2020 Election

 I’ve had a few friends who are to my left, who seem disturbed by having Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the Democratic ticket. To be fair, neither one was my first or even second choice for the top or second spot on the ticket. I was an Elizabeth Warren supporter for the nomination and when she dropped out, I switched my support to Bernie Sanders. I suspect that some moderate and swing voters would have shunned their more progressive positions however, and neither one attracted much African-American support.

Biden did attract black support, even though earlier in his career, he was more closely aligned with quasi-segregationist views, and pushed laws that contributed to mass incarceration. He seems to have dialed that back and got kudos for being willing to be second banana to a black man as president. He has gotten a few more kudos by now choosing a black woman as his VP. Harris was pretty aggressive as a prosecutor, which resulted in more black men being jailed, but now pushes for criminal justice reform, including decriminalizing marijuana.

While Biden is not a true progressive, he is certainly liberal. As I recall, it was Biden who pushed Obama to support marriage equality. Trump has pushed to curtail LGBT rights and tried banning trans individuals from the military, along with supporting so called bathroom bills which banned trans from using bathrooms which matched their gender identity. The right wing had horror scenarios about trans women sexually assaulting cis women in bathrooms. The fact is more Republican legislators have sexually assaulted women than trans women have.

We have a number of foreign policy issues and the current administration has alienated many of our long time friends. Trump kowtows to Vladimir Putin, but I don't see that as gaining us anything of value. I know that Biden will begin to restore America's relations with most of its traditional allies. I am disturbed that Trump seems ready to rubber stamp Israeli annexation of much of the West Bank, where I am sure Biden will push back on that. Biden will also not suck up to Bibi, who Trump kisses up to all the time. 

Unlike Trump, I don't see Biden continuing to lock children up in filthy cages separated from their parents. Asylum seekers are not criminals and should not be treated as such. We don’t want open borders, but need a sane and sensible border policy that is not cruel or vindictive. I can’t imagine that Biden would continue the kinds of deportations of people that this administration has. Long term residents with no felony records should have a path to citizenship. Dreamers also need to be protected and given a path to citizenship.

Biden will reverse DeVos's horrid education policies and has expressed support for reduced costs for state colleges along with support for higher minimum wages. Under Trump, there has been an accelerated attempt to push people with student loans further into problems and even to try to collect on loans where the student was defrauded by the colleges they attended. There has also been a push under Trump to take money from public schools and give it to private schools.

The Supreme Court is another issue that must be considered. The GOP refused to even consider Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, instead allowing Trump to fill that spot. RBG is dealing with her third bout of cancer and I don't want her replaced by the likes of Kavanaugh. While John Roberts has proven to be somewhat independent from Trump, he still is pretty reliably right wing. I don’t want to see the court skewed hard to the right.

Trump crowed about trying to reverse the exodus of manufacturing from the United States. As to Trump's China policy, it has severely hurt American farmers without helping American manufacturing. He has also alienated the European Union, Canada, and others without adding any measurable number of manufacturing employment in the US. His tariffs have been a silent tax on American consumers, without appreciably helping American employers.

Trump has rolled back many environmental protections, allowing increased pollution of our air and water. He has pushed for increases to use of fossil fuels, even though clean energy is now price competitive with traditional energy. He has pulled us out of the Paris Accords on climate change, even though we continue to see increases in global warming. I have to believe Biden will reverse that.

I suppose I could go on at even greater length. I disapprove of nearly everything Trump is doing and has done. I hate his open corruption and his constant lying and trying to demonize anyone who opposes him. Sure, I'd rather see a true progressive in there, but that is not among our realistic choices. Biden and Harris are more progressive than any other choice that has any chance of success. As the old saying goes, half a loaf is better than none.