In its November 2024 issue, “The Atlantic Magazine, for the fifth time in its 167-year history, is endorsing a candidate for president: Kamala Harris.”
The Atlantic Magazine was founded in 1857, on the eve of the great Civil War, featuring leading writers, beginning with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Homes, Longfellow, Harriet Stowe, Mark Twain, and many other leading thinkers in the following century and a half. In keeping with its declaration on its original cover, the magazine is “devoted to literature, art, and politics.”[1]
The Atlantic Editors proclaim: “Because one of the most personally malignant and politically dangerous candidates in American history was on the ballot, The Atlantic endorsed Trump’s previous Democratic opponents: only the third and fourth endorsements since the magazine’s founding, in 1857. We endorsed Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860, though not, for reasons lost to history, in 1864.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/kamala-harris-atlantic-endorsement/679944/
Early in 1864, Lincoln was doubtful whether he would win reelection, even after the summer 1863 victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. But after Sherman’s defeat of Atlanta and his march to the sea, both a Union victory and Lincoln’s reelection seemed certain.
Robert E Lee Surrendering to Grant at Appomattox, Ending the American Civil War
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/surrender-at-appomattox-courthouse-ending-the-american-civil-war/
https://youtu.be/_Dr7qia6XkQ
Siege of Vicksburg: Ordinary Union Soldiers and Generals Grant and Sherman Recount the Struggle
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/siege-of-vicksburg-ordinary-union-soldiers-and-generals-grant-and-sherman-recount-the-struggle/
https://youtu.be/U6KNO6IkVQs
Gettysburg: Ordinary Soldiers and Generals Pickett and Longstreet Remember the Bloody Charges
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/gettysburg-ordinary-soldiers-and-generals-pickett-and-longstreet-remember-the-bloody-charges/
https://youtu.be/ibTm3l-C8VQ
Civil War Struggle Through Paintings
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/civil-war-struggle-through-paintings/
https://youtu.be/2hoBOSOBUP8
“One hundred and four years later, we endorsed Lyndon B. Johnson for president.” “The editors of this magazine in 1964 feared Barry Goldwater less for his positions than for his zealotry and seeming lack of self-restraint.”
Like Lincoln and the Radical Republicans, Lyndon Johnson was at a unique junction in time where political logjams were freed by the rushing waters of history. LBJ had the opportunity to drastically improve the lots of millions of ordinary Americans through the Civil Rights and Great Society programs.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, Youth, Schooling, and Rise to Power
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/lyndon-baines-johnson-youth-schooling-and-rise-to-power/
https://youtu.be/hBYD1yDo9eE
Presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Civil Rights, Great Society, and Vietnam War
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/presidency-of-lyndon-baines-johnson-civil-rights-great-society-and-vietnam-war/
https://youtu.be/lydW8mfpJG
John F Kennedy, Cuba, Russia, and Civil Rights, Book Review of An Unfinished Love Story
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/john-f-kennedy-cuba-russia-and-civil-rights-review-of-an-unfinished-love-story/
https://youtu.be/krkJki2vQ2o
Lyndon Johnson, Enacting the Great Society and Vietnam, Review of an Unfinished Love Story
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/lyndon-johnson-enacting-the-great-society-and-vietnam-review-of-an-unfinished-love-story/
https://youtu.be/MgVEipHdvfM
The Atlantic Editors explain: “In 2016, we endorsed Hillary Clinton for more or less the same reason Johnson won this magazine’s endorsement in 1964. Clinton was a credible candidate who would have made a competent president, but we endorsed her because she was running against a manifestly unstable and incompetent Republican nominee.”
“For the third time in eight years, Americans have to decide whether they want Donald Trump to be their president. No voter could be ignorant by now of who he is. Opinions about Trump aren’t just hardened—they’re dried out and exhausted. The man’s character has been in our faces for so long, blatant and unchanging, that it kills the possibility of new thoughts, which explains the strange mix of boredom and dread in our politics. Whenever Trump senses any waning of public attention, he’ll call his opponent a disgusting name, or dishonor the memory of fallen soldiers, or threaten to overturn the election if he loses, or vow to rule like a dictator if he wins. He knows that nothing he says is likely to change anyone’s views.”
We want to push back on this assertion: Trump does want to change your views, he wants to bring out the worst in you, he lusts for you to fall victim to your deepest fears for his political benefit, and so he does not have to spend the rest of his life, not on the links golfing in Mar-O-Lago, but in jail. Many thought that his assertion at the black journalist conference that Kamala had only recently turned black was not calculated, but I think it was. Unfortunately, Kamala could pass for white, so Trump wanted to vividly remind his white MAGA voters that she is as irredeemably black as a burnt black pot.
We, and the folks at the Bulwark, who produced an insanely funny, but true, video of a mock game show, would like to add:
“Whenever Trump senses any waning of public attention,” he will BLAME THE MIGRANTS! And Trump was blaming migrants for all the ills that America suffers in both the Biden and Harris debates.
Bulwark video on Trump Blaming Migrants for Everything:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rrnv6bREf4
Trump-Biden Debate, Compared to Kennedy-Nixon 1960 TV Debates
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/trump-biden-debate-compared-to-kennedy-nixon-1960-tv-debates/
https://youtu.be/_YvIst9oxXo
Did Kamala Win the Debate? Did Trump Win the Debate? Compared to the JFK-Nixon 1960 Debate
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/did-kamala-win-the-debate-did-trump-win-the-debate-compared-to-the-jfk-nixon-1960-debate/
https://youtu.be/6BS9MUktRto
Can Trump Successfully Blame All Problems on Migrants? How are migrants responsible for:
- How difficult it is to find a job, since all the jobs are going to migrants.
- The cost of housing, since migrants are booked into all the hotels.
- Precarious financial condition of Medicare and Social Security
- Black unemployment, since migrants are taking all the black jobs.
- Problems in schools, since migrant children are occupying all the desks.
- Problems in hospitals.
- Homelessness of veterans
- Suffering caused by Hurricane Helene
- The story that FEMA has almost no money, because they spent it all on illegal migrants.
- Republicans losing elections.
- Bribery indictment of New York mayor Eric Adam.
- Decline of Little League Baseball.
- Missing Pets.
We know that Kamala Harris won the debate, but did Trump lose the debate? We won’t really know until voting day in November. Trump said exactly what he wanted to say, he shouted what he wanted us to hear, and he repeated what got him elected in 2016.
Why does his hard-core base love Trump? He throws away the dog whistle, he says out loud thoughts they have been ashamed of for decades, and Trump has taught them that they should be proud of these shameful thoughts, that we should not be ashamed of shameful thoughts. So, in his own world, Trump did win this debate, he said exactly what he wanted to say. He wants to bring out the worst in us, and he wants to successfully seed chaos.
Compare what he said when he announced his candidacy when going down the escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 to his infamous quote in the Presidential Debate:
Trump, 2015: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with them. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Trump, 2024: “In Springfield, (the Haitians) are eating the DAWGS. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.”
The Atlantic Magazine confirms this in another recent column, on how “The Trump Campaign Wants Everyone Talking About Race. The former president and his advisers’ strategy is to make white voters afraid, and they don’t care if they have to lie to do it.” We also commented on this in our reflection on the Biden-Trump debate, when Trump’s many outrageous racist comments were ignored.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/09/trump-vance-campaign-tactic-racism/680009/
The Atlantic Editors continue: “Almost half the electorate supported Trump in 2016 and supported him again in 2020. This same split seems likely on November 5. Trump’s support is fixed and impervious to argument. This election, like the last two, will be decided by an absurdly small percentage of voters in a handful of states.”
“Of all Trump’s insults, cruelties, abuses of power, corrupt dealings, and crimes, the event that proved the essential rightness of the endorsements of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden took place on January 6, 2021, when Trump became the first American president to try to overturn an election and prevent the peaceful transfer of power.”
Socrates, Aristophanes and The Clouds, Capitol Riots, Georgia, and the Big Lie
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/aristophanes-socrates-georgia-and-the-capital-riots/
https://youtu.be/Pn7wYntimjo
Plato: Euthyphro, and the Capital Rioters, Who Won’t Listen
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/plato-euthyphro-who-wont-listen/
https://youtu.be/etK0eIpYPPg
The Atlantic editors remind us: “Harris doesn’t curry favor with dictators. She won’t abuse the power of the highest office in order to keep it. She believes in democracy.”
Ukrainian President Zelensky Speaks to Joint Session of Congress, Reflections on David Frum Editorial in Atlantic Magazine
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/ukrainian-president-zelensky-speaks-to-joint-session-of-congress-reflections-on-david-frum-editorial-in-atlantic-magazine/
https://youtu.be/Dy3MKlav3Ns
“This year, Trump is even more vicious and erratic than in the past, and the ideas of his closest advisers are more extreme. Trump has made clear that he would use a second term to consolidate unprecedented power in his own hands, punishing adversaries and pursuing a far-right agenda that most Americans don’t want.”
“We believe that this election is a turning-point in our history,” the magazine prophesied correctly when it endorsed Abraham Lincoln in 1860.
The current editors emphasize: “This year’s election is another.”
The Atlantic Editors emphasize: “Having devoted her life to public service, Kamala Harris respects the law and the Constitution. She believes in the freedom, equality, and dignity of all Americans. She’s untainted by corruption, let alone a felony record or a history of sexual assault. She doesn’t embarrass her compatriots with her language and behavior or pit them against one another. She doesn’t curry favor with dictators. She won’t abuse the power of the highest office in order to keep it. She believes in democracy. These, and not any specific policy positions, are the reasons The Atlantic is endorsing her.”
To summarize the remainder of the Atlantic Editors’ endorsement on: Why should we vote for Kamala Harris?
You may not agree with the Democratic Party solutions. You may not like our immigration policies. You may not like windmills or electric cars.
But Kamala Harris is not Trump, Kamala Harris will halt our never-ending political nightmare, Kamala Harris will not pit neighbor against neighbor, worker against worker, acquaintance against acquaintance. Maybe, if Kamala wins, the Civil War will finally be over! Maybe, if Kamala wins, we can look forward to family Thanksgiving dinners once again!
The following Atlantic editorial paragraphs were are not included in our video: “About the candidate we are endorsing: The Atlantic is a heterodox place, staffed by freethinkers, and for some of us, Kamala Harris’s policy views are too centrist, while for others they’re too liberal. The process that led to her nomination was flawed, and she’s been cagey in keeping the public and press from getting to know her as well as they should.”
“This endorsement will not be controversial to Trump’s antagonists. Nor will it matter to his supporters. But to the voters who don’t much care for either candidate and who will decide the country’s fate, it is not enough to list Harris’s strengths or write a bill of obvious particulars against Trump. The main reason for those ambivalent Americans to vote for Harris has little to do with policy or partisanship. It’s this: Electing her and defeating him is the only way to release us from the political nightmare in which we’re trapped and bring us to the next phase of the American experiment.”
“Trump isn’t solely responsible for this age of poisonous rhetoric, hateful name-calling, conspiracies and lies, divided families and communities, cowardly leaders and deluded followers. But as long as Trump still sits atop the Republican Party, it will not end. His power depends on lowering the country into a feverish state of fear and rage where Americans turn on one another. For the millions of alienated and politically homeless voters who despise what the country has become and believe it can do better, sending Trump into retirement is the necessary first step.”
“If you’re a conservative who can’t abide Harris’s tax and immigration policies, but who is also offended by the rottenness of the Republican Party, only Trump’s final defeat will allow your party to return to health—then you’ll be free to oppose President Harris wholeheartedly. Like you, we wish for the return of the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, a party animated by actual ideas. We believe that American politics are healthiest when vibrant conservative and liberal parties fight it out on matters of policy.”
“If you’re a progressive who thinks the Democratic Party is a tool of corporate America, talk to someone who still can’t forgive themselves for voting for Ralph Nader in 2000—then ask yourself which candidate, Harris or Trump, would give you any leverage to push for policies you care about.”
The past was not so long ago. If you care about our democracy, you must vote, democracy must be guarded and cherished, democracy is not inevitable. We are living through the last throes of the Civil War, the struggle for civil rights, and democracy must win. During our grandfather’s lifetimes, and the generations preceding them, over ten thousand blacks were lynched without any shred of due process during the Jim Crow years. That ugly past can return.
Post-Civil War Reconstruction and Redemption History, Yale Lecture Notes
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/post-civil-war-reconstruction-and-redemption-history-yale-lecture-notes/
https://youtu.be/f5nPNnvDBCY
Hannah Arendt Questions Whether School Desegregation Was Wise: Little Rock and Civil Rights
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/hannah-arendt-questions-whether-school-desegregation-was-wise-little-rock-and-civil-rights/
https://youtu.be/nsqngH2gbNc
Slavery By Another Name, Convict Labor in the Jim Crow Deep South
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/slavery-by-another-name-convict-labor-in-the-jim-crow-deep-south/
https://youtu.be/2TCXcEpohaM
Ida B Wells, Journalist, Brave Woman, and Anti-Lynching Activist
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/ida-b-wells-journalist-brave-woman-and-anti-lynching-crusader/
https://youtu.be/sLDHs0AigvY
The Atlantic Editors warn us: “If you’re one of the many Americans who can’t stand politics and just want to opt out, remember that under democracy, inaction is also an action; that no one ever has clean hands; and that, as our 1860 editorial said, ‘nothing can absolve us from doing our best to look at all public questions as citizens, and therefore in some sort as administrators and rulers.’ In other words, voting is a right that makes you responsible.”
Be the first to comment