Local opinion: For future’s sake, vote Democratic

The moment of choice is here and the outcome of this election has unprecedented consequences. You don’t have to agree with everything Democratic to see that the current version of the Republican Party is unhinged from reality and threatens our future.

At all levels, Republicans have long blocked attempts to create majorities interested in working on our critical challenges. The only sensible choice in this election is to vote in all Democratic candidates. Only one party represents the broad interests of Americans, from the top of the ticket down to our county supervisors, our state district legislators, and our important state public utility commissioners. Only one party is willing to address and invest in solutions to our multifaceted crises and fund wide-ranging economic development and job creation strategies, as well as policies for those who are left behind.

Republicans have mostly been obstructionists, in particular when it comes to the ongoing transition to a clean-energy economy. Their strategy to gain dominant political power has been to side with wealthy, corporate interests, create and inflame culture wars, elevate fundamentalist ideology, promote distrust of government, and exploit grievances. By distracting the public with false issues and curtailment of basic individual freedoms, we have lost engagement with the real issues of survival.

Whatever your political identity, we all face an increasingly challenging future fraught with unnerving uncertainty. We simply can’t afford to wait another four years to correct Republican efforts to dismantle our democracy and deny the climate clock. Instead of lies and conspiracy theories, the public conversation should be about assessing and balancing risks, asking what makes a place safe, what the role of government should be, and how our market economy can help. Unfortunately, the GOP conservatism of today rejects using evidence-based science to carefully consider all major risks before acting.

There are only two possible outcomes in election 2024, especially for president; it’s either Trump or Harris. Voting for another candidate or not voting at all still benefits Trump.

It’s time for the whole Republican Party to be voted out and let a new “normal people” coalition emerge and steer our future. “I do not recognize my party,” proclaimed life-long Republican Mayor John Giles of Mesa, Arizona recently, “We don’t owe any loyalty to a party that is out of touch and hellbent on taking our country backwards.”

Right now, we have a strong market economy which Republicans insist is seriously failing. But they also proclaim it’s recoverable if we just eliminate government regulations to stimulate even higher levels of growth. This is a very bad idea.

Regulations are the only protection we have from the negative effects of production and consumption-related problems which would otherwise increase. These negative “externalities” such as carbon emissions eventually generate significant costs for all economic sectors, not to mention the costs to human health and well-being. Instead of harming the economy, regulations stimulate innovation in processes and products. The artificially low price of fossil fuel energy products is a good case in point for what happens when we fail to adequately regulate. We are now beginning to see, as our carbon emissions continue to accumulate, that the increasing costs of climate disasters are outpacing the insurance market’s capacity to insure against these unprecedented risks.

As another Wharton graduate, I am more than appalled by Trump’s behavior and his spewing of economic nonsense about isolating the United States from global markets and global politics. Trump’s ignorance of economics infects the whole Republican agenda to spread nonsense about Democrats fueling inflation and immigration when the mounting costs and impacts of climate change increasingly contribute to rising prices for everything and force more people to lower their risks by moving.

So instead of undermining trust in government, in elections, and now in the government’s response to climate disasters, let’s do our part to create a well-functioning government which is responsive to all people and the natural environment which sustains us. Our vote this year is our singular power to ensure a world that works and remains safe.

For future’s sake, vote Democratic all the way.