I Exercised My Right to Vote

I voted!

I did so by placing my ballot in the drop box outside the Talbot County offices here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

As I did it, I thought about our country and I am saddened by the division that is present as we go into our presidential election this year.

I also thought about the good fortune I had, and the honor I had to spend eight years inside the White House. I spent the first four in the West Wing as the assistant to President Reagan who coordinated the interaction with the White House and the members of his cabinet. I spent the second four years as chief of staff to Vice President H.W. Bush. We not only had fairly substantial official duties, we also spent time traveling to every state in the nation helping members of Congress get elected or re-elected in the midterm elections and then two years later engaged in his presidential campaign. We found time in our official responsibilities to travel over 60 countries together representing the United States.

Those eight years gave me a chance to see a president in the Oval Office sorting through conflicting proposals and options and making decisions on the widest possible range of issues. The one thing that's consistent about the issues that come to the White House is that they're never easy. There's always good cases to be made on both sides, and it takes an individual who can weigh the merits of the arguments to arrive at a decision consistent with his or her own philosophy and policies.

You know, this year, the race has been been run with pollsters telling us the top issues are inflation, the economy, jobs, immigration and democracy. Well, the truth is, for me at least, there's no one running that's in favor of inflation. There's no one running that would seek to weaken the economy or increase unemployment. And there's certainly no one running who wants to ignore the very troubling issues at our border with immigration. Those issues are going to be handled by a president and a congress with all of them, the individuals involved, all of them, working to do their best to hold down inflation, improve the economy, and deal with the immigration issue.

So the question for me really is, what's the best path forward when it comes to protecting this democracy? Which administration would work constructively to bring people together to address and solve some of these issues? Because they're very difficult.

Which person running for office would have the disposition and the ability to sit in that Oval office and listen to different sides of the arguments?

Which person would choose people of high caliber with values that are consistent with America's values to serve in the offices that will be filled by the next president. You know, a President makes over 2,000 appointments. It's not just the cabinet, it's all the people that go into the administration to really guide and direct this vast federal bureaucracy that a President oversees. And so those people, those choices are critically important. And which individual, I ask myself, would find people who would be constructive in those jobs and seek to bring the country together.

So this year, I cast my vote for Kamala Harris.

I did so believing that, there's no question I'll disagree with some of the positions she may take. I also think there's no question that she will enter that Oval Office every day or represent the country somewhere around the world with the best interest of America at heart.

I do think she is the person who's proven to bring people together, not asking whether they're Republican or Democrat, but bringing people together to address issues. Her commitment to work on a bipartisan basis on the issues, to bring a Republican into her cabinet, maybe more than one, is also, I think, encouraging. She's not seeking to... punish enemies, as she said, she's not got an enemies list, she's got a list of things she wants to accomplish.

So I'm pleased to cast my vote this year.

Whatever you may decide to do, however you decide to in the 11 days left, I do hope you will go out and vote this year in this all important election of 2024.