A Message for 2020 Voters
I get it. Hillary was a flawed candidate. There were lots of reasons not to like her. For many Republicans and conservatives, she was simply the wrong flavor of politics. For others, there were legitimate concerns about some of her policy objectives. Some of you were unsuspecting victims of misinformation created and promoted by a Russian group recently outed by the FBI as the Internet Research Agency and their cadre of internet trolls. Some of you even helped their efforts by disseminating the misinformation further with shares and re-tweets. Given all of that (and more), it is amazing that she still won the popular vote. Not that it mattered.
Then there was The Donald. He presented as a potentially good custodian for an economy that had experienced nearly 8 years of growth after the Great Recession. He didn’t actually provide any evidence, such as tax returns or financial statements that could corroborate his boasts of business acumen, but obviously he’d been somewhat successful because he said so and his name is on a lot of buildings. Besides, allegations and litigation suggesting that he had screwed subcontractors out of payment, discriminated against minorities, or cheated on his taxes are not necessarily disqualifiers when running for president. More importantly, he said all the things that traditional Republicans and his new “base” wanted to hear. Cut taxes, deregulation, repeal and replace Obamacare, build a wall… He sang his song and tweeted his tune and he was the chosen Republican candidate. What could go wrong?
One of the biggest issues for most elections, for both Republicans and Democrats, is the economy. During the first three years of the Trump administration, the trajectories of GDP and job growth changed very little from what they were during the Obama administration. That’s the good news. Then the Republicans jammed through excessive tax cuts, all the while rationalizing trickle-down growth when in fact the cuts did little to affect growth and resulted in trillion-dollar projected deficits for our country at a time when we had near full employment and a healthy economy. It is no surprise to me that “trickle-down economics” didn’t work because it almost never does, and the exploding national debt is in no way good for the long-term economic strength of our country.
If that isn’t enough for you to question his stewardship of the economy, there is also his misguided and ill-conceived trade war with China. I’ll admit that China has engaged in unfair business practices, including (but certainly not limited to) intellectual property theft and currency manipulation. But tit-for-tat tariffs and import restrictions were clearly not good strategies against the second largest economy on the planet. It seems the most notable outcome of the “war” thus far is a record number of farm bankruptcies in the United States.
There are other examples of policy missteps regarding the economy, but the proof is in the pudding. Second quarter 2020 GDP dropped by the largest amount ever, more than three times worse than the previous record drop, and we had double digit unemployment from April through July. (August unemployment rate was just reported to be 8.4% by CNBC.) Don’t be lulled into a false sense of Trump competency by economic improvements between now and the election. Fixing part of what you yourself broke is no cause for celebration or congratulations.
There are those who are attempting to refute these facts by pointing to the performance of the stock market or by suggesting that “it’s not his fault” because the damage to the economy was caused by a global pandemic. First of all, the stock market is not an accurate proxy for evaluating the economy. Currently we have a handful of big-name stocks that have performed exceptionally well so far this year while hundreds of other companies, representing more jobs and a larger share of GDP, continue to fare poorly. Furthermore, I believe that many companies are still benefitting from a smoke-and-mirror bump in share price related to the previously discussed tax cuts. The same tax cuts that I’ve suggested are bad for the overall economy because of their negative impact on the national debt.
Secondly, blaming the damage to the economy on the pandemic pre-supposes that you believe the facts about the pandemic. Trump downplayed the problem early on, has questioned the science often, has suggested that the numbers are exaggerated, and claims that he has done a great job handling the crisis. If he’s doing such a great job, then why has our economy suffered so badly? Much worse, by some measures, than most other developed nations battling the same pandemic. Why are nearly 22% of the covid deaths in the United States when we only account for about 4% of the global population? Covid or no covid, why were there around 200,000 more deaths in the United States during a 4-month period between April and July than historical norms?
So, which is it? Did he grossly mismanage the economy leading to a record setting drop in GDP, double digit unemployment, and multi trillion-dollar fiscal deficits? Or did he grossly mismanage a global pandemic after eliminating the White House pandemic preparedness team and throwing away their pandemic response playbook? No matter how I look at it, Trump has shit the bed and it’s time to change the sheets.
Lately it seems that Trump is trying to distract voters from the bad economy and the pandemic by suggesting that he is the “law and order” president. If that’s the case, then why is there so much lawlessness and disorder during his presidency? Not just riots and vandalism, but unprecedented law breaking within his inner circle. There has been a record number of indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions of persons associated with a sitting president and probably more to come. He himself was impeached by the House of Representatives. Also, his charitable foundation was court-ordered to dissolve in late 2019 because of gross mismanagement and illegal transactions. If he can’t keep his own house in order what makes anyone think he is equipped to address systemic problems of police brutality and excessive use of force or the anger and protests they create?
Do I think Biden will be a great president? Not necessarily, but he doesn’t need to be. What I expect is a more compassionate, significantly less corrupt, representative of democracy who can start reversing some of the damage done over the last 4 years. Some of you may be put off by his occasional inappropriate shoulder touching and hair sniffing, but I’ll take that over dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct, bragging about grabbing women by the genitals, and paying off a porn star for a dalliance that took place while his wife was pregnant.
Joe will not take away your guns, although I personally hope for a return of the Constitutionally legal assault weapon ban. Especially in the wake of mass shootings over the last few years (2017 Las Vegas, 2017 Sutherland Springs church, 2018 Parkland High School, 2019 El Paso Walmart, and so many more) plus last week’s incident in Kenosha Wisconsin.
I don’t expect him to balance the budget, but even fiscally conservative Republicans (yes, there are still some out there) know that we can’t continue to deficit spend at this pace. Taxes have to go up, but I believe Biden has pledged not to raise taxes on household incomes under $400,000. Hopefully this doesn’t turn out to be his version of George H. W. Bush’s “read my lips… no new taxes,” but if some of us in the middle class get hit for a few bucks, I won’t be holding it against him.
Healthcare? Trump and Republicans failed to repeal and replace Obamacare and there is nothing to suggest they would be any more successful during a second Trump administration. Obamacare admittedly has flaws and has from the beginning. My hope for a Biden administration would be passage of some of the legislative “fixes” that have been blocked by Republicans for the last 10 years. Who knows, maybe they even find a way to expand access to Medicare.
If, after all of this, you still feel compelled to vote for the Republican because you are a Republican or because you believe some of the misinformation or conspiracy theories propagated on the internet, please consider the following: No living Republicans who’ve previously held the office of the Presidency have endorsed Trump. (There is only one, but still…) Several former Republican governors, including Rick Snyder of Michigan and John Kasich of Ohio, have endorsed Biden. Other prominent members of the Republican party who endorse Biden are Colin Powell, Chuck Hagel (Nebraska), Jeff Flake (Arizona), and dozens more. The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group led by several high-profile Republicans, has endorsed Biden. Hundreds of administration officials from the Bush administration have formed a Super PAC called “43 Alumni for Biden.” More than 70 former national security officials from multiple Republican administrations (including the Trump administration) have endorsed Biden and have deemed Trump to be a threat to national security. This list goes on and on and seems to be growing by the week as we get closer to the election.
Please consider your 2020 vote very carefully. This isn’t a Republican vs. Democrat thing anymore. This is about stopping the damage to our country and saving our democracy.