One More Dad Lesson
So one of the lessons my father taught me over the years was not to be overwhelmed by decisions. He had a system, a process that would help him decide what he should do. It wasn’t a complicated procedure, just a legal pad and a pencil. He would make two lists, one the “pro” list and one the “con” list. At the end of making each list, you would look over the whole pad, and often it would lead you to a conclusion.
When he first showed this system to me, I objected that it didn’t have “heart”. I felt that there was an emotional component to decision-making that ultimately had to be taken into consideration. But Dad knew something I didn’t, that emotion colored the list, and more importantly, colored the strength of each of the factors on the list. It was part of the process, and in the end, whatever conclusion you came to, it was usually right emotionally as well as intellectually.
So here’s my list of who to vote for President. If you’ve read Trump World very often, I’m sure you won’t be surprised by the conclusions. But perhaps it will help you reach some conclusions yourself, particularly if you are somehow on the fence in this incredibly polarized political world.
Since I can’t put a legal pad in essay form, instead I’m going to do an issues list. My comparison will be between Joe Biden, the Democrat, and Donald Trump, the Republican. I will not be including third party candidates. They don’t have a chance to win the Presidency, and I don’t believe this is an election to “honorably lose”. And I don’t agree with most third party candidates’ positions anyway.
Old White Men
So let’s start with “the elephant” in the room. Joe Biden is an old, white man. He’ll be seventy-eight if he’s inaugurated in January, the oldest man to begin the Presidency. Donald Trump is also an old, white man, but slightly younger at 74.
And Joe Biden has a lifelong habit of saying “the wrong thing”. Some of that can be attributed to his stuttering disability. But some are “traditional” Biden screw-ups. His latest was that “Trump was the first racist elected President”. While there is little argument that Trump is a racist, there also is little argument that so were several other Presidents, including some chosen in the modern era. Woodrow Wilson comes to mind. I don’t attribute that to Biden’s old age – he’s been flubbing lines like that for his entire political career. Remember the open-mike moment – “Barack, it’s a big f—king deal”?
Donald Trump has said some pretty crazy things too. He talked about using light and disinfectant to cure folks of COVID-19, and he’s seems to have trouble walking and holding bottles of water. And of course, he wished an accused sex trafficker “well” as she sits in a prison cell. You could attribute that to old age, or the onset of dementia. But the reality is, that neither Trump nor Biden are “perfect” candidates. They are both old, white men, perhaps not as sharp as they were in the 1990’s. So let’s call this a draw. Either way, in 2021 an old white man who might be shakier than we’d like is going to be inaugurated as President.
Polarize
Donald Trump is a polarizer, the “Divider in Chief”. He began his political career by gliding down the “Golden Escalator” and talking about Mexicans as rapists and criminals (and some – some are good people). I’m a Liberal Democrat and Joe Biden is more moderate than I would like. But he has made a career of reaching across the aisle, of working with both sides to reach compromises and further government.
We’ve had three and a half years of division, so much so, that some of my more extreme conservative friends are talking about civil war if Biden wins. That didn’t start because of Donald Trump, or even Mitch McConnell. And it certainly didn’t start with Joe Biden or Barack Obama. Actually, it began in the late 1980’s with campaigns run by Lee Atwater. And before anyone screams bloody murder, I know there are Democrats who were divisive too. Certainly Hillary’s “basket of deplorables” didn’t do anyone much good four years ago.
But here we are, in the present. Our “binary choice” (is that a computer language?) is “Trump the Divider”, or “Biden the Uniter”. Seems to me we’ve had plenty of division. It’s time to heal, and if there’s anyone who would make a terrific “Healer in Chief” it’s Joe Biden.
Socialists
And what about the “S” word – socialism. The far progressive wing of the Democratic Party isn’t far from socialist, though I’m not sure that it’s a bad thing either. But it really doesn’t matter, because Biden ain’t no socialist. He is a middle-of-the-road, moderate Democrat. He’s a capitalist who believes government can make things better, and can help the working class and the poor. Trump believes that government needs to let everyone fight it out among themselves, except for the rich, who clearly need more tax breaks.
And speaking of helping, what’s happening with health insurance? Donald Trump has now had three and a half years, two of them with a fully Republican Congress. His main mission, to remove the Affordable Care Act, failed. Meanwhile, there isn’t a Republican plan for health care. They haven’t proposed anything (though didn’t he say there would be one in two weeks, about three weeks ago?) The Trump Administration is still in Court to try to stop the Affordable Care Act, in the middle of a pandemic.
Biden obviously likes the Affordable Care Act, and wants to expand upon it. He would like to add a public option to the plan, and do more to control costs, particular prescription drug costs. We know what he’s already done as Vice President to get good health insurance to more people, so he has a track record.
Science
I am sixty-three years old. I grew up in the shadow of nuclear destruction. We hid under desks during the Cuban missile crisis, and the joke, “Moscow in flames, bombs on the way, film at eleven,” really wasn’t all that funny. But we survived that era. Now we are in an era of climate extremes that science says is caused by humans. The summers aren’t the hottest, but they are very hot. The storms aren’t the worst, but they are all bad. The tides are getting higher, and the ice is melting.
The Trump Administration has made it national policy to roll back environmental protections. In one of the few areas where Trump had success, we have sold out the environment for short-term economic gains. It’s at the heart of Trump’s success on Wall Street. Joe Biden is committed to the long-term improvement of the climate, and reducing the world’s impact. Biden is following science, Trump is ignoring it.
Competence
Twenty years from now those choices will have a big impact. But ignoring science is costing us, right now. We don’t need to worry about nuclear destruction; we need to worry about, viral infection. Today the United States will pass over 150,000 deaths from the COVID-19 virus. Near 4.5 million are infected.
President Trump ignored science for short-term economic gains. We are paying the price, literally in blood. Joe Biden has put forward plan after plan to deal with COVID, plans that would lead America to reduced infection and death, and long-term economic improvements. He is listening to science.
Trump is incompetent. Biden is competent. That’s the bottom line on the checklist. And while there are all sorts of things that I’d like to see in a President that Joe Biden doesn’t have, the minimal requirement has to be that: competence.
So that’s why I’m voting for Joe.
