral character while the other is a grab-bag of gestures and media stunts for sale that don’t reveal routine notions of character, mental stability, good faith, compassion for the downtrodden, or understanding what “public service” means.
Further, Trump the smug, penny ante entertainer is full of off-color jokes that make non-Trumpers facile objects of ridicule. Every crude rally recalls the truth of a Goethe comment, “Nothing shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at.” Or, I would add, what he ridicules and belittles with crude putdowns. Trump, both con man and hypocrite for a price, fulfills what Octavio Paz said about hypocrisy, consisting “in the negation of all the aspects of reality that one finds disagreeable, irrational or repugnant.” Bingo – to justify endless lying and distortions.
Trump “Character” Profile, in fact and channeling public opinions, in no particular order:
Demagogue, career criminal, megalomaniac, malignant narcissist, serial rapist, sex abuser, adulterer, blackmailer (Ukraine, Georgia), sleazy real estate developer, business fraud convict, fair housing law violator, draft dodger, despicable spigot for Birtherism, serial bankrupt, serial lawbreaker (Trump U., Trump charity fraud, etc.), unpresidential, even crude and boorish, homophobic, anti-trans movement, promising retribution with “enemies list,” obsessed with grievance, loaded with braggadocio, never apologies, unrepentant, denies all wrongdoing, blames others for blunders, addicted to his Big Lie, executed voter fraud via phony electors, staggeringly incurious, threatens punitive tribunals against ex-top advisers and critics, defamer of democratic institutions, disrespectful towards military service and dead solders, icon of toxic super-masculinity, defames opponents, congenital liar, anti-procreative freedom, contemptuous of civil and voting rights, born with silver spoon (always rich), unhinged, incoherent, blundering, error-prone campaigner, rife with authoritarian/fascistic/dictator rhetoric, anti-Constitutionalist, rejects US justice system (except when weaponized to serve his interest), treasonous insurrectionist, inciter of system-breaking riots, transparent top secret documents theft, devotee of political violence, stand-up insult comedian, con artist, amoral transactionalist without compassion or empathy, chronic crook, racist, sexist, creepy misogynist, climate denier, badly-educated, tightfisted, uncharitable, screws vendors, manipulative, unscrupulous, self-serving, falsely aggrieved, false populist, false patriot, retaliatory, lawless, cognitively-impaired, would crush dissent, throws truth-speaking ex-staffers under the bush, sabotages fair elections, anti-good government, oversimplifier, vulgar buffoon, useful idiot for tyrants, foe of historic trade and environmental alliances, defender of the Confederacy and white supremacy, anti-business and environmental regulations, pro-Big Oil subsidies, anti-science, anti-expertise, anti-vaccines, anti-immigration solutions, anti-universal health care, anti-planning, anti-education, anti-knowledge, anti-research, history revisionist and fact denier, backward economics thinker (enamored of counter-productive tariffs), pro-oligarchic tax breaks, guilty of violating Emoluments clause, falsely denies direct ties with Project 2025, unholy alliances with Musk and countless other creeps, and full of apocalyptic carnage visions – the US as a sick, failed disaster full of bad faith foes which only he alone can redeem. Does my long list sufficiently capture a deranged, malignant narcissist?
Harris Character Profile, also in no particular order:
Smart, well-educated, woman of color, Asian-American, immigrant mother, middle-class background, loved step-mother, pragmatic, hard-working, ambitious, energetic, articulate, world-tested, presidential, up-spirited, gracious, beneficiary of major pro-abortion push, diverse career choices, high political qualifications, nearly scandal-free, defender of democracy and democratic institutions like fraud-free elections, weak on confronting Gaza brutality, state AG management experience, passionate orator, impressive campaign overseer (despite late entrance), sometimes slick or evasive rhetoric, high polling favorables (likable), not allied to X or Russian disinformation megaphones, centrist with progressive origins, pro-government, reports of early VP staffing tensions, pro-women and minority rights, pro-expanded healthcare coverage, pro-justice systems, pro-law endorsement, pro-immigration reform, flexible on policy, conventional on suspect foreign policy, stuck with an insolvable Middle-east mess, welcomes dissent, hires top staffers, values knowledge, research, analysis and planning, normal family life, no junk products for sale as campaign grift, for doubters not independent enough from Biden policies, offers to represent all citizens, probably more open to progressive pitches than Biden.
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Postscript on the central importance of electing officials with knowable, trustworthy characters, especially in an age where violence is the first and last resort of corrupt, dishonest and incompetent losers. Even crook and hypocrite Richard Nixon, with no small irony, got it right in 1964, “You must not give power to a man unless, above everything else, he has character. Character is the most important qualification the President of the United States can have.” Conservative Peggy Noonan seconds the motion for “a vision is worth little if a president doesn’t have the character– the courage and heart– to see it through.” Playwright Sam Shepard expands the scope with “Character is an essential tendency. It can be covered up, it can be messed with, it can be screwed around with, but it can’t be ultimately changed.” And just to show there is nothing novel about emphasizing tested, personal, verifiable character as the first order dimension of evaluating any public figure, editor Horace Greeley in the 19th century pontificated, “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures.” Thus Trump’s middle name should be “shit-disturber.”
Now Americans have to decide whether the character of America, across blessings, breakthroughs and horrors, will continue on its historic transit – or whether millions of what I consider duped or rich, self-serving voters will elect an unpredictable force of disruption whose power to destroy has not yet been fully measured – indeed, whether the status quo, stability and standing of America will face nothing less than a second round of insurrectionist pressures against its historic nature and foundational institutions.
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