James Lynch -- John McCain Alum
Why he's supporting Harris-Walz in 2024
With a wry smile sneaking in, John McCain loved to say, “In the words of Chairman Mao, 'It's always darkest before it's totally black.” When the Senator deployed this line, time and time again, often to describe his own political fate, it was markedly a different time in our politics, when joking about an authoritarian was kind of, well, quaint.
Today, McCain’s gallows humor feels shockingly real as Donald Trump walks closer to another Election Day win. We all understand what being a dictator “only on Day 1” could really mean from Donald Trump, the most powerful American leader to ever be justifiably compared to an authoritarian. I used to call him a “fascist-wannabe.” But that all changed when he, as the outgoing president of the United States, perpetuated a malicious stolen election lie and led a failed coup on our government on January 6, 2021. “Dictator” is exactly the title Trump craves to silence and eliminate criticism.
Donald Trump’s grip on his supporters is alarmingly set in stone. Since 2015, good, proud Americans have found themselves caught in the gravitational pull of the Trump tractor beam as they sleepwalked into the depraved depths of MAGA. When Trump says the most awful, vile attacks on our institutions and fellow Americans, MAGA nods their heads in agreement without an inkling of an inner conscience present. Too many American citizens continue to be the targets of these off-hand attacks, day after day, to the point of slow normalization. Trust in our democratic, legal, and financial institutions continues to decay to the delight of our foreign enemies. It’s remarkably, and scarily easy to see the tinderbox-fated future of American democracy if Donald Trump is elected president on November 5. It is a failure of our imagination if we don’t look ahead at what Trump, his loyal staff, and followers could do, if elected.
In just a few days, we will cast our ballots for our representatives and leaders of our government. Choosing a serious leader, for this deadly serious moment, is crucial to the survival of the republic before we are MAGA-induced into comatosed fervor. For me, the litmus test in the 2024 election is, “Will you abide by the Constitution's Oath of Office?” Only Kamala Harris can and will answer “Yes” by this simple, yet country-defining question. I’m proud to wear my “Country First” bracelet from Senator McCain’s 2008 presidential run with the same intent as I cast my vote for Vice President Harris.
James Lynch served as War Room Manager on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and prior as an intern in his Senate office.