Leubsdorf: Two distinct choices

Only one candidate pledges to maintain U.S. support for its overseas alliances.

Only one candidate promises to seek congressional approval of the bipartisan immigration bill and sign it into law.

Only one candidate promises to restore a woman’s right to make decisions about her own health.

Only one candidate promises to maintain the Affordable Care Act and expand the subsidies that enable many Americans to afford its coverage.

Only one candidate is proposing specific ways to expand homeownership, provide home care coverage for aging parents under Medicare, restore and expand the child tax credit and offer a means for challenging high food prices.

Only one candidate believes climate change is real, not a “hoax,” and promises a broad-based effort to combat it.

Only one candidate promises to restore and expand federal voting law protections.

That candidate is Harris.

On the other hand, only one candidate has made it clear the only election result he will accept is one in which he wins.

Only one candidate promises to make a deal with Putin to settle the fate of Ukraine.

Only one candidate raised doubts about keeping the 75-year-old U.S. commitment to support any NATO member that is attacked and said he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to any member country that doesn’t meet its defense commitments.

Only one candidate held up Hungary’s autocratic leader, Viktor Orban, as his leadership role model and said he exchanged “love letters” with North Korea’s brutal dictator, Kim Jong Un.

Only one candidate celebrated the court decision that rolled back a woman’s right to make decisions about her own health.

Only one candidate is a convicted felon who faces a possible jail term and additional federal and state charges for conspiring to obstruct the results of the 2020 election.

Only one candidate told members of their own party to kill a bipartisan Senate immigration bill so the issue could help him in the election campaign.

Only one candidate believes that climate change is a “hoax” and promises to expand the nation’s oil and gas production and curb environmental rules including government efforts encouraging electric vehicle purchases.

Only one candidate claims expanded social programs like child care can be financed by massive tariffs on imports that economists say would amount to a $4,000 annual tax on American households.

Only one candidate promises to replace the Affordable Care Act but says only he has the “concept of a plan.”

Only one candidate promises to reclassify thousands of non-political federal workers so they can be replaced by White House loyalists.

Only one candidate promises to be a Dictator on Day One so he can “close the border” and “drill, drill, drill.”

Only one candidate is pledging to make the Justice Department an arm of the White House, clean house at the FBI and the CIA and name a special prosecutor to investigate “the Biden crime family.”

That candidate is Trump.

For some voters, personal concerns will outweigh these broader domestic and international issues: For Arab and Jewish Americans, the Middle East and Israel’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah; for some auto workers, concern over the transition to electric cars; for Hispanics, the impact of immigration laws.

But the candidates’ positions on the broad array of issues facing the country show Americans are choosing between two very different courses.