2024 Election Issues | Larry LaTourette

Who Should You Vote For? A Guide to Issues

By Larry LaTourette

This election seems to have lasted for years—in a sense, it has: Trump technically has never stopped campaigning since his “escalator” speech in 2015. Even as he lied about the 2020 election, he began campaigning for 2024. But it comes down to this Tuesday, and most people have either voted or have decided who they will support.

But who should you vote for, based on issues? Well, here are twelve of the most critical issues. Who you should vote for depends on how you stand on the issues most important to you. I hope this helps:

THE ECONOMY

If the economy is your key issue, let’s look at how things have been going.

The stock market under Trump—just before Covid—stood at 29,000. The week of the November 2020 election, it was 27,848. Under Biden/Harris (as of Oct. 28), it has risen to 43,000. If you are in the middle class with a 401k portfolio, you have done very well during the last four years.
Unemployment: Before Covid, the average unemployment rate under Trump was 4.1%. Under Biden/Harris, after the Covid effects, unemployment has averaged out to 4.0%.
Inflation: The 2020 pandemic (while Trump was president) significantly damaged global supply chains. When Covid lifted in 2021, demand resumed, but supply took two years to recover globally. Inflation in 2022 and 2023 rose globally, initially due to the supply chain issues and then because of price gouging. While food prices did rise in the US, under Biden/Harris, the US had the ninth-lowest inflation rate in the world during this period. The only European nations with lower inflation than the US in 2023 were Switzerland, Spain, and the Netherlands. The Biden/Harris inflation reduction efforts have succeeded: the current US inflation rate is 2.4%, lower than at any point in three years and in keeping with the rate under Trump before Covid.
Tariffs: This is the big issue. If Trump executes his plan to put 20% tariffs on most imported goods, those hikes will be passed on to consumers1, and inflation will skyrocket to over 9%. As I’ve mentioned before, part of my day job is setting and forecasting national pricing. Take my word: Trump’s tariffs will triple the current inflation rate.

Economy Advantage: Harris. It would have been a tie, but Trump’s tariff plan tilts this strongly to Harris.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Dozens of REPUBLICAN national security experts and former security heads have come out in favor of Harris and opposed to Trump. His former secretary of defense has warned of the dangers of putting him back into office. A host of four-star generals have publicly expressed their concerns if Trump were to ever regain power.2 His own former chief of staff has called Trump a danger. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley tried to reassure global powers that the United States’s government was still functioning after Trump’s January 6 attempted coup d'état. In return, Trump suggested that Milley should be shot3.
The nonpartison organization the National Security Leaders for America has endorsed Harris. I urge you to read its endorsement in full4.
Trump’s ties to Putin and other autocrats are well-documented. He has admitted to being in periodic contact with Putin AFTER leaving office in 2021 (a possible criminal violation of the Logan Act).
The charges against Trump for hiding top secret documents at his Florida home and intentionally moving them to prevent discovery from federal agents, are in limbo only because Trump appointed the judge in charge of the case. The judge refused to recuse herself and is now in line to become Trump’s attorney general nominee. Stop and think about that.
Trump has expressed his desire to help Putin by dismantling NATO. Harris has expressed support for NATO and American interests in Europe and Asia.
If he were trying for any other government position (ironically, besides president), Trump would be denied a standard security clearance.

National Security Advantage: Harris, in a walk.

HEALTHCARE

Harris supports the Affordable Care Act and will build on it. She has called for in-home care to be covered under Medicare, which would help thousands of American families.
Speaking to the press in mid-October, House Speaker Mike Johnson admitted that Trump and the current House leadership will try to revoke the Affordable Care Act as soon as possible5. If they succeed, millions of Americans with preexisting medical conditions will once again be left uncovered, with no medical insurance.
Trump has promised to put Robert Kennedy Jr. in charge of healthcare. This move would devastate the nation’s vaccine programs, leaving us vulnerable to outbreaks of measles, Covid, influenza, and—I can’t believe I’m writing this—fucking polio.

Healthcare Advantage: Harris by a country mile.

LAW AND ORDER

Donald Trump is a convicted felon. That is not propaganda; it is a fact. The Democrats didn’t convict him. Juries convicted him. He is awaiting sentencing and could face prison. His legal issues are not politically motivated. They are matters of law and order.
Trump has called for scrapping parts of the US Constitution, except where it favors his own plans.
Trump attempted to subvert a national election and overthrow the democratic process. There is no evidence to support his claims of a rigged election in 2020. However, there is a mountain of evidence that he attempted to wrest control after losing the election. I won't go into detail: you know the events of January 6.
Trump has led dozens of money-making grifts from his time in office and afterward, including bilking the Secret Service of millions of dollars in “hotel fees,” offering quid pro quo deals to foreign leaders who stay in his hotels, getting foreign money pumped into his “Truth Social” stock scam, and more.
Harris has never been accused of a crime.
Harris is a successful former district attorney.
Harris is the first presidential candidate in history to have experience in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.

Law and Order Advantage: Harris by a landslide.

IMMIGRATION

Trump succeeded in building only a small fraction of his promised wall. The sections that he did have built are totally ineffective (ladders exist). His aide, Steve Bannon, awaits trial for his part in a grifting scheme to divert financial donations from MAGA supporters who wanted to fund the wall.
Trump would initiate the largest deportation in the country’s history. That deportation, as outlined, would not stop with illegals (“They’re eating the dogs!”); it would include families legally in-country. The economic impact of removing 20 million migrants (and some legal Americans) would be unpredictable and nearly certainly devastating. Agricultural businesses and farms alone would be crushed in the ensuing two to five years.
Harris supported the bipartisan legislation that would have increased border security and tightened efforts against opioid smuggling at the Mexican border. House Republicans ultimately shot down that legislation this year, on Trump’s orders. Trump did not want to see this issue resolved before the election. This failure lies directly with Donald Trump.
Harris would re-initiate the rejected legislation. If the House flips to the Democrats, she will succeed in getting it passed.

Immigration Advantage: Harris.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND PRO-CHOICE LEGISLATION

If you are pro-choice, this is pretty black and white.
If you favor equal rights, take a look at Project 2025 and connect the dots.
Trump, a man found liable by a jury of sexual abuse and an adjudicated rapist, wants to be the “protector of women,” “whether they like it or not.”6

Women’s Rights Advantage: Are you kidding?

PRO-LIFE ISSUES

Ah, but what if you’re “pro-life?” Well, since the revocation of Roe vs. Wade, multiple women have died directly as a result of the loss of adequate women’s healthcare. Women having miscarriages now face abandonment in several “Red” states, where doctors worry that, if they provide necessary care for women in physical distress, they could face legal action and prison. Is this “pro-life,” in your opinion?
Trump has claimed to be the “father of IVF” (whatever that means…). However, he has shown his hand: IVF, a procedure necessary for many couples who want children, is in danger of becoming outlawed if Trump and Speaker Johnson are in power together. Johnson wants to outlaw anything that could jeopardize fertilized embryos. These cells—not visible to the naked eye and with as much sentience as a shed skin cell—have more rights to Johnson than any American girl or woman does. The loss of IVF access will equate to more childless couples, couples who actually WANT children.
Harris—obviously—favors IVF access and access to necessary healthcare for women.
Harris also supports a social safety net for children and families after the birth of a child. Republicans who are the most stridently “pro-life” are also the ones most opposed to taking care of the children born in this country, through education, healthcare, and safe environments.

Pro-Life Issues Advantage: Harris.

GUN RIGHTS

Harris and Walz favor sensible gun control—including background checks and restricting the sale of assault rifles. They do NOT support outlawing guns, nor do they support confiscating any guns whatsoever. Harris and Walz are both gun owners and support the Second Amendment. Right-wing media sites claiming otherwise are lying.
Trump, as a convicted felon, is not allowed to purchase a firearm under federal law.

Gun Rights Advantage: Harris has a slight edge, depending on one’s view of unrestricted access to all firearms.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Trump abandoned the Paris Accords. Under Trump, the US joined such luminary countries as Iran, Iraq, Libya, Angola, Sudan, Yemen, and Eritrea as the only nations not supporting the climate change agreements in place.
Trump has claimed that windmills give whales cancer. He wants to become “a whale psychologist.” You figure out what that could possibly mean, or how it relates to the environment.
Harris has recognized that climate change is a crisis. She has, however, shied from providing details on her plan to address the crisis, aside from seeking readmission into the Paris Accords.

Environment Advantage: Despite her vague stand on the issue, the advantage goes to Harris, and it isn’t close. Trump’s comments so far on the issue are provocative and nonsensical.

THE DEFICIT

Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals in America, combined with his inefficient handling of Covid, created the largest deficit in US history: $3.13 trillion.7
Biden has reined in the deficit to $1.8T. Harris’s billionaire and corporate tax policies will continue the Biden Administration’s successful reduction of the deficit.

Deficit Advantage: Harris, and it’s crystal clear.

TAXES

Under Harris’s proposed policies, families making less than $400K per year would not face any tax increases—most will enjoy lower income taxes. Families making over $400K per year might see higher taxes, depending on their status as small business owners (in which case their taxes would likely drop as well). Individuals with portfolios in the tens of millions or more, and large corporations, would face higher taxes.
Under Trump’s proposed policies, income taxes could be abolished8, replaced by a national sales tax. This sounds great at first, but do the math: a huge markup on a car, or a house, or a new shirt, or nearly anything, will hit everyone the same. So, a person making $30K a year might see up to 40% of their income going to sales taxes. A person making $125K a year could see 25% of their income go to taxes. And a person making, say, $5 million a year? Depending on how many luxury goods that person buys, that lucky stiff would pay roughly 1% in taxes. Hooray!

Taxes Advantage: It depends. If your family makes less than a million a year, then Harris. However, if you make over a million per year or have a portfolio in the tens of millions, then Trump.

CHARACTER

Honestly, if character is a key issue for you, and you are undecided, I don’t know what to write.

One candidate has preyed on this country’s basest aspects, coddled grifters and autocrats, stoked division and fear, turned politics into performative works of grievance-fueled stunts, and has grabbed cash whenever possible (selling shoes, watches, trading cards, "Trump Bibles" made in China, and other knick-knacks, with profits going straight to him and not to his campaign). He has said that he wants to be a dictator on day one (and has corrected any of the Fox News sycophants who have tried to help him walk that statement back). He has said some of the vilest things imaginable (listing them here serves no purpose: everyone’s heard them ad nauseam). He rants, he pouts, he acts like a maniac.
The other candidate has composed herself with grace. She has never acted in a way that has brought shame or dishonor to herself on a national stage. She has treated our military, our veterans, and political rivals with respect. She has surrounded herself with the best and the brightest, even if they do not align with her on every position. She is the only candidate capable of negotiation and collaboration. She is the only one who has publicly stated in this election that she is proud of the United States.

Happy voting!

-Larry

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Larry Latourette