The Atlantic would like you to know that, for only “the fifth time in its 167-year history,” it has decided to endorse a presidential candidate. The magazine has thrown its weight behind Democrat Kamala Harris in the impending election, less because of who she is and more because of who she isn’t. The editorial largely defines Harris in opposition to Donald Trump, noting that in his 2024 iteration, the former president is “even more vicious and erratic than in the past,” not to mention more extreme in his policies. Harris, by contrast, is “untainted by corruption, let alone a felony record or a history of sexual assault,” the editors argue. “She doesn’t embarrass her compatriots with her language and behavior, or pit them against one another. She doesn’t curry favor with dictators. She won’t abuse the power of the highest office in order to keep it. She believes in democracy.” This is the third time The Atlantic has publicly supported the person running against Trump; the two other times it has come out in favor of a candidate were ahead of the 1860 election (Abraham Lincoln) and of the 1964 election (Lyndon B. Johnson). The mag is aware that its opinion “will not matter” to Trump supporters, but reminds the ambivalent or undecided among its readers that “electing [Harris] and defeating [Trump] is the only way to release us from the political nightmare in which we’re trapped.” And wouldn’t that be nice?
