2020 election – Page 6 – * Failed Pols

As I write this, the world is still awaiting the results of the 2020 Presidential election. Even before the winner is called, and no matter whether it is Joe Biden (who at this moment looks promising) or Donald Trump, the overall results have been a little disturbing. It is genuinely surprising how much of the country wants Donald Trump to remain their president for four more years.

Many Americans (a lot of us thought it was most Americans) couldn’t wait for the opportunity to elect Joe Biden to replace Donald Trump and stop the national bleeding that has resulted from an administration defined by corruption, lies, divisiveness, recklessness, and gross mismanagement of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Record voter turnouts were encouraging. Lifelong Republicans in droves were declaring their intention to vote for Joe Biden, and even many prominent Republicans endorsed Biden.

Yet, on Election Night, the news networks’ Magic Walls and prediction maps lit up in red, one state after another, showing Donald Trump as the winner for those states. It’s always true that some states will vote predominantly red, while others vote predominantly blue; that’s democracy in action. During this, The Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes, then, why have so many people voted to keep a man in office who has shown a keen interest in eliminating as much of our democracy as possible?

Polls showed that the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic was a big factor in how Americans planned to vote. According to those polls, most Americans aren’t happy with how Donald Trump has managed the pandemic, and feel Joe Biden would do a better job of it. Though we can’t ignore that fact that millions of votes did reflect this, for an alarming number of other Americans, the over 224,000 deaths, the millions of positive cases, and the president’s reckless super-spreader rallies, weren’t a problem.

When Americans elected Donald Trump in 2016, it might have been understandable that they wanted a change from politics as usual, and saw that in Trump. They’d try him out, and if it didn’t work out, then, in four years, another president could be elected instead. It might have been excusable that some of them were desperate about their jobs or their futures, and saw hope in Donald Trump. Others believed his convenient claim of being “pro-life,” and that’s all that mattered to them. And some, we know, liked Trump’s message of racism and xenophobia disguised as “America First” and “Law and Order,” which made them, at last, feel safe to come out of the shadows and express their own racism and xenophobia. Many were in all three pro-Trump camps.

Desperation and hope are understandable. “But the economy” is perhaps a valid argument until we consider all of the integrity and decency that Trump voters have been willing to disregard and overlook for its sake. What’s more, it’s been four years, and many of those desperate people who voted for Trump are still waiting for “the economy” to work for them.

Donald Trump has shown who he is, and his loyalists have shown who they really are. The “let’s see what happens” approach to Trump as president has expired. We’ve seen what has happened: the division, the open corruption of the adminstration, the rollback of many Obama-era environmental protections, the rise (or at least the increased boldness) of white supremacists and right-wing militia groups, the death and tragedy from an unmanaged pandemic, the open racism and xenophobia, the stamp of approval on misogyny. After four years of all this, an alarming number of Americans have demonstrated that they have no problem with any of it.

Numerous high-ranking former military officers have condemned Trump’s misuse of the military to squelch freedoms and further his own political interests.

Following Trump’s stunt in June, 2020, where he used the military to break up a peaceful demonstration in response to the police killing of George Floyd, then posed in front of church with a Bible for a photo-op, Marine Corps General John Allen, former commander of US forces in Afghanistan under Obama, said, “Donald Trump isn’t religious, has no need of religion, and doesn’t care about the devout, except insofar as they serve his political needs…To even the casual observer, Monday was awful for the United States and its democracy. The president’s speech was calculated to project his abject and arbitrary power, but he failed to project any of the higher emotions or leadership desperately needed in every quarter of this nation during this dire moment.”

National security experts and former intelligence officials have warned that Trump is a threat to our national security in a variety of ways. Some of the ways Trump endangers the nation include his freewheeling granting of security clearance to others who may be national security threats; his cozying up to despotic strongmen such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping; and his replacement of experienced career diplomats in key global locations with inexperienced campaign donors. In addition, it was recently revealed that Trump has excessive financial debt to foreign countries.

David Kris, former head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division and founder of Culper Partners consulting firm, says, “For a person with access to U.S. classified information to be in massive financial debt is a counterintelligence risk because the debt-holder tends to have leverage over the person, and the leverage may be used to encourage actions, such as disclosure of information or influencing policy, that compromise U.S. national security.”

Perhaps most astonishing is the fact that even though Donald Trump has loudly signaled that he’d like to be a despotic ruler more than president of a democratic nation, the small-government, self-proclaimed rugged individualists who are his supporters are willing to enable him as he attains this career goal. They believed his threats of chaos, violence, loss of liberty, and even “socialism,” should he not get four more years in the White House, fearing for their democracy. Yet, they’re just fine with Trump’s claim of “absolute authority” as president, his attempts to silence the media, and his frequent abuses of office.

It’s true that Joe Biden has received more popular votes than any other candidate in American history, yet it’s dismaying how many Americans chose to cast their votes for Donald Trump. Whether it was in spite of who Trump is, or because of who he is, those voters have demonstrated clearly that they don’t have a problem with what Trump stands for, and how he treats other human beings.

If Joe Biden does become president, it will be a start toward ending the division in this country. The division, however, stems from something deeper than mere “political disagreement.” Friends and neighbors can agree to disagree. When it comes to human rights, treatment of others, and the safety of American lives, however, it is no longer a matter of political opinion, it is a matter of character. The 2020 Presidential Election revealed to us the disturbing fact that a large number of Americans align with the character of Donald Trump. Joe Biden, if elected to replace Donald Trump, has his work cut out for him. (P.S.: I believe he’s up to the task.)

How the world is reacting to the U.S. presidential election | CBS News
[2020-11-04]

Trump supporter leaves CNN anchor speechless | CNN [2016-10-10]

The holidays are going to be difficult this year. It’s tragically true that the coronavirus pandemic has hobbled large traditional gatherings, but the past four years have hobbled many relationships.

No matter who wins the 2020 presidential election, some healing must take place if we’re going to stop our country from continuing on its trajectory of falling to shreds.

Frankly, I don’t clearly see how that healing is going to happen. It certainly won’t be as simple reaching out clasping hands with our adversaries. It’s not easy to smile on your brother if that brother (or sister) has demonstrated, through their support of a president who promotes violence, bullying, racism, and the mistreatment of women, that he or she supports those things, too.

They believe what Trump says: that if Joe Biden becomes president, the country will plummet into chaos, violence, and (gasp) socialism. I have difficulty understanding or justifying that point of view, but it is a point of view, and those who hold it will have just as much difficulty walking arm-in-arm with those of us who see hope in a president Joe Biden.

I am not of the mindset that, deep down, “people are the same wherever you go,” or even that all Americans, in their own way, want what they think is best for the country. To me, it seems clear that people who are motivated by hatred or even by a disinterest in others’ well-being are not the same as those who are not motivated by those things. Nor, to me, do they appear to want what’s best for America.

I won’t for one second extend an olive branch to a white supremacist, or to anyone else who advocates violence or terrorism against fellow human beings for any reason. But there are those others who don’t march with the white supremacists, or wield AR-15s to threaten peaceful protesters, or agree with Trump’s comments about military service personnel being losers, yet who have revealed an alarming side of themselves in one way or another in the demonstration of their continued support of Donald Trump.

Even if they have not directly endangered our lives or threatened our personal safety, they have indirectly endangered some others’ lives by promoting and supporting Donald Trump and his rhetoric of racism, division, and a version of “law and order” that blames Black people and “blue states” for all of the crime and destruction taking place across the country, and advocates the use of violence and weaponry against them as their remedy.

Come to think of it, they have also indirectly threatened the lives and well-being of all Americans in their support of Trump’s efforts to end the Affordable Care Act (which impacts some of the rules for all insurance plans, including private ones). What’s more, those of them who choose to follow Trump’s example of dismissing the coronavirus, refusing to wear masks, and scoffing at social distancing guidelines during this pandemic are part of a group that has placed all of our lives in jeopardy.

Many of them are our neighbors with whom we used to be friendly, but who haven’t spoken to us since we put up the Black Lives Matter yard signs. They are our friends and acquaintances with whom we used to share a laugh, until they began posting absurd conspiracy theories on social media, with the caption, “Do your research,” or “thought you might find this interesting.” They are the people in our lives who are offended when a football player kneels during the National Anthem, but who see the Trump Campaign’s deliberate disinformation ads as “freedom of speech.”

And some of them are our family members whom we’ve always loved, but with whom we can no longer have a conversation that goes any deeper than the topic of the weather.

I have relatives who have not only questioned my judgment for supporting Joe Biden; they have also questioned my morality for doing so, as I am compelled to question theirs for not doing so. Before 2016, they saw patriotism as loyalty to country; now they’re unable to distinguish between loyalty to country and loyalty to Trump. One of them lived in a country for several years that lost its fight to Soviet Communism, and they all used to see the threat of thugs like Putin as a threat to our democracy. Now, they make excuses for Trump’s adoration and deference to the man who was a KGB officer in the Soviet Union.

Many of us have loved ones like this, who have joined the Cult of Trump, and some of them shocked us when they did. We’re disturbed by the revelations of what’s in their hearts, yet we love them, and we need them in our lives. We want things to be different, and they aren’t. They wish we were different, and we aren’t. “If only they’d just wake up and see the truth,” both sides say.

We talk about “healing” as a nation, but is it really possible? If Joe Biden is elected president, he can set about mending our damaged relationships with our global allies, but our global allies have already seen us as we are now, a nation whose divisiveness, nurtured under Trump, has hollowed out our foundation. With so much hate, fear, pain, and division among us, how can we be a strong, reliable ally in the world again, as we seek to undermine each other— those within our own borders?

We may never again hold hands around a campfire with everyone who used to be in our lives. We may need to do some mourning. Some of our relationships are never going to be the same as a result of this presidency and the divisiveness it has relied on for nourishment. We’re bereft.

Our hope lies in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to guide us toward healing; toward feeling safe again, or, for some, feeling safe for the first time. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, if elected, would finally lay to silence the endless bullhorn of malice that blares from the White House day and night. That, alone, would be a powerful healing force. Biden and Harris have already shown that their approach to leading this divided nation will be not, “we’re better,” but instead, “we can do better.”

It seems inconceivable that Donald Trump could win four more years in the White House, but it’s possible. And if that happens, our great hope will lie in our ability to continue to believe that some kind of healing is also still possible. And no great, wide healing of our country will be possible under any president unless we start small, doing what we can to repair the damage in our small portion of the larger foundation. I am glad that there are many people who are more optimistic than I am. I don’t know what healing will look like or how it will occur. I am sure, though, that no matter what, we must never stop saying to ourselves, and of ourselves, “We can do better.”

President Trump speaks on cars with Trump flags swarming Biden bus in Texas | The Hill [2020-11-02]

We Asked Trump Voters What Happens If He Loses | Insider News
[2020-11-02]

Tag: 2020 election

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