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Writer's pictureDonald V. Watkins

Independent Voters Should Choose Biden/Harris

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on October 4, 2020


The time has arrived to make a recommendation to independent voters regarding the best of the bad options for President of the United States. My recommendation is free of campaign spin from the major political parties. Likewise, my endorsement cannot be bought by anyone.

Both presidential candidates – Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden – are severely flawed. Yet, these two men are our realistic choices to win the presidency in a deeply divided nation

Donald J. Trump

For nearly four years, Donald J. Trump has turned the White House into a non-stop TV reality show. He has also fed Americans a steady stream of drama and insults. His supporters love him, while his detractors hate him. He is former Alabama governor George C. Wallace on steroids.

Trump has been a fantastic president for the “1 Percenters” – Wall Street corporations, giant banks like Wells Fargo, and super-wealthy Americans. He gave the “1 Percenters” a massive tax break without requiring them to reinvest in jobs for American workers. Trump lavished $1.5 trillion dollars in CARES Act money upon them. He caused the Federal Reserve to award them another $6 trillion dollars. Meanwhile, ordinary American workers/taxpayers shared in a mere $250 billion in CARES Act money.

Companies like Boeing got bailed out this year for manufacturing a fatally flawed 737 MAX airplane, even though the jetliner’s engineering design flaw had nothing to do with the coronavirus. What is more, large Wall Street corporations raided $350 billion in CARES Act stimulus money that was earmarked for legitimate small businesses. This money was stolen in less than two weeks. Like the Wells Fargo massive fraud scheme involving 2 million fake bank accounts, no one was prosecuted for fraudulently obtaining CARES Act small business stimulus money.

The stock market is booming, again. The “1 Percenter’s” wealth is secured amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, “Main Street” is existing in a depression, based upon joblessness and income inequality.

Only 42% of the American jobs lost to COVID-19 have been recovered. The outsourcing of American jobs to China, India, Thailand, Mexico, Canada, and the Philippines continues unabated. The new jobs created since June are mostly low paying service worker jobs.

Home foreclosures and apartment evictions are surging as the COVID-19-related moratorium on foreclosures and evictions ended July 31, 2020. This problem only adversely impacts the “99 Percenters”.

The “99 Percenters” are worse off today than they were four years ago. The wealth gap between the “1 Percenters” and the “99 Percenters” has doubled in the past four years. America’s middle class is shrinking at the fastest rate in this country’s history.

Joe Biden

Joe Biden has been a political fixture in Washington for 47 years. He was Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years. Biden is a nice guy, which is his problem. He’s too nice. His bark is tougher than his bite.

Biden secured his party’s nomination because he had been fiercely loyal to Obama. He was the sentimental favorite of black Democratic voters during the primary elections because of his loyalty to Obama. Biden’s resurrection from the politically dead on Super Tuesday was likened to Lazarus’s resurrection from the dead in the Bible

When it comes to pocketbook issues, Biden is clearly aligned with the “99 Percenters”. He would also fight to protect the healthcare benefits that 20 million Americans enjoy under Obamacare.

Biden would make sure the “1 Percenters” are taxed fairly. He would also reign-in the massive national debt, which now exceeds the nation’s total gross domestic product (GDP).

Biden would end federal subsidies to Wall Street corporations and giant banks. Obama did not do it, but Biden says he will take the government’s financial nipple out of their greedy mouths.

My problem with Biden lies in the fact that he may be entering the early stages of senility. At best, Biden is a one-term president. In all likelihood, Biden may not make it far into his term as president, as his condition appears to getting progressively worse.

Pence/Harris


With two greatly flawed presidential nominees, I was forced to examine the vice presidential candidates in deciding on an endorsement.

Mike Pence is Donald Trump’s vice president. In nearly four years in office, Pence has failed to distinguish himself on any substantial front. He is little more than a cheerleader for Trump, and he is not a good one. Trump placed Pence in charge of the White House’s Coronavirus Response Team, where Pence did a horrible job. Eventually, Trump had to re-assert control over the COVID-19 Response Team to prevent it from becoming a joke.

Washington insiders have questioned Pence’s role in the 2018 attempt to declare Trump “unfit” as president under the 25th Amendment. This attempt was described by “Anonymous” in his September 5, 2018 New York Times Op-Ed article. Pence had active, direct and very discreet communications with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions about invoking the disability clause in the 25th Amendment. We also know which staffer facilitated the clandestine back channel message exchange between Pence and Sessions.

Trump may trust Pence for now but I do not. I place a premium on loyalty.

___

Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate. Harris is a former San Francisco district attorney, former California attorney general and current U.S. Senator. She is the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother. Harris is married to a successful businessman, who happens to be white. She is super-smart, tough on crime, and sensitive to the financial struggles of “Main Street”. Without a doubt, Harris is smarter and tougher than Donald Trump, Mike Pence and Joe Biden, combined.

Solely because Harris is a person of color and a woman, millions of voters will dismiss her as an asset for Biden in this race. Many small-minded voters will hold these factors against Harris.

Harris’ presence on the Democratic presidential ticket makes it viable and attractive. At some point, if Biden is elected, Harris will likely assume the presidency. At least Independent voters know this likely scenario on the front-end. Pence’s attempt to seize the presidency from Trump was clandestine, and he has been successful in maintaining plausible deniability regarding his role in the attempted coup d’etat.

Even though Harris hails from California, she has a proven track record as a fiscal conservative and social moderate. She is also a bridge-builder in her personal and professional life.

Recommendation

The best of the bad options for the presidency is the Biden/Harris ticket. If race and male privilege were not realistic factors in this year’s election, Kamala Harris’s presence on the Democratic ticket would propel Biden to an easy victory.

If he wins, Joe Biden’s legacy in American politics will be his decision to elevate a woman of color to the presidency. America can be made great again, but NOT by going backwards on racial matters. If the little girl who rode the school bus to desegregate her elementary school in Oakland, California makes it all of the way to the White House, then America will be greater than she has ever been. Joe Biden’s election to the presidency is the last toll booth along the road to this historic event.

For these reasons, I recommend that independent voters cast their ballots for the Biden/Harris ticket.



PHOTO: Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden and Vice-Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris

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Walter Lewis
Walter Lewis
08 ott 2020

Great analysis! Thank you!

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