I was once, in my teen years, a conservative Republican -- an organizer in Youth for Goldwater in 1964 and a year later appointed to the National Steering Committee of William F. Buckley's brainchild, Young Americans for Freedom.
Buckley and Goldwater were thoughtful men of conscience, principle and personal integrity and these were the reasons I bolted from my Democratic Party upbringing.
Ever since the days of my youth, a person's character has always been far more important than politics when I chose which candidate to support. This is why I began organizing for Bernie Sanders in August 2015. Another man of uncompromising principle.
And then we have Donald. Charlatan, a buffoon, a lifelong bully, cheat and abuser. All that can be said in his favor is that he has, thanks to his wealth and those he has bought off, gotten away with it. Don't take my word for it. Ask his family members and those he worked closely with during his four chaotic years in office.
How now, I ask myself, can a party which once represented righteousness, and adherence to a strict reading of the Constitution, as well as commitment to the highest standards of moral and ethical probity, sell its very souls to this loathsome specimen of humanity?
To uncover the secret of why so many millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens would vote for such a man, I decided, if I could stomach it, to play devil’s advocate and come up with an answer.
OK. The Donald has been found liable, by a jury of his peers, of sexually assaulting a female reporter in a department store dressing room. But wait a minute! Harris is Black.
My guy has been found guilty, again by a jury of his peers, of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Hold on. Kamala is not only Black, she's a woman. It’s starting to make sense.
Let us depart for a moment from this litany of reasons for preferring Donald and move to the 35% to 40% who are the MAGA true believers. His cult. These are the folks, after all, who would back their guy even after (as he assured us) he had murdered someone on Fifth Avenue in New York. So, who are they?
They are the Christian nationalist evangelicals who believe Trump was sent by no less a personage than God himself to save America from its sinful ways. And, as readers of history already know, with God on your side, anything is permissible. These supporters need no further explanation.
Then there are the MAGA racists which account for the Republican nearly iron-clad grip on the Old South. The way that the big guy uses racist and immigrant bashing dog whistles has truly endeared him to those who long for a return to Jim Crow. Enough said about these two solid voting blocs. Back to my mental meanderings.
Trump has stated that the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed for showing loyalty to the Constitution rather than to his noble self. The same general who, by the way, pronounced his former boss a fascist. Or his longest-serving chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, who also used the “f” word -- fascist -- to describe the man he once served. None of this really matters. What counts is that Harris is a Black.
My guy Donald has exclaimed that, if elected, he will use the National Guard and the military to arrest his political opponents starting with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. He also proclaimed he wants to be a dictator on Day One and will shut down major news networks that have mouthed the Deep State party line. No matter. Kamala is, after all, a Black woman.
When I hear the Donald's critics point to his boasting of sexually assaulting women with impunity because of his celebrity status, I have to recall he is, after all, running against a Black woman.
I could go to great lengths counting the almost limitless awfulness of Donald Trump, but I have to return again and again to the fact that Harris will probably lose next week, not because she is despicable and unfit for civilized company or because she lacks experience, toughness or dedication to serving all Americans. She will lose because she is a Black woman.
And we Americans have to come to grips with how far we have come to choose ugliness, vengeance and the embrace of our darker selves. From this awful truth there is no escape. And now I have to take a shower to momentarily rinse away the awareness of this monster’s filth.
McGehee, a lifelong activist, settled here in 1973 and lives in Palouse with his wife, Katherine. His work life has varied from bartender to university instructor to wrecking yard owner.
