Last call for conservatives! Read before voting

This piece appeared in the Palm Beach Post and Gannett wires Oct. 25, 2024

Here's the link, with text to follow.

The link on the Post:

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/opinion/columns/2024/10/25/opinion-last-call-conservatives-vote-for-president-harris-over-trump-maga-china-putin-2024-election/75820882007/

On the wires:

https://www.aol.com/opinion-last-call-conservatives-vote-091848176.html

The text:

Opinion: Last call, conservatives: Vote for Harris over Trump. Here’s why

Mark Sell

October 25, 2024 at 5:18 AM

Maybe you’re leaning toward plugging your nose and voting for Trump.

You like tax cuts and hate inflation, illegal immigrants, real and looming wars, self-righteous “wokeism,” and deficits. Maybe you own a small business, hate red tape, and figure $1.84 gas with mean tweets was a fair Trump trade.

If so, you’ve come to the right party. Just kindly read to the end.

Say Trump wins. He might get a Republican Senate and House. That’s a trifecta with executive, legislative, and judicial, tied up in a nice red MAGA bow, courtesy of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling granting broad presidential immunity.

Trump wants revenge. The adults are banished.

His plan:

Close the borders. Drill, drill, drill. Cut taxes for the super-rich and corporations. Impose blanket tariffs of 10-20% – 60% on anything from China, our second largest trading partner and printer of the $59.99 Trump God Bless the U.S.A. Bibles. Use the military, Justice Department, and the Internal Revenue Service to go after “the enemies within” (Pelosis, Obamas, Clintons, etc.) and “illegal alien” “vermin” “poisoning our blood” (mass deportations of millions, with concentration camps). Suspend the Constitution. Shun allies who don’t pay. Leave Ukraine to Putin and Europe. Befriend dictators.

Fire thousands of mid-level civil servants and replace them with vetted loyalists. Pardon Jan. 6 rioters, not to say himself. Welcome vigilante justice. As Hulk Hogan said in his Republican convention keynote: “What you gonna do when Trumpmania runs wild on you, brother?”

All-American Fascism? That’s the verdict from such “radical left lunatics” as retired Marine General John F. Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, whose son is buried in Arlington, and former Joint Chiefs Chair and retired Army General Mark Milley.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget calculates Trump’s plans would add an average of $7.5 trillion to the national debt, to Harris’s $3.5 trillion. Our children will not thank us.

Harris’s signature plans include broadening Medicare to cover home health care, providing a child-care tax credit up to $6,000, affirming voting rights, and signing a conservative immigration bill into law to add agents and judges.

When Trump promises “retribution,” take him at his word amid the lies and hate. Get past the skillful “sanewashing” of vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, a smart guy who refuses to concede the last election or this one.

Vance, 40, owes his brief political career as Ohio senator to venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who staked $10 million on Vance’s candidacy. Thiel rejects democracy as a hindrance. And there’s Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who amazes with cool Teslas, SpaceX rockets, Starlink satellites, bizarre behavior, and zero empathy. Trump wants to make Musk “cutter” in chief – the one to say, “You’re fired!”

Maybe Jan. 6 was just a dress rehearsal. Trump opponents and their families get doxxed, swatted, and threatened with death. Trump’s lawyers are ready to prolong the election with as many as 200 suits in swing states if things don’t go his way.

Says Rick Wilson, former Republican strategist: “Donald Trump isn’t the savior of conservatism. He is [its] executioner.”

As Trump calls the U.S. “a Third World country,” violent crime is down, the Dow’s breaking records, our economy is the envy of the world, and unemployment is at 4.1%. The federal funds rate has dropped from 5.5% to 5% and is poised to drop another half point over the coming months, with inflation down to 2.4%.

Still, people are sour and struggling to make ends meet, in an unequal economy, with 22% inflation since 2020, a bit higher than the G7 rich country average. That said, how will blanket tariffs – $2,600 per year per household, according to Peterson Institute estimates – and mass deportations help retail, construction, hospitality, agriculture, and the economy, let alone your household?

Plug your nose and vote for Harris. Furtively, if you must. The stakes are too high for you to stay home – or leave the presidential ballot circle blank. Your children and grandchildren might thank you.

Mark Sell, an independent writer, editor, communications consultant and veteran journalist, based in South Florida for more than 40 years. He is president of Mark Sell Media, Inc.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Opinion: Trump should trouble conservatives, so vote Harris