If Donald Trump has reached and surpassed 270 electoral delegates on November 5, after all direct or mail-in votes have been counted, he will be the 47th President of the United States. If that milestone is reached instead by Kamala Harris, she will be the first woman in history to win the Oval Office and lead the world’s largest democracy and most powerful country for four years.
La Voce di New York will not give endorsements to either candidate, but we are clear in our thinking.
We do not believe that if Trump loses by a wide margin he will be tempted by a desire to unleash violence as happened in 2020. But if the gap is small, as seems likely, a violent reaction and accusations of fraud could be triggered automatically from his camp.
We also do not believe that America, however torn and polarized, will have any interest in sparking a new civil war or wanting to erase the Constitution. Some fear it, Trump threatens it, but it is of great concern only to that small minority of crazies and violent people who wish for it. They all belong to the most extreme and racist right wing in the country.
La Voce di New York believes in democracy and not dictatorship even if only by 24 hours.
Our newspaper, proud of its independence, believes in respecting the right to vote and not in suppressing it. It believes in international law concerning the acceptance and not the deportation of millions of immigrants who for decades have built their families in America. They have remained free of censure, do honest and necessary work, and are ready to face even monetary penalties by admitting their past fiscal responsibilities in order to face a new path to permanent residency and in due course acquire citizenship. We also believe that everyone has the right to realize their aspirations and ambitions, whether as an entrepreneur, scholar or simple wage earner as long as this is done within the rules and the law.
We also believe–influenced by European and Italian culture–that healthcare is a right and not a privilege to which everyone can aspire. We believe in a Social Security system that guarantees an adequate pension, and we believe less and less in state welfare regulated by an old and prickly bureaucracy that does not incentivize those who receive it.
We believe in the role of a union that is not outraged by the demand for productivity and professionalism and that remains an honest counterpart to corporations or the state.
We believe in free enterprise and competition, associationism and communities. Finally, we believe in the existence of transparent and inclusive political parties. We do not believe in the infallibility of a man or woman alone in leadership. After the experience and memory of fascism and Nazism and autocrats around the world, we believe that democracy and multilateral diplomacy are the best tools against all forms of nationalistic and protective isolation. We believe in the United Nations, not in its ineffectiveness, and in representative bodies within it appropriate to the times and not just the results of World War II.
We do not believe in opaque super PACs of the left or the right.
We believe in the right of women to freely decide about their bodies and in free processes of procreation. We believe in political compromise, collaboration, moderation and pragmatism. But we believe above all, in facts and the power of facts themselves. We detest fake news and those who put it online regardless of where it comes from.
Some may think that presented in this way our editorial line may come much closer to Kamala Harris’ programs and optimism than to Donald Trump’s pessimism. But no matter. We have never found any evidence of Haitians in Ohio eating their neighbors’ dogs and cats or that only murderous rapists and mentally ill people have crossed the Mexican border under the Biden presidency, as there are thousands of children and old people among them and the number of people admitted has now become less than it was on a daily basis with Trump in the White House.
We believe strongly in the right to vote for all American citizens regardless of skin color, education level or gender, but we don’t understand why only MAGA people cry fraud without bringing evidence.
We believe in the freedom of family and marriage with whatever nucleus can be formed.
For the election of the president of the United States we are convinced that the best solution would be the popular vote and not the electoral vote since the winner should be the president of all with House and Senate balancing his enormous power.
But having said that, one fact remains certain. When the delegates from the various states are in Washington on January 6, 2025 to deliver the final results from each individual state, those and only those will determine the winner. The Constitution says so. Donald Trump could win again as in 2016 by garnering fewer popular votes as happened with Hillary Clinton. But he could also lose (precisely because the system is not universal) if he received more popular support and it was Harris who reached and exceeded 270 electoral votes. As American citizens we would like President Biden to prevent a new assault on Congress by any means necessary.
That assault doomed and weakened American democracy in the eyes of the world. It must not happen again, and the people who have yet to vote cannot forget that.
