Katie Morris

Because she will work for all of us, not target individuals and groups

Many writers tell a story about their first novel being stashed in a drawer. I have one. A novel I spent the better part of eight years working on is in a binder in my basement. Among other things, it is the story of a fictional military dictatorship. Since I grew up in the United States and had no personal experience with dictatorships, I had to fill my imagination with research. I went deep, reading histories, biographies, first-person accounts, and even working with people who had been imprisoned and tortured under brutal regimes. Ultimately, though I got to “The End,” I left this book in a binder because it lacked authenticity, and because, even at that time in 2006, I had an uneasy sense of where America was heading. I didn’t want to regret writing a book that had looked for inspiration everywhere but the mirror. 

One of the surprising things that came out of this work was how prepared I was when Donald Trump was successful in the 2016 election. Unlike many, I was not shocked. I could see that the conditions in our country were ripe for his sort of charisma to attract people. I knew that his seemingly unwavering self-confidence could shift people’s sense of reality. I could see that he has the ability to identify what animates people, particularly grievances, and supply them with a steady stream of energy. Indeed, Trump, like the dictators I studied, is masterful at making people who feel overlooked by others feel not just seen, but celebrated by him, if always at the expense of others. At the same time, he is equally talented at creating the sort of environment in which people who like power—like many members of the Republican party, for example—run the calculations and decide that the advantages of being in the dictator’s circle, perilous though it may be, outweigh the disadvantages.

Now here we are in 2024, just a few days before the election on November 5. As I look at my ballot, I feel a mix of defiance and resignation. Last weekend, I made calls to voters in Pennsylvania and Georgia. I talked to many people who were on the fence, thinking of sitting this election out. I didn’t try to make any of them see Trump’s authoritarian leanings—these have been widely noted and don’t seem to make a difference to these undecideds. Instead, I encouraged them to vote, since the participation of all is what keeps democracy alive, and I shared a few of the reasons why I chose Harris. 

I choose Harris because she has made it clear that she will work for all of us, not target individuals and groups when she sees an advantage of doing so. I choose her because she, at the head of the Democratic party, keeps attracting people from across the aisle. I choose her because with her patchwork personal history, with its Berkeley, Toronto, historically Black colleges and universities, daughter-of-immigrants, sorority, liberal-and-law-upholding pieces, is unlike any we have seen before in the highest office, but oh so common throughout our gorgeous, diverse country. I choose Harris because her choices, her intellect, and her discipline inspire me. I choose her because when I listen to her, I feel strong and hopeful. 

Katie Morris is a writer, editor, and mom.