War Games<\/em>, the only other choice was \u201cNot to play\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWe all know the outcome of that election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Covid<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Joe Biden was a failed Presidential candidate in 2008, but the perfect match to a relatively young and inexperienced Senator Barack Obama. After eight years as Vice President, 2016 should have been Biden\u2019s \u201cturn\u201d. The ultimate tragedy, the death of Biden\u2019s oldest son in 2015, made it emotionally impossible for the Vice President to run for the top office. With Hillary\u2019s loss, it looked like both Clinton\u2019s and Biden\u2019s political careers were over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But America had never experienced a President like Donald Trump. In 2020 to many; especially after the disaster of Covid response; Trump represented an existential threat to the American Democracy. For the same reasons that Biden was the perfect choice for Obama\u2019s Vice President; experience, stability, foreign policy expertise; Biden was the now the perfect choice against the \u201cbull in a China shop\u201d Trump. It was, again, a binary choice. And as the results show (the largest election vote ever), few chose \u201cNot to play\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s now 2024 (so fast, is this what happens when you get old??). There is a collective hole in America\u2019s memory, a hole we label simply as Covid. We don\u2019t remember what we did, what we missed, what we lost. There are folks that just disappeared. Even today, I hear, \u201cWhat happened to old so and so\u201d. We have little memory of their passing. When I look back, it\u2019s hard to remember the \u201ctoilet paper\u201d lines, the literal battles in the grocery store for the last can of \u201csomething\u201d (even here in Pataskala), the cheap gas because there was nowhere to go. Are we better today than we were four years ago? Of course \u2013 IF \u2013 we really remember what we were doing four years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spring Chickens<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
No one, really, no one, wants two octogenarians running for the Presidency of the United States. On energy, blood pressure, slurred words and stumbled stairs alone; Americans are rightly concerned. We thought Reagan was old, elected President at seventy. Looking back, he still wasn\u2019t a \u201cspring chicken\u201d, but definitely not a \u201cstewing hen\u201d either (until the Alzheimer\u2019s crept in). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it is what it is. We have a binary choice, again. To vote against \u201cold\u201d, you either have to throw your vote away on a seventy-year-old, worm-eaten (his words, not mine) Bobby Kennedy, or choose \u201cnot to play\u201d. But it\u2019s not just a binary choice between two (too?) old men. It\u2019s also a black and white choice on multiple issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Stop the Steal: a vote for Trump is a vote in favor of voter suppression. His Supreme Court is already eviscerating the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The six conservative Justices, led by the Chief John Roberts, somehow believe that discrimination is \u201cover\u201d in America. In our increasingly minority-majority nation, the notion of \u201cwhite power\u201d is real. Many states (including Ohio) are doing whatever they can to make voting harder, actions which impact lower economic and minority communities more. The whole point: maintain power, in the state legislatures and in the National government. As the Nation approaches the time when whites are no longer the majority (around 2040) the pressure of some to keep power will only grow greater. And who represents them best: Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abortion: a vote for Trump is a vote for banning abortion nationwide, regardless of the reason. It\u2019s really that simple. Trump can say whatever he wants right now, but the seminal \u201cdeal\u201d of his political career is his deal with the Christian-right, an agreement based mostly on ending the right of women to make their own choices for their own bodies. That agreement alone allows \u201cChristians\u201d to accept a morally bankrupt candidate as their \u201cimperfect vessel\u201d. It\u2019s not just three Supreme Court Justices (and young replacements for two if Trump is elected). It\u2019s all of the other \u201cwedge issues\u201d that come with it; LGBTQ rights and the whole other litany of alphabetical issues: DEI, CRT to name two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foreign Policy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine: a vote for Trump is a vote for Russian victory in Ukraine. It\u2019s not only about Trump\u2019s known affinity for Russia\u2019s dictator Vladimir Putin. Among other traits, Trump is known for getting \u201crevenge\u201d (\u201cI am your retribution\u201d). Ukraine\u2019s President Zelenskyy failed to \u201cplay ball\u201d with Trump against Biden in 2019; if Trump is elected his \u201cretribution\u201d will result in the Russian conquest of the nation. And what is the outcome of that? Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania all are on the block, with Poland right behind. Putin\u2019s appetite to rebuild the Soviet Union really has no bounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel and Palestine: a vote for Trump is a vote to suppress Palestinians. And that might sound \u201cOK\u201d, but it also means that Palestinians will use the only remaining outlet available to them, terrorism. It\u2019s how this all started in the first place, in the 1970\u2019s. The only solution is to somehow give Palestinians an opportunity to have their own nation, a real nation with real sovereignty (not the occupied West Bank). But getting Israel to do that will require political change in their government, and Trump is massively allied with the current regime. It\u2019s not a coincidence that Benjamin Netanyahu is Jared Kushner\u2019s godfather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retribution<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Democracy: Maya Angelou said it best, \u201cWhen someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time\u201d. Trump, and his notorious advisory staff, have made it clear what they will do on gaining office in 2025. It\u2019s what they wanted to do in 2017 with the first flurry of executive orders (remember the Muslim Ban?). They didn\u2019t understand how to get things done then, but they\u2019ve had eight years to get better at it. Once Bannon\u2019s pardoned, and with Steven Miller back in the saddle, the Justice Department will be the \u201cDepartment of Retribution\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure there are lots of good reasons to vote FOR Joe Biden. But in the end, it\u2019s a binary choice, one that\u2019s even made if you choose \u201cNot to play\u201d. In fact, that entire quote is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nBut, to be clear, not choosing is not a \u201cwinning move\u201d. It simply means abandoning personal responsibility to help govern America. And, if you don\u2019t care, you deserve what you get. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Not to Play We learned a new \u201cphrase\u201d in the 2016 election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The Republican Party spent decades making Clinton look bad (including seven million of taxpayer dollars on the multiple \u201cBenghazi\u201d hearings in the House of Representatives). And Donald Trump was the candidate of division from the moment he came down … Continue reading “Another Binary Choice”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAnother Binary Choice : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/05\/26\/another-binary-choice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Another Binary Choice : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not to Play We learned a new \u201cphrase\u201d in the 2016 election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. 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