Jeff Bezos made the right decision – If ever there were an election to revert back to only sporadically making Presidential endorsements, this election was it.

There was once a time when certain newspapers would perform a thorough election analysis and provide insight into candidates up and down the ballot.  This was useful primarily for down ballot candidates about whom voters knew little or nothing.  That era has passed. 

In the current election, voters had very good information on both candidates.  Both had held office at the highest level for 4 years.  And the nation seemed to be virtually evenly divided between the two.  An endorsement by the Washington Post would do nothing to move that needle.  Jeff Bezos said exactly that.  There is no mystery as to which candidate the Washington Post would endorse, should it choose to do so.

In reality, such a move wouldn’t even be an endorsement.  It would be an anti-endorsement of Trump.  It isn’t as if the Post would be saying that Kamala has an excellent plan for paying for her initiatives and paying down the debt, or having transformative policies, or being a charismatic leader.  Those are reasons to endorse. 

Eisenhower and Roosevelt probably deserved endorsements.  They were transformational presidents and each had a clear vision for the future.  I would say the same of Obama.  In our current election cycle, we have two weak candidates.  Many independents view it as choosing the lesser of two evils.  An endorsement doesn’t make sense.

Instead, an endorsement would only serve to divide the country further apart.  So don’t do it.

The Republican party behaves more like Soviet communists when they do something you don’t like – so long as your keep your head down and don’t say anything, you are fine.  Democrats behave more like the 1950’s Chinese communists  – not only do you need to follow the party line, you also need to chant the slogans.  If not, you are sent to re-education camp.  Our version of that today is called cancelling someone.  

So no, I didn’t cancel my subscription.  That would require something like fabricating stories or refusing to hire gay or Jewish reporters.  I find it unseemly to cancel simply because Bezos refused to chant the slogan.

Mark W. Yonkman