Elegy in blue

To the editor:

When George Gershwin arrived in Paris, he visited Maurice Ravel, the famous French composer.  Gershwin asked Ravel if he could study composition with him. Ravel replied, “George, why be a second-class Ravel when you’re a first-class Gershwin?” 

Kamala Harris ran for president as a second-class center-right politician, tough on the border, crime and national security. The result was disastrous. Harris received approximately 11 million fewer votes than Biden did in 2020. Trump easily beat her in the Electoral College, swept all seven battleground states and won the popular vote by nearly four million. Trump’s right-wing, extremist Republican Party also regained the Senate and kept control of the House. Contrary to the Democratic Party establishment and its millionaire and billionaire donor class, Harris should have run for president as a first-class progressive. 

On “The View” Oct. 8, she was asked, “Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?” Harris replied, “There is not a thing that comes to mind … and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”

The following are three things that Harris might have said on the program and on the campaign trail. First, a major problem facing the country is gross income and wealth inequality. There is a need to go beyond the administration’s proposals to tax the wealthy and corporations. Second, further militarization is not a solution to immigration at the Southern border. Nor is disinformation and hatred that comes out of the mouths of Trump, Vance and the Republican Party. 

Seeking asylum is a legal right, policies that help immigrants benefit all underserved groups, and immigrants are needed to work at the nearly 10 million unfilled jobs. Finally, arms transfers should never be made to a country such as Israel that violates U.S. laws and international humanitarian law.

Howard Elterman