Last week’s shock election headlines came from the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, with announcements that the newspapers would not be endorsing a presidential candidate this year.

In both cases, the newspapers’ billionaire owners (Seattleite, Amazon empire builder and second richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post) called this shameful shot.

Perhaps saying it best, 18 revered WaPo columnists, including Eugene Robinson, Dana Milbank, David Ignatius and Jennifer Rubin, called Bezos’ decision a “terrible mistake” in a jointly-signed, Oct. 25 column.

“This is a moment for the institution to be making clear its commitment to democratic values, the rule of law and international alliances, and the threat that Donald Trump poses to them — the precise points The Post made in endorsing Trump’s opponents in 2016 and 2020,” they wrote. “… An independent newspaper might someday choose to back away from making presidential endorsements. But this isn’t the right moment, when one candidate is advocating positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution.”

The New York Times, a publicly traded company, did endorse Harris, saying that Trump has “proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks.”

Here, here.

The presidential election shouldn’t even be close, given Trump’s status as a convicted felon and person found liable of sexual abuse in a civil court — not to mention his previously almost-successful effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and his quite successful packing of the Supreme Court with judges who have ripped away reproductive freedom from millions of Americans.

During his increasingly unhinged rallies, Trump and his backers have demonized immigrants in harsh and racist language, and been clear about his plans to launch campaigns of mass detention and deportation of immigrants. He has praised the insurrectionists who, on January 6, 2021, attempted to violently overturn a free and fair election on his behalf.

And if you’re concerned about the heated rhetoric of politics these days, consider that a speaker at his rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday called Kamala Harris “the devil” and “the antichrist.”

None of this seems to be enough to change the minds of millions of American voters — not even dire warnings from Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, and other top officials in the Trump administration, that they believe Trump fits the definition of a fascist.

We also must address the ongoing bloodshed and suffering in Gaza, and its role in this election.

The Biden-Harris administration has not stopped Israel — which is heavily reliant on arms from the U.S. — from embarking on its devastating retaliatory campaign on Gaza in its war to destroy Hamas. That campaign — which began after a Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7,2023 killed roughly 1,200 people, including nearly 700 Israeli civilians — has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, leveled their communities and killed numbers of journalists and aid workers. The International Court of Justice in January found it is “plausible” that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention.

Islanders have voiced moral outrage over this war and our country’s role in it in public demonstrations, repeatedly addressed it in letters to The Beachcomber, and islander Suzanne Greenberg, a leader in our Jewish community, called one year ago for an immediate and enduring ceasefire and hostage return in the region. Our own congressmember Pramila Jayapal has called for conditions on non-defensive military aid to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. We hear their voices.

We also know that Trump’s election promises to make the situation worse, locally and abroad.

Trump has pledged to keep arming Israel; said he’d deport foreign students who protest Israel; criticized Biden for threatening to withhold weapons from the country; criticized calls for a ceasefire; and, disturbingly, said that Israel has to “finish the problem” in Gaza.

Moreover, Trump’s plans to renew the “Muslim travel ban” that began his first administration are real. We must do what we can to stop him.

We contend that every election is a matter of choosing which non-ideal world we’d rather live in. There is no realistic path to victory for a third party candidate this time around, and Harris is the feasible candidate in our two-party system who is more capable of being pushed on this and other issues.

If polls are a prediction, it seems the margin of victory for whoever wins will be razor-thin. And that makes for a surreal moment on our deep blue island.

In terms of Vashon’s vote, we are all but certain it won’t be close —islanders are likely to overwhelmingly vote not only for Harris, but also other candidates that represent progressive values up and down the ballot.

These values include affordable and accessible health care for all, including expansive reproductive health care, bold climate action to preserve our planet, and overarching opportunity, education, justice, dignity and peace for all people.

The Beachcomber’s endorsements are not necessary, as our newspaper’s editorial stance reflects these values of the overwhelming majority of our readers.

But still, we will say it: vote Harris/Walz, vote Cantwell, vote Jayapal, vote Ferguson, vote Heck (Lieutenant Governor), vote Hobbs (Secretary of State) vote Pellicciotti (State Treasurer), vote McCarthy (State Auditor) vote Brown (Attorney General), vote Upthegrowe (Commissioner of Public Lands), vote Reykdal (Supt. of Public Instruction), vote Kuderer (Insurance Commissioner), vote Mungia (Supreme Court Justice) and Crisalli (King County Court Judge).

Of course, also vote for our diligent and able legislators in the 34th district, Emily Alvarado and Joe Fitzgibbon, who have shown up time after time to forward Vashon’s interests.

And just in case you haven’t heard elsewhere, we have more advice about those four ballot initiatives: vote no, no, no and no. The harms caused by each of these measures, if passed, would be enormous.

Billions of dollars would vanish from state-funded education and childcare for our children and grandchildren — so that less than 1% of wealthy Washingtonians could be exempted from a capital gains tax (Initiative 2109).

Energy bills would rise, energy efficiency would decrease, utility companies would be shackled to fossil fuels, and air pollution would increase so that fossil fuel polluters and other powerful interest groups could be further enriched (Initiative 2066).

Funding for our transportation system, including our beleaguered ferry system, and a range of important climate action efforts in our state would be devastated by passing Initiative 2117.

And finally, vote to protect a small but valuable long-term care benefit provided to 3.9 million working Washingtonians. Initiative 2124 would most harm working and low-income families and those with pre-existing conditions.. Listen to them, and vote no.

We know that while most of our friends, neighbors and subscribers will agree with our endorsements, not everyone will. That’s okay. The Beachcomber is a newspaper for everyone on our island and will always remain so. Though it can seem hard to believe, life must go on after the election, and we will still be here, day after day, to listen to you and do our best to bring you all the news of this island.

We’ll see you on the other side of all this, Vashon.