It has become a social media sport to mock citizens who have not yet decided how to vote in this year’s US presidential election, especially when they say they need “more information” before making their choice. The needlework is valid to some extent; After all, Kamala Harris has been vice president for the past 3.75 years, and Donald Trump has been president for the previous four years. Google the two names; “insufficient information” will not be the first search query, I promise you.
Still, many people (including apparently some of the editors who work for me) need deadlines to keep their decision-making focused, and Election Day is an effective incentive. Don’t you believe me? In the 2020 US presidential election, in the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, 27 percent of voters cast their ballots in person on Election Day, even though queuing to vote could even have killed them can cost.
So if you’re a U.S. citizen waiting for the Election Day deadline to push you to make a decision in this year’s presidential race, I have a few suggestions on how to spend your time profitably between now and then . Because you have the Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsI assume you are probably somewhat concerned about avoiding global catastrophes caused by nuclear weapons and climate change (along with a variety of disruptive technologies, including artificial intelligence and potentially dangerous advances in genetic engineering, which will also threaten the could endanger civilization for decades).
In recent months the Bulletin‘s writers and editors have presented a substantial yet accessible package of reporting that dissects the election in terms of existential threats, and how they can be reduced and managed. The following is a collection of pieces from that reporting, carefully curated for the benefit of Americans and concerned citizens around the world who have limited reading time between now and Election Day.
An existential timeline of the Trump/Pence and Biden/Harris presidencies
Photo illustration by Thomas Gaulkin; photos via Getty Images.
As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump reach the endgame of their presidential campaign, the… Bulletin‘s editors look back at how the last two U.S. administrations handled the world’s most dangerous threats.
An interactive multimedia presentation by five Bulletin editors.
How Demagogues Are Destroying Democracy: A Step-by-Step Global Guide
Today’s demagogues are the harbingers of a new, 21st-century form of despotism: a corrupt ‘phantom democracy’ in which periodic elections are held, but the rich become super-rich and all-powerful – while most of the population is in the grip of feelings of powerlessness.
By John Keane, professor of politics at the University of Sydney, Australia, and author of several books on despotism.
AI will also be on the ballot on November 5
The 2024 elections will decide whether America takes the lead or retreats from its crucial role in ensuring that artificial intelligence develops in accordance with democratic values.
By Ali Nouri, lecturer at Princeton University and former deputy assistant to President Biden.
Project 2025: The right-wing conspiracy to torpedo global climate action
STOP PROJECT 2025 Rally across from the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, on January 27, 2024. (Photo by Elvert Barnes Photography/Flickr)
The GOP is threatening to weaponize a potential second Trump term against any domestic climate action. But what happens in the United States doesn’t stay in the United States.
By Michael E. Mann, director of the Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania.
Trump has a strategic plan for the country: prepare for nuclear war
If Trump’s policy agenda — Project 2025 — is elected, the United States would enter a costly, dangerous and destabilizing nuclear confrontation not seen since the darkest days of the Cold War.
By Joe Cirincione, a former nuclear policy analyst.
Trump says he would disband the pandemic preparedness agency – again
Donald Trump claimed he would disband the White House office charged with preventing and responding to pandemics. It’s not the first time.
By Erik English, associate multimedia editor at the Bulletin.
If you have more reading time between now and November 5, 2024, you might also want to check out all the stories in the September issue from our bimonthly magazine ‘How to protect elections and democracy in a crucial political year’. The issue offers ten articles of election information you won’t find anywhere else, or that you won’t find presented in the existential threat framework that the Bulletin specializes in, and that other media outlets tend to downplay. Even more ambitious voter readers might want to take a look at this collection pagewhich acts as an archive for all our 2024 election stories.
Finally it is one satirical piece which are not in the Bulletin but I suspect it will make you laugh, even in these last tense days before Tuesday’s presidential election. Depending on your political leanings, you may laugh heartily, sadly, bitterly, or even angrily, but I predict you will. Enjoy Election Day, and all the other benefits and obligations that democracy brings. Long may it last, in the United States and around the world.