Where I stand on Biden/Trump
I am an independent, politically. I lean left on social issues and right on fiscal issues. I believe that the best arguments from "all sides" need to be addressed for us to have the best policies. I believe that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is the reason that we put the people in charge, so that we can kick out politicians when they get so comfortable with their power that they start serving their cronies instead of we the people.
I was NOT stoked when Biden got elected the first time. He was already too old for my taste, and very much a career politician. I wasn't stoked about Kamala either, though I'm glad to see our society putting women in positions of power. But what happened during their first term was generally good. The MAGA media machine that paints them as evil is full of shit. They are not bad or wrong; they are doing the best they can to serve us, the people, by keeping our government functioning to provide services and stability and moderate the influence of big business on everything. Biden and Kamala did better than I expected.
In my view the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, is one of the most important federal agencies because it confronts monopolies and all business practices that are unfair to we the people. And under Biden and Harris the FTC has been doing great work. Big business doesn't like it, but too bad, because we still have at least a vestigial democracy and I hope it continues to be that.
I have sympathy for all the folks who are ready to TEAR IT DOWN so that we can build something new. Bannon is not completely wrong. I just don't want our systems destroyed in order to be replaced by an oligarchy. Rich people and big business have little incentive to take care of poor people or the environment, and it is the job of government to make sure that they do not shit on us all. As businesses gets bigger and the rich get richer, government has to get bigger to confront and manage the damage that unregulated capitalism does.
But more specifically about Biden and his doddering and mumbling: the Dems totally should have picked a younger, more vigorous candidate. Biden is suffering from what is called the Commitment heuristic, which is to say that he is sticking to his plan come hell of high water because he can't imagine quitting. He can't admit that his plan is bad, or change course, because his thinking is sclerosed, hardened, stiffened just like his joints and his arteries. It's a pathetic example of partisan politics taken to a brutal end.
I listen to Andrew Yang and probably 6 months ago he pointed out that polling showed that any "generic democrat" would easily beat Trump, but Biden would not. That was before the dismal debate. That was before the primaries. But the DNC screwed up and refused to allow true consideration of any of the excellent candidates. My personal favorite candidate for the Dems was Dean Phillips, 3 term congressman from Minnesota. There were plenty of good options but the DNC has Commitment heuristic on the brain, just like the dodderer in chief.
The Republican disaster is just that. It's unfathomable that what used to be a principled party has become a fan club for a sociopath. I was a fan of Ron Paul who was known as "Dr No" in congress because he voted against anything that wasn't specifically authorized by the constitution. In other words, he had principles, and he acted on them. These days even Republicans who seem to have a brain, like Nikki Haley, succumb to peer pressure from all the scoundrels who kiss Trump's ass. Power is corrupting, steadily. Anyone who wants power will kiss the ring. It's truly disgusting.
There's the additional problem that the MAGA scoundrels seem to have won over a lot of Christians who are otherwise good people. Dear Christians: this nation was founded by a bunch of people who shared your religion, but knew that religion needed to be kept out of politics because believing in things without evidence is not a good basis on which to create policy. We need to base policy on evidence, not belief. People can believe all kinds of nutty things.
So in case it isn't obvious already, I will vote against Trump and against MAGA candidates whenever possible. I will vote for Biden if he doesn't step down, and I will vote for whoever steps up to confront Trump if Biden does step down. And I think you should too. Because destroying our systems for the benefit of rich people and white Christian nationalists will be disastrous in the end. I'd hate to see the final nail go in the coffin of this experiment in democracy.
Instead we should rally, and I do mean the BIG WE of all the people in this nation, to update our systems so that political parties and politicians do not have so much power. We need ranked choice voting, open primaries, and updates to our constitution to guarantee that criminals like Trump cannot gain power or twist our rules to benefit themselves. Like my father says, Trump's motto is actually Make aMErica great again--all he cares about is himself, and he deserves nothing more than ignominy.