By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on October 19, 2024
An Editorial Opinion
The race for president between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump is a "dead heat," according to a poll released by NBC News last Sunday. Other recent national polls show the race is tied, as well.
Undecided Independent Voters Will Decide the 2024 Presidential Race
In America, every vote is sacred. Candidates for public office must earn our votes and specifically ask for our campaign donations.
I am a member of an ad hoc group of independent voter influencers across America. For nearly two years, we publicly announced that our group was prepared to meet with the Democratic and Republican Party nominees for president and support one of them financially and with a new, state-of-the-art, block vote delivery system for undecided independent voters in the seven swing states.
Neither Kamala Harris, nor Donald Trump, asked for access to: (a) our steering committee, (b) our block of undecided independent voters in the seven swing states, or (c) our group's financial support.
With no contact from the Harris and Trump campaigns, we resorted to vetting both nominees as best we could. We filtered out partisan hyperbole and the usual political spitballs. We relied solely on: (a) independently acquired candidate background information, (b) fact-checked documents that evidence each nominee's record in office, (c) non-public, independently sourced, polling data, and (d) other verifiable sources of information.
We also prepared and published vetting reports on Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Based upon these reports, we determined that both nominees are deeply flawed on the core issues that matter the most to our group of independent voter influencers.
Our View of Kamala Harris
For over a year, Kamala Harris has marched in lock-step with Joe Biden’s unconditional support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his campaign of genocide in Gaza that has killed more than 20,000 Palestinian babies, infants, and children since October 7, 2023. None of the slaughtered children was a terrorist. All of them were targeted for death in horrific ways.
Since the days of Operation Wraft of God (1972 to 1988), Israel has possessed the ability to target and kill large numbers of terrorists without inflicting collateral damage on innocent civilians. In its war with Hamas, Israel has killed the head of Hamas and several of his top commanders in very targeted military operations, all without inflicting unacceptable levels of collateral damage.
Despite its military successes, Israel has used the genocide of 20,000 children in Gaza to punish Hamas for the October 7th terrorist attack that killed 1,200 Israelis.
Netanyahu's campaign of death and destruction in Gaza goes far beyond excessive force. Likewise, it does not meet any legal definition of "national defense." Israel's extermination of the children of Gaza is genocide, plain and simple. This genocide is documented in a May 2024 Report issued by the U.S. Department of State.
Genocide is a red line for us, whether the perpetrators are Nazis or Israelis. While our groups believes in Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state within the territory formerly known "Palestine," we strongly condemn Netanyahu's cold bloodied, non-stop murder of innocent children in Gaza.
When Kamala Harris embraced Benjamin Netanyahu as her political bedmate, she chose a political lover who is widely regarded as a psychopath, a war criminal, and a genocidal thug. Thus, Harris's unconditional support for this war criminal crossed our red line.
Equally appalling to us is this deeply disturbing and documented fact: When Kamala Harris was the District Attorney in San Francisco, she had the opportunity to prosecute 40 priests whom the Catholic Church documented as pedophiles. In exchange for campaign funds from wealthy friends and allies of the Catholic Church, Harris declined prosecution of each one of the 40 pedophile priests.
We have a documented "zero tolerance" policy on clergy sex abuse. In our view, Harris's abandonment of her prosecutorial duty to protect these molested children from known sexual predators in the Church is unforgivable. Sadly, the passage of time has not eased the emotional suffering experienced by the clergy sexual abuse victims Harris could have helped.
Our View of Donald Trump
Donald Trump is the living embodiment of Project 2025, which is repugnant to the principles of American democracy in too many ways to discuss here. What is worse, Trump has repeatedly lied to the American people about his documented ties to Project 2025 -- and just about everything else.
Trump also packed the U.S. Supreme Court with three political hacks who have absolutely no respect for the rule of law. Today, all Americans know that Supreme Court cases are decided on the basis of: (a) the litigant's political party affiliation and demographic profile, and (b) the monetary value of “gifts” conferred upon key Supreme Court Justices by their billionaire "friends." Trump's three appointments to the Supreme Court have turbo-charged an unsavory, Clarence Thomas-led, bribery approach to decision-making by the Court.
Finally, Donald Trump held the presidency from 2017 to 2021. We know from Trump's four years in the White House that it is nearly impossible to tell when he is acting in the national interest and when Trump is acting in his own best interest.
Harris and Trump Failed to Earn Our Endorsement and Financial Support
In our view, neither Kamala Harris, nor Donald Trump, has earned an endorsement from our group. In America, political support is not passed down like a monarch's crown or a family's inheritance. It must be earned, which did not happen here.
For us, campaign dollars are not automatically sprinkled on presidential nominees like holy water. Financial support must be specifically requested, which did not happen here.
Furthermore, we are not willing to compromise our core values for the sake of political expediency or for the purpose of stroking a presidential nominee’s political ego.
Finally, the race and gender of each nominee was NOT a factor in our evaluation of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Both nominees have shown the public who they are, and we believe them.
Election Day
As individuals, we will vote in the 2024 election for the presidential nominee of our choice. However, as steering committee members of our national group of independent voters, we will NOT make an endorsement of Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for the presidency.
Finally, we bear no responsibility for the partisan political process that yielded two deeply flawed presidential nominees. It is what it is.
In light of today's article, some readers have asked me about my political background. I started in politics as a foot soldier in Joe Reed's Alabama Democratic Party. In 1994, I became an independent Democrat.
In 2000, I founded and operated Voter News Network (VNN), a news service and political organization for independent voters. VNN awarded over $1 million in campaign contributions to endorsed candidates for local, state, and federal office.
In 2022, I registered in California as an independent voter and formed a vast national network of independent voters.
As an independent voter, my political loyalty is to pocketbook issues, equal justice, civil and human rights, military might, and homeland security. I am a social moderate, fiscal conservative, an…
As political independents, we are NOT sharecroppers on political party plantations. Our decision on whether to endorse a presidential nominee, or not, is based upon the documented, fact-checked record of the nominee on the issues that matter to us.
When I was a child, I could not understand why the German people tolerated Adolf Hitler's genocide against Jews, gays, Gypsies, and Black Germans. As an adult, I realize that genocide occurs when good people are silent or look away from inhumane conduct. Sometimes it occurs when good people are complicit in this most horrific conduct.
Since October 7, 2023, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have knowingly supplied the weapons used for the genocide of over 20,000 children in Gaza just to get a campaign contribution from AIPAC. They have empowered the worst kind of evil in the worst kind of way.
To me, there is no bigger issue than genocide. Somebody needs to personally explain to me how a…
Not really a surprise...
Well this is a surprise. Kudos to Mr. Watkins for being an honest liberal.