Why I was so eager to vote for Biden…was not because I thought Biden was perfect

I saw a conversation yesterday between a person who sees the horror of the trump era and someone who refuses to do so. The response from the trumper was “you must think that Biden is great” or words to that effect. I think Biden is a nice older gentleman who is basically a middle of the roader. I am far from being a middle of the roader. I am definitely a person that is more strongly for change than that.

Now, first of all, let me say that I am constitutionally a Democrat…a liberal Democrat at that; in other words, I was never for the old southern democratic extremists like George Wallace. And Biden was not my preferred candidate. In 2016, my favorite candidate was Bernie Sanders. In 2020, my favorite candidates, in this order, were Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Yang.

Why those three? Well, Elizabeth and Bernie were firmly in favor of less income inequality. For entirely too long, in this country, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. While I have benefitted from being a part of a fairly powerful union during most of my career, not everybody has had that advantage. When the top of the ladder gets enough money in a day to buy and sell the rest of the nation, it is a national disgrace.

That is especially true in a nation that gives more and more tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations (artificial constructs for the purposes of making money for the already rich). The theory so often given is that doing so will allow money to “trickle-down” to the workers and everybody will be lifted up. Well, that is not how it has ever worked. Every time the top gets more breaks, they turn around and invest in things that allow them to keep more money and payout via machines of automation and therefore downsizing.

That is why the third person entered that list, Mr. Yang. He had a new idea about how our economic system should be set up. Under his idea, there would be a basic income. Then, if there was more money needed by the individual involved, there was work but also “social credit”. Social Credit as Yang sees it is basically a barter system where I tutor someone and then they hammer some nails that I need in a bookcase or something of that nature.

The reason Yang was not further up the list of my three favorites was that I wasn't sure how the program would be implemented and it seemed complex. In addition, Yang seemed like a one-horse wagon. The very interesting proposal about economic reform and change was his only real claim to fame that I remember hearing about. Elizabeth and Bernie had more comprehensive programs.

Biden was not my first choice as you can tell from reading. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t like Biden, but saw him pretty much as a continuation of “the normal”. As I have said, I am wanting to see change. I don’t think Biden will do much more than return us to the days of Clinton and Obama. While Obama was in office when finally, and long over-due, marriage equality was finally agreed upon by the Supreme Court, with Obama approving, there was still not enough movement on economic fairness or for that matter, civic and human rights equality.

So, why was I so eager to vote for Biden that I was willing to go out, in a crowd although wearing a mask, in order to make sure my vote for him counted? Now if the republican had been Jed Bush or John Kasich, I might not have been so very eager, although I would still have voted for Biden. The difference is that the Republican wasn’t either of those, but trump. Yes, my eagerness to vote was not so much to get Biden as to try and get rid of trump.

And why is that, some might ask? Well, because trump has tried to destroy American values. He has coddled and sided with racists and homophobes. He has attacked anybody and everybody. He sided with Putin against our own intelligence community. He is not, after losing the election, trying again to undermine Americans' trust in the voting process with every fiber of his being. As my friend Amod has said, if somehow trump manages to retain power (by finding a way to steal the election) or manages to get re-elected in 2024, then our nation deserves exactly what will then happen…our total fall into being a third world dictatorship. Amod didn’t say all of that but that we would deserve what happened to us but that is what I have seen coming from this man since 2015 when he demonized 2 demographics to rile up his supporters.

So, NO, I don’t think Biden is perfect, but he, like Hillary, would have to be a hell of a lot better than a sider with the KKK and the Nazi’s which is what trump has been, as well as a destroyer of political norms and decency.