A funny thing happened when I worked on Confronting the Presidents. I learned we have always been a divided nation. Whether over religious freedom, states rights, slavery, monetary policy, or race (among many others), America has always had one side violently (literally) opposed to another. It's how we roll. The book takes us from George Washington to Joe Biden in chronological order, so it was easy to track each rift as it grew and exploded and was either solved or suppressed. I'm not saying this to condemn the radical divisions in the country right now, though I certainly believe this is the craziest political time in our history by far. I'm just saying that we're decent people. We find a way.
If you read my essays at the end of Presidents you know my politics. My co-author encouraged me to write my personal opinion of the last two presidents. I was honest. It was nice to put it out there. This is the first time in the fifteen years we worked together that politics was ever mentioned. True fact. History was always first and foremost. So I think he was more than a little surprised by what I had to say. My words were honest and above all cathartic. Political discourse is foundational to our nation. There was no condemnation of my point of view.
I'm an historian. I look at elections through the prism of one who is analyzing not just what is going on in America now, but all that has come before, leading us to this day. I have voted for candidates from both parties in the past, based on that historic viewpoint. My belief is that we should always vote for what's best for America. That means more than an individual or a party. I can tell you, for instance, that John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were more alike than not. Above all, they were civil and patriotic, putting the good of the nation over all else.
I have also extensively researched World War II and its roots, particularly the rise of fascism and Adolf Hitler. I'm also fluent in Straussian thinking, which is just as scary as Hitler's belief in the Big Lie and racial purity. Look them up. Those scary monsters are not just century-old history, they're alive and well right now.
I'm not going to tell you how to vote. My own vote, as I've stated, is based on the factual analysis of the historical record, which is an extremely solid indicator of the future. I vote for America, first and foremost. So as the guy who writes the blog every week, and whose history books many of you have enjoyed, I feel it is only honest and right for me to state the candidate whom I feel is aligned with a positive historical outcome for the United States of America:
Kamala Harris for President.