Burke: If you’re undecided, have you been paying attention?

By Tom Burke / Herald Columnist

There are 41 days until the election.

And if you don’t know who you’re voting for by now you’re clearly not reading The Herald’s Opinion page or following the straight news except maybe on Fox or some other MAGA-biased propaganda outlet.

Because for any modestly sentient creature there can be no mystery what Donald Trump stands for and what Kamala Harris represents; and the difference between the two is difference between an authoritarian MAGA-cult, religious-right wanna-be dictator and the survival of our democracy.

And there isn’t any real mystery that Project 2025 completely represents the Trump-Vance “platform” while Harris-Walz has been explicit about their people-centered goals for a presidency.

Now while polling purports to show who’s winning and losing, polls should be considered with a grain of salt the size of Mount Baker; because partisan polls such as Rasmussen’s are calculated to make the Republicans look good, so they don’t count; the “objective” ones have proven unreliable over the last few cycles (they predicted the 2022 “Red Wave” that never happened) so they’re out; and the internal polling conducted by the campaigns, the ones that really count, aren’t being shared. But you can observe, as Trump/Vance devolves into lies, name-calling, and outlandish tax-break schemes, they’re in an electoral death spiral.

So, gentle reader, can there be any doubt about who gets your vote?

You know Trump vilely campaigned standing amid the graves of the fallen in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery with thumbs up; he continues to grift for his own personal benefit as the money he cons from folks via Trump trading cards, sneakers, bibles, books and coins goes into his personal pocket, not the campaign’s; he baselessly blames Biden-Harris for two assassination attempts (one by a Republican kid in Pennsylvania, the other by a clearly mentally ill drifter); he lies saying Democrats support murdering babies after birth; calls our military “suckers and losers;” and still insists the Big Lie isn’t and works to subvert the election process.

And the Project 2025 platform is a 900-plus-page authoritarian agenda written to concentrate power in Trump’s presidency, threatening civil and human rights and U.S. democracy all the while he proclaims, “We’re not going to have a country left” unless he is elected.

Then there’s Harris, who can point to helping a record number of Americans working; most new factory construction, ever; household wealth at all-time high; booming economic growth; a record high stock market; wages growing faster than inflation; insulin prices capped at $35 for seniors; record-high oil production; new veterans’ health law; new infrastructure law; air travel at record highs; inflation down to 2.5 percent, violent crime down; and gas at $3.21 a gallon national average. (And Trump’s view of the economy? “We’ve had a terrible economy … they’ve destroyed the economy,” is just another complete, Trumpian, bald-faced lie.)

Now as Harris campaigns on her promise to restore a woman’s right to control her own body and restore Roe v. Wade; cut taxes for 100 million Americans; make renting or buying a home more affordable; grow small businesses; reduce health care costs; protect Social Security; support unions; reduce the cost of education; lower energy costs; combat the climate crisis; protect civil rights; reduce gun violence, attack corporate price gouging; fix immigration; insure no one, even ex-presidents, is above the law; and support Ukraine, NATO, and Israel.

Trump’s campaign pitch is predicated on a completely discredited “raise tariffs” strategy; his party’s vow to end Social Security and the Affordable Care Act; and his promise to deport 15 million people complete with concentration camps and the use of the U.S. armed forces.

There isn’t, I think, much doubt about how Washington state will vote in the presidential election; Harris gets all 12 of our electoral college votes and Trump strikes out.

In the governor’s race, the polls (which I just semi-trashed) show Bob Ferguson ahead by double digits and he’s raised twice as much money as Dave Reichert. And issues-wise, Ferguson seems to be on more on track with our state’s blueness than with Reichert’s red, semi-MAGA positions, which don’t auger well for Reichert.

And while Reichert won’t publicly say he’s voting for Trump, he got caught at what he thought was a non-on-the-record forum giving the nod (literally) to Trump. As reported in The Seattle Times: “Reichert confided to the GOP audience that he can’t publicly endorse Trump, ‘’The media is looking for me to make a statement about Trump. That will be the nail in the coffin,’ he said. ‘As soon as I do that, I lose that opportunity to win over some of those 25 percent of those undecided voters.’”

Nevertheless, Reichert continued, “So, someone asked me, will you vote for him? And I said, ‘What’s my head doing?” There’s a pause in the audio followed by muted chuckles. A Republican in the room confirmed at that moment Reichert nodded (yes), as did the Democratic operative who made the recording.”

So, gentle reader, the last thing this state needs is a candidate supporting Donald Trump, even slyly. And that, combined with his record on abortion (he supported bills to eliminate federal funding for it and create a national abortion ban at 20 weeks of pregnancy) rule him out, for me, as a governor.

As this will be my last “presidential-race” column before Nov. 5, I’ll close with an exhortation: “Vote!”

And add, “Vote Democratic!” The last thing we need is another four years of Trump, his supporters, acolytes, minions or MAGAs.

It’s a tough world out there, and we don’t need nor want a narcissistic, know-nothing buffoon with the nuclear codes, or anything else, in his tiny little hands.

Slava Ukraini.

Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.