When certain concerns were raised by a peer when I asked "What of Trumps policies are so inherently terrible that many feel no other viable option but to vote for Biden, where Biden would not be equally awful?"
These are my answers to each of their concerns, whether it be overturning Roe v Wade, the EPA, Immigration and rights of marginalized groups of people, voting, freedom of press at risk, gun rights and regulations, etc.
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"For starters, I'm pro-choice. There will be one, maybe two SCOTUS judges appointed to lifetime seats on the bench by the next POTUS. If it's Trump, those judges will be selected based explicitly on the understanding that they will strike down Roe v. Wade when the opportunity arises. If it's Biden, we may be able to secure women's right to dictate what they do with their own bodies for another generation."
I too, am pro-choice, on everything, for everyone regarding their bodies. The government should never have acquired the power to make these decisions for constituents in the first place.
June 29, 2020, “While the ruling does not signal that abortion is safe at the Supreme Court, it’s a message that anti-abortion advocates cannot simply expect the Court to reverse abortion rights just because conservative justices now dominate the bench.” Moreover “Although Trump’s appointments have shifted the Court in many significant ways, this case is a sign that the institution cannot be rapidly transformed to meet the political needs of the current administration.” And also ““We can’t just assume that because we have a conservative majority, the right will always win.”” (The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/supreme-court-abortion-trump/613642/)
It is not legally possible to actually overturn Roe v. Wade and IMO has become a major scare tactic of the DNC to keep voters in Stockholm Syndrome. This is also, on Trumps side of his campaign, a form of gaslighting his own supporters into continuing to fight for him based on their religious ideologies. This will never hold up in court, and will always be found unconstitutional. We need to stop worrying about this. It will not happen. Presidents are notorious for empty promises. Alternatively, the Democrats and Joe Biden will continue to slash away at rights for people to make their own medical choices, as we're already seeing through the vehicle that is the Coronavirus pandemic. Charlie Baker just made it mandatory for the seasonal flu vaccine to be mandatory for all students uneless they can acquire medical or religious exemptions. The CDC already has a stronghold on doctors and many are constantly living in fear of having their licenses revoked for providing medical exemptions, even in cases where patients had already once gone to court from being injured by a vaccine in their history. It baffles me that people on the left scream loud and clear about “What about abortion?” when that right has been secured by Roe v Wade and deemed constitutional, but are silent when it comes to the right to choose for vaccination. Making the flu vaccine mandatory on any account is a huge disservice to giving people the right to choose when it comes to their health, their bodies, and their wellbeing. Making a vaccine for a mutational virus, with a 5% effective rate is wrong on so many levels. Informed consent is paramount and the potential Biden administration will lead to monopolizing government power over healthcare and continuing to slash these rights. “The right to choose” needs to be applied to ALL bodies, ALL the time. Therefore, I believe that electing Biden will be more dangerous for our “right to choose” especially as they pave the way for making a DNA altering, void of proper testing, COVID vaccine mandatory. Which is more dangerous to the most people?
"I also believe the 99.9% of scientists who agree that climate change is real and caused by humans. I am against the rollback of EPA regulations that allows companies to destroy our environment—regulations that in some cases even the companies themselves are against rollbacks on. Biden, though it doesn't appear he will go far enough, will move us in the right direction on climate and environmental policy."
This is a whole other beast. The answer is to stop government and corporations from obtaining the power to make these decisions which harm our environment in the first place. Vox has a very thorough article (https://www.vox.com/2019/5/28/18634602/joe-biden-2020-climate-change-announcement) about Biden's history in climate change activism and even during his time in the White House alongside Obama, their talk was big, but actions were not. “In 2015, he said that fighting climate change was “the single most important thing” he and Obama could do in the White House. Ahead of the United Nations meeting to finalize the Paris climate agreement in 2015, Biden gave several speeches highlighting US progress in fighting climate change and calling for more aggressive action.
But during the same time, the Obama administration did little to thwart the growth of fossil fuels in the United States. Obama presided over the largest expansion of natural gas production in US history, lifted the 40-year-old crude oil export ban, licensed liquefied natural gas export terminals, and openly boasted about low gas prices. “
I often wonder, what is preventing clean energy? People are putting solar panels on their houses at all time highs, Elon Musk's vehicles are becoming more popular and will become more accessible as the market grows, but what is stopping this progress when we have the technology? Big government bureaucrats and lobbyists in energy industries. For example, national grid provides a “discounted rate” for electricity if you spend thousands on their solar panels, providing you a “pay over time” reduction on your rate, as you pay for the panels. Once they're paid off, you still have to pay an electric bill, why? They're exploiting consumers by using their houses to collect solar energy and feeding it back into the grid. Say you want to take your newly paid off 20 year old solar panels and directly power your home, you go to jail. It's illegal, because big energy companies like National Grid have lobbyists and a monopoly on the market. Bring solar panels to the free market, and let people produce their own power. Now talking about vehicles and fossil fuels, what is actually going to solve that problem? Not the Green New Deal, not by a long shot. They don't even have a clue how to budget such an overhaul and it would be the most expensive feat in our American history, and not for nothing we're already 26 Trillion in debt and counting, we do not have the funds, we do not have the means. It is a sad truth from the government needlessly spending our money friviously over the last 100 years. As much as I support the IDEA I have yet to see any evidence of how it will work without completely crippling us in the process. Look at Flint, Michigan. The government often hurts whom they're trying to help. When the water crisis emerged the EPA failed to act, despite residents and the NRDC petitioning for action. In the biggest water crisis in our history, the Agency directly responsible did nothing. It wasn't until November the NEXT YEAR (2016) when courts ruled bottle water become available to all residents. If the Government and the EPA can't even take action in one city, what basis do we think they can handle a complete reconstruction without destroying everything in the process? All that aside, Trump wants to dissolve the EPA and bring regulations down to the State level to decide, which will become a nightmare for companies that are located in multiple states across the country, who are currently under compliance of EPA procedures. That being said, companies that fall under this category would end up being subject to a wide spectrum of varying regulations and it will become a nightmare to manage in compliance departments. The way the EPA currently interferes with this creates a baseline for regulations to keep things more streamlined, allowing states to add additional restrictions as needed. Businesses will not allow for this to dissolve, they will use their power to uphold EPA funding because it makes it easier to run their businesses, so honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Trump says a lot of things. Presidents say a lot of things. They have so much less power than we attribute to them.
"I believe that everyone should be able to vote. I believe this is the most critical part of our democracy. Data overwhelmingly shows that when more people vote, the results skew in favor of democrats. As a result, it has become the GOP policy to suppress the vote. Any policy that makes it harder for people to vote is, in my opinion, un-Constitutional and un-American."
I agree with you, and sure Trump is attempting to block mail in voting by threatening the USPS, but Democrats are also fighting tooth and nail to discourage people from voting with whom aligns with their convictions, continuing voter suppression. Anyone whom supports the duopoly, is encouraging voter suppression. Anyone whom tells anyone their vote is a “waste” is encouraging voter suppression. Our democracy was not designed to “pick which of the two evils you think will win and hurt Americans less” but to give a voice to the individual and allow them to represent their views through whichever candidate they think will represent their voice, and Biden nor Trump represent my voice, and they can not scare me into voting for either.
"I believe in the Freedom of the Press. An Independent Press is one of the most critical elements to the survival of a democracy. A POTUS who actively works to undermine the free press (however biased you or I may think they are), is one who is attempting to silence criticism—and it is the first step of every dictator in the history of human civilization."
This goes both ways, both parties suppress free speech and the press. The left is censoring at record highs, and Democrat Governors left and right are saying who can and who cannot protest, who can and cannot assemble, who can and who cannot exercise their rights, solely based on what the subject is. It's bullshit, and neither party are supporting freedom of the press, so voting Biden isn't going to correct that.
"As a gun owner, I believe in common-sense gun laws. We license people to drive. We restrict people from owning tanks or other high-power artillery. It's not unreasonable to want universal background checks and to close loopholes on private gun sales. 2A is part of the Constitution, and I support it—but it was also written at a time when guns were single shot muzzle-loading rifles, and the idea that we can pick and choose which areas of the Constitution that we consider in the context of modern times and those we don't is one that is being sold to us by lobbyists to protect highly specified and incredibly convenient interpretations of Constitutional language."
I am in the process of obtaining my own firearms and I primarily agree with you, I do not see any harm in doing background checks, provided they are not discretionary based on who is doing them. That being said there are many issues with the ATF and the NRA and they are NOT keeping the average gun owners best interests in mind. We need to abolish the ATF, and stop propagating fear over firearms and start making them more approachable, and accessible, and available. The Left does nothing to help minorities with their second amendment rights, and will continue to discriminate. I do not see Biden and Kamala Harris doing anything to help minorities, they collectively both wrote , enforced, and put these people into jail, giving them nonviolent criminal records in which they are now unable to obtain firearms under these regulations. This is just another reason to vote for a 3rd party candidate such as Jo Jorgensen who will not only repeal unjust laws, expunge records, and end the ATF, while also encouraging removing the stigmas of gun ownership and getting more Americans trained and armed appropriately.
"I support LGBTQ+ people, people of all races, religions, and ethnicities, and so I do not support the xenophobic policies enacted by the Trump administration to marginalize non-white, non-Christian, non cis/straight Americans. There are many areas where he's rolled back rights for groups of people based on who they are or what they believe in. Or for the sole crime of wanting a better life. Just as an example, I don't think taking a punitive approach to immigration is in keeping with American values. People seeking asylum, fleeing violence and oppression, should be given a home here. People who were brought here as children through no choice of their own should not spend every waking hour wondering if they're going to be sent "back" to some country they've never known, where they don't know anyone, and/or could face violent retribution if they are sent there."
I agree, America was found on immigration and we need to reform immigration policies to make it easier to become a citizen, allow these people to vote, and not face criminal charges just for existing beyond a border. Joe Biden helped build the exact system in Trump's hands to deport immigrants, detain them, and make them criminal. Moreover, when Obama was in office he requested nearly $500 million and sent over 1200 additional troops to the border after being asked for more federal resources to be present at the border (Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mexico-border/obama-sending-1200-troops-to-mexico-border-idUSTRE64O5RE20100525).
Biden also has a conflicting history on immigration policies. In the 80s he was admittedly pro immigration rights, but when the 90s came he pretty much flip flopped, becoming one of Janet Reno's biggest cheerleaders under the Clinton administration. In 1995 he also “voted for Bob Dole's Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), broadsiding Habeus Corpus” which “ the law for the first time put into action now-commonplace fast-track deportations and mandatory detention of immigrants convicted of even minor drug crimes, and it expanded the use of indefinite detention for some noncitizens.” (Jacobin Mag https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/04/joe-biden-anti-immigrant-deportation-policies) He also voted for the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). All of his actions in the Senate during the 90s did more irreparable damage to immigrants and laid the path for the exact problems we're facing today. He cannot be trusted to be accountable to take actions in reversing any of this, especially considering the actions more recently under the Obama Administration.
We need to reopen systems modeled after Ellis Island and make it easier for those who want to come here to do so, repeal the harsh immigration laws, provide amnesty, and release them from jail, instead of spending taxpayer dollars on ICE and detaining these people. We need to be in favor of candidates whom will help reduce the prison industrial complex, and Biden and Harris are NOT those people. Harris has singlehandedly put thousands of minorities in jail for weed. I don't see how they're a “better alternative” whatsoever.
"I do not believe in tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and large corporations. The concept of Trickle Down Economics has been pushed for decades and we have seen decades of evidence that it does not work. The economy is stimulated by consumers consuming, and they need cash for that. The wealthy and corporations take any surplus money and invest it, which removes it from the economy rather than acting to stimulate the economy. I do not think taxes are evil, I think we need to spend them in places that actually help the people who pay them for a change. I think policies of cutting funding for education are abhorrent, and counter-productive to growing a better nation and a better member of the world community."
I agree. What we need to do is cut taxes at the Federal level, preferably a flat tax, and close loopholes for businesses. People like Jeff Bezos pay themselves a small annual salary of $80k, drastically reducing his taxes. Most of Amazon's capital is tied up in stocks and bonds, where they cannot be taxed. Instead, the middle class gets slighted by every single tax increase that has ever existed, taking more of their salary, and putting it into government hands where they can spend it inefficiently. We need to cut taxes across the board, especially for the working class. Biden will not do that, he will raise taxes for all, broadening the wage gap. Taxes across the board, even at the state level, are bloated and spent in the wrong places. We need to cut federal spending, but we also need to cut the deficit. What can we do? How can we avoid businesses looking for tax cuts and loopholes? Flat tax. Even a small percentage of a massive corporation will go a long way, with no loopholes. A small percentage for the working class will keep more in our wallets, and allow us to put it back into our communities.
The hope the Democratic party sells is on borrowed time. They're even better at politics than the Republicans, and are capable of holding their tight grip on Americans looking for a better future and drum up empty promises. People are looking for compassion, they're looking for a better life, they're looking for a step in the right direction, but the Democratic party does everything to keep us right where we are. I have not seen any evidence suggesting otherwise. Our poorest urban communities have been in the hands of the Democrats for decades. They have the highest levels of poverty and crime in our country. They are absolutely not a “better option”, but more a set of rose colored glasses for the future of our children. They will continue to take and spend and line their own pockets, they will continue to slowly creep into our lives and strip us of our liberties, keeping us held hostage to their ruse of compassion, until there's nothing left. We're seeing it happen before our eyes, they're taking our rights away one by one under this International health crisis, destroying our economy, breaking our legs then giving us crutches that they paid for with money they stole from us, then blaming the other party. I'm fucking fed up and its not time to “vote the lesser of two evils” its time to stand the fuck up in unity and take our country back.
