As a long time Florida
business attorney, I view myself like most Americans as socially progressive
but fiscally responsible. While I have
always voted, I have not felt that an upcoming election needed active
participation. That is until now. I believe that the election on November 3,
will determine the Soul of America for the foreseeable future.
In evaluating a
political candidate, I first look to their character. I then look to their history and
qualifications. Finally, I look to their stated positions. Based on these
considerations, I am writing with deep conviction in support of Joe Biden. He
is honest with deep personal integrity.
He has repeatedly demonstrated character. He has excellent experience both as Senator
and as an active Vice President. His policy views tend to be similar to
mine.
Donald Trump
does not appear to ever know truth from fiction. Cartoons have explained that
Trump won't wear a mask because his nose has grown too long from so many
lies. Unfortunately, this simple
perception dramatically understates the propensity for Trump to lie. His former Secretary of Defense General
Mathias confirms his propensity to lie. His former Chief of Staff, General John
Kelly acknowledges his propensity to lie. His former NSA Director John Bolton has written a detailed book on his lies.
His niece, a clinical psychologist has just released a book on Trumps’ “cheating
as a way of life” and his pathological tendency to lie. Twitter even begun to acknowledge that many
of his tweets are not true. Depending on
one’s sources, fact checkers have confirmed thousands of misstatements and
falsehoods. Fact checkers from the
Washington Post calculated that in the three years from inauguration to June 1,
2020 the total oral and twitter misstatements totaled over 19,000. This past weekend, he asserted that Covid-19
impacted only 1% of those that got sick.
Since there are 130,000 deaths based on 2.9 million cases, 4.5%% of
those infected have already died. Death is certainly
an impact.
His personal
history prior to election was not impressive. He filed business bankruptcies
six times. He had filed over 3500
lawsuits. For many years, his attorney
was Roy Cohn who had gained fame as the counsel to Joe McCarthy during McCarthy's years of attacking the patriotism of any that challenged him. Trump appears to have learned well from Roy Cohn.
A review of his
personal history confirm numerous questionable character traits. He acknowledges that it is okay to grab a
women’s vagina. He litigated extensively with the federal government over a refusal
to rent to minorities. He was also a defendant in many lawsuits including
federal actions for violation of fair housing laws, fraudulent practices with
Trump University and improper use of funds from charitable organizations under
his control.
Trump routinely
brags that his lack of experience in government is his greatest strength. The result of such inexperience is best demonstrated over his inability to deal or even
acknowledge the science behind the Covid-19 pandemic that has led to catastrophic
results for this country. With a little
over 4% of the world’s population the US has had well over 25% of the world’s
cases under his "leadership". He has repeatedly dismissed the need for wearing mask. In February he asserted that the then
known 15 cases would soon drop to 0.
Four months later, the US covid-19 cases total 2.9 million with 130,000
deaths. This is a 4.5% death rate and
growing.
Over the weekend of the 4th of July his only comment on the pandemic was to state that 99% of people that come down with it have few problems. This certainly ignores the 4.5 % death rate and the 20% hospitalization rate and numerous reported long term health impacts on those that do recover. These conditions can be directly tied to Trump's refusal to acknowledge the need for masks and social distancing. His attitude has caused millions of citizens to believe that there is no crisis and certainly no need for the inconvenience of wearing a mask or maintaining social distancing. His rallies in Tulsa, Phoenix and Mt Rushmore with supporters without masks or social distancing over the past several weeks demonstrate such dissonance by his hard core followers with undisputed medical science. As a result, the rate of the disease will only continue to increase to the peril of large segments of our community.
Similarly his defense of southern statutes of
confederate generals and of his opposition to NASCAR’s ban of the confederate
flag seem to simply confirm his personal racism and desire to play a race card in the election. Southern generals were traitors to the United
States. The only significance of their statutes is to
stand as a reminder that the South sought to destroy the Union in order to
preserve the slavery of other humans. NASCAR recognized the inherent adverse
symbolism of the confederate flag and banned it. Even the State of Mississippi this year
removed such reminder from its State Flag.
Only the President seems intent on preserving the symbols of southern
slavery and white supremacy.
Trump has not demonstrated the ability to unite or lead this country.
Rather he appears intent on sowing division and racial anger in the hope
that he can somehow garner a majority of Electoral College votes. Recognizing that the majority of Americans do
not support such actions, he has already begun to lay a framework to claim
fraudulent election results through mail voting.
These
observations would be more than sufficient to work to defeat Donald Trump. A review of his policies remove any further
doubt. His policies are structured to
create a society that:
- fears any people that may look or act different and thus limit immigration of any type;
- treats any kind of government protection as irresponsible socialism unless it is for corporate beneficiaries;
- considers reporters and the press as the enemy of the people and the generators of “fake news”;
- believes that science is simply someone’s opinion that can be ignored;
- believes in religious freedom only so long as it involves our Christian religion;
- accepts only what is consistent with one’s preconceptions;
- provides access to justice only if one has money and power;
- believes that education is a commodity that should be available to those who can pay the price;
- defines trouble makers by their skin tone and treats protests as riots that should be forcible squelched;
- believes that we must focus on America first to the exclusion of the rest of the world;
- believes honesty and integrity of our leaders is unnecessary and that we must assure that our party wins the fall election regardless of the consequences to our country;
- believes that it is good for America that the wealth of the top 1% increased from $8.4 trillion in 1989 to $29.5 trillion in 2018 while the wealth of the bottom 50% decreased from $.7 trillion to a negative $2 trillion during that same period;
- removes environmental protections developed over decades;
- A society built on welcoming and facilitating legal immigrants and people of all backgrounds;
- A society that believes in protecting the weak, the sick and the elderly;
- A society that believes in the importance of a free press in order to assure our own freedom;
- A society that believes in the integrity of science and make decisions based on scientific consensus;
- A society that believes in freedom of religion for all faiths;
- A society that can distinguish fact from fiction and truth from falsehoods;
- A society that believes in the rule of law and access to justice for all;
- A society that believes that education for all is a foundation for our future and that it needs improved funding;
- A society that recognizes existing racial disparity and work to expand efforts to end such disparity;
- A society that believes that being a citizen of the world makes us better citizens of America;
- A society that demands that our political leaders to demonstrate honesty and integrity;
- A society that believes that unless we work to address systemic racial and economic disparity, we may ultimately destroy the foundations of America’s middle class; and
- A society that restores common sense environmental protections.
Come November 3rd, 2020 vote for Common Sense and a society that makes America Proud. Vote for Joe Biden.
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