The Tim “Napalm” Stegall Substack Endorses Kamala Harris

If the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post won’t, my punk culture Substack will. And no, I won’t stay in my fucking lane!

Yes, this is a Photoshop. No, we don’t know if the Vice President digs the Dolls, but wouldn’t it be cool if she did? We do know her husband posed with a copy of Give ‘Em Enough Rope as a teenager, however.

Austin, Texas, Wednesday, October 30, 2024: From 2008 until this year, I was ineligible to vote, because I have moved so much that I did not fit residency requirements. People who I felt unfit to lead won by narrow margins. This year, I wanted to make sure to the best of my abilities this did not happen again. 

Tuesday, I did my bit to preserve democracy. I cast my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

I cast my vote for Colin Allred for US Senate.

I cast my vote for every Democrat running.

Me at the polls Tuesday. Yes, I am silly. And need to shave.

I can recall a conversation with a Republican friend I no longer speak with maybe 12 years ago, telling her I could never vote for a Republican candidate. “Why?” she asked. “America is ‘the Republic, for which we stand.’”

“No,” I replied, “America is a democracy.”

So, yes. Traditionally, I have always voted blue. The GOP’s values have never been mine. Mind you, the Democratic party’s values have never been an exact fit for mine, either. But they come closer.

Maybe I’d be a Libertarian, if there were such a thing as a left-wing to that particular party. Maybe there was one in the ‘60s – I don’t know. But as long as I have been conscious of them, the Libertarians just looked to me like closet Republicans who want to smoke pot, and don’t want to admit they are Republicans. (My observation, as an outsider. My roommate, a one-time Libertarian, assures me this isn’t the entire truth, though he understands my opinion.) 

The Green Party? Well, I admire them, and a dear friend is a successful Green Party politician, Joe Keithley of D.O.A. Then I see how Ralph Nader’s presidential candidacy enabled George W. Bush to roller skate straight into The White House, and it just underlined what I learned long ago: Frequently, one has to vote against the greater evil, for the candidate providing the most viable alternative. It’s not like buying a punk rock record because you don’t like Linda Rondstadt. Electoral alternatives mean the enemy gets in! Naturally, musical alternatives mostly mean the enemy gets on the radio, as well. But you can listen to that record you bought, instead! You can’t ignore the sitting president and pretend your candidate got in, and listen to them! Well, you can, but meanwhile, The Enemy is making mincemeat out of the Constitution, violating your civil rights, polluting the land, etc.

Mind you, there have been moments when making those compromises have meant holding one’s nose upon entering the voting booth. Michael Dukakis, anyone? And Bill Clinton really pissed me off with all his trade deals, deregulation of business (a practice he inherited from Ronnie Reagan) and piss-poor record on the environment. But who knew how much of a saint he’d look like after Bush II took office. Then again, Trump made Bush look like JFK, FDR  and Jesus all rolled into one! 

Really, how can anyone say we were so much better off under Trump’s reign? You cannot remember why you didn’t vote for him last time? The continuous human rights violations, especially separating immigrant children from their parents and locking them in cages at our borders? Claiming there was “hatred, bigotry and violence[...]on many sides” when white supremecist James Fields, Jr. drove his car into counterprotesters decrying a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VAon August 12, 2017, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer? Referring to Third World nations as “shithole countries”? (And yes, he was talking about Haitian immigrants that time, the very same persons he baselessly claimed were “eating dogs” at his debate with Harris!) His recklessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, countermanding the advice of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who knew a thing or two about viruses from his work when AIDS first manifested itself? His open admiration of Vladimir Putin and other despots? Do I need to go on? Or is all you know is that you paid a lot less for a tank of gas under Trump?

Maybe you did vote for him last time? Do you honestly believe this was good leadership in action? Or maybe you like how crass and openly foul the man is, because you think that gives you the license to act like that? Is that why you don’t like “the woke”? Because they tell you how wrong you and your attitudes are?

But really, the main reason to not vote for Trump again: January 6th. Do I need to say more? Or do you also believe he’s been unfairly accused of that, too? 

For those who question what the Biden-Harris administration actually accomplished during their time in office? President Biden's official website will gladly inform you about appointing the Supreme Court’s first female African-American justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson; signing the Respect for Marriage Act into law, thus federally mandating marriage equality; granting clemency for all past federal offenses related to the possession of marijuana; rejoining the Paris Climate Accords his first day in office; and signing the Inflation Reduction Act into law, which every Congressional Republican voted against. Which is just a fraction of what they’ve done. Lesser known are the entries in this neat Politico checklist of 30 Things Joe Biden Did as President You Might Have Missed, such as boosting overtime guarantees; the FDA approving under his watch the first over-the-counter birth control pill, Opill (handy, considering the hash the Supreme Court made of Roe vs. Wade two summers back); and establishing the Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the wake of the 2022 Uvalde school massacre.

Nah, Joe Biden hasn’t done a goddamned thing the whole time he’s been in office, has he? Bless your heart!

But why should we vote for the Harris-Walz ticket? Surely, there’s got to be more than voting against Trump? Well, to start with, the fact that she’d be the nation’s first female president, and the second person of color in the office, is no small consideration here. Harris’ official website’s policy outline is somewhat vague, and she has not been all that detailed during her whistlestop speeches or interviews. A Los Angeles Times column from four days ago (ironically enough – more on that later) boosts her “pragmatic” centrist approach, besides noting her possessing “more government experience, including in national security (as a Senate Intelligence Committee member as well as vice president), than Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama and Trump had when they took office.” But really, the most compelling set of reasons I’ve seen in favor of a Harris presidency come from Nina Gulbransen, a student at Boston University who (yes) happens to be executive board secretary for BU’s College Democrats chapter. In a guest editorial, “Student POV: Why I’m Voting for Kamala Harris,” published in yesterday’s edition of the campus newspaper BU Today, Gulbransen detailed: “She believes in solving gun violence and in my right to my body, has called for helping the middle class, will unequivocally accept the results of the election for the good of the people.” And that’s just the subhead. Click that link up there and read the article. It’s the clearest articulation of the pro-Harris vote I’ve seen yet. It convinced me, and I already voted!

So, why am I, the editor of a punk rock/punk culture Substack, endorsing a presidential candidate? Because the billionaire owners of the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post recently scuttled planned endorsements of Harris. So I will run one, since they’re too scared to take a stand.

WaPo owner Jeff Bezos (yes, the Amazon guy) is a coward. So is LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong. I was taught in college, as a journalism major, that the role of the press is to be a watchdog and a guard dog for democracy, not a lapdog for the haves. Trump has threatened reprisals for his enemies, and anyone speaking against him, should be elected.  Yes, Project 2025 is very real, and not the left’s version of QAnon, as some cynics have sneered. (Another reason to vote against Trump, by the way.) This should be all the more reason Bezos and Soon-Schiong should give their editorial boards free reign. Ben Bradlee, the legendary editor who built the Washington Post’s enduring reputation for brutally honest and fair journalism and as staunch defenders of democracy, had to continually assure the paper’s then-owner Katherine Graham they were doing the right thing publishing The Pentagon Papers, then investigating Watergate. Then he rode Woodward and Bernstein hard, making sure the reporting stuck: “I don’t see the fucking story yet!”

This is why I am endorsing, and voted for, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and every Democrat on the ticket. Because Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Schiong are too chickenshit to do so. Because I am currently free to say so, and to say Donald Trump is a venal, lying sack of shit who wouldn’t know the truth if it pissed on his shoes. Because I want to continue to have the right to say such things, even if some of my readers think I should “stay in my lane.” (I lost ten subscribers this month, including three paying subscribers, for referring to the man as “Cheetoh Mussolini” and speaking out against him. I won’t apologize.) Because it is not hyperbole that democracy itself is at stake in this election. A second Trump administration would be the end of the American experiment. Think I should stick to writing about punk rock? Do you think you might have the right to listen to punk rock under the second Trump regime? You may not. Again, that is no hype. If you cherish these liberties like I do, I urge you to follow me in clicking Harris-Walz in the voting booth.

Besides, I want a president who buys Charlie Mingus records!

P.S. – To the people who stormed off my subscription rolls because “punk isn’t supposed to be political?” WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING TO ALL THESE YEARS?! Or let me come over and see how many Clash, Crass and Dead Kennedys records you actually own! You’re as ridiculous as the trolls I continually see at Friend of The ‘Stack Jello Biafra’s social media, dogging him because he’s remained steadfast to the principles he’s consistently held his entire life, rather than selling out to Trump like they have! 

P.P.S.S – Why would you vote for anyone Divine didn’t like?!

#TimNapalmStegall #TimNapalmStegallSubstack #PunkJournalism #KamalaHarris #TimWalz #EndorseKamala #VoteForDemocracy #PunkPolitics #HarrisWalz2024 #PunkCulture #StandForChange #DemocracyAtStake #VoteAgainstTrump #PressForTruth #PoliticalResistance #ProtectTheFuture #StayLoudStayTrue #AmericanExperiment #LifeLessons #Substack #UndergroundMusic #PunkInfluence #DIYCulture #SupportIndependentMedia #NapalmNation #Subscribe #Monthly #Annually #ForLife #UpgradeYourFreeSubscription #BestWayToSupport