Forgive me as I briefly wade into a little politics here, as perhaps the most important election of America’s experiment in democracy is barely six weeks away. But our country - and the world - cannot handle four more years of our current president’s malfeasance, lying, and burn-down-the-house approach to governing and his inability to compromise, cooperate, or value science and expertise.
You can choose any number of reasons for why our country and planet are at risk with a second term of this president; I’ll pick just three.
Environmental Degradation
The American West is in flames, with millions of acres burned, dozens dead and many more still missing, and millions of people suffering under the world’s worst air pollution for days on end. Though there are a few contributors to this unfolding disaster, our forests have become tinderboxes as a result of extended drought killing off trees, and warmer temperatures producing drier fuel. Yet our current president continues to rail against the scientific fact of human-caused climate change, works to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreements, and attacks wind farms. In contrast, take a look at Biden’s “surprisingly ambitious climate plan”. And let’s not forget the countless other environmental attacks, often couched in the false dichotomy as environment vs. business.
I was volunteering for Habitat for Humanity on “the day the sky turned red”, Wednesday Sept 9, 2020.
Though the air at ground level was the cleanest it had been for nearly two weeks due to the denser and cooler “marine layer” of air near the ground, the smoke from the many massive wildfires was blotting out the sun in the entire bay region, for the entire day. Even the birds were confused!
Democracy Under Attack
Our democracy is under attack, with our president joking (or is he?) about “deserving” a third term, profiteering from public agencies, rewarding his supporters with business deals, directing the justice department to act as his own personal legal team, and actively working to undermine the election. One of the few things the president is good at is branding, but even supposing the president’s label for his Democratic opponent - “Sleepy Joe Biden” - is true, wouldn’t that be a nice change?
More seriously, Joe Biden has a lifetime of honest public service; while he has occasionally supported things that turned out to be the wrong side of history (or perhaps even at the time were ill-advised), he demonstrates an ability to acknowledge errors, learn from his mistakes, and evolve his positions. Wouldn’t that be nice in a leader?
Decline of Liberalism
A second term by our current president would surely steer both the US and the world towards a further decline of liberalism (little “L”), and towards an autocratic regime that trivializes human rights both domestically and internationally in the service of one man’s ego and occasional transactional “wins”. To be clear, the liberalism I am referring to is (excerpted from Wikipedia): “Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law. … Liberalism sought to replace the norms of hereditary privilege, state religion, absolute monarchy, the divine right of kings and traditional conservatism with representative democracy and the rule of law.”
Yet despite the president’s campaign messages of “Law and Order”, it seems the law only applies to his opponents. The president actively seeks disorder and chaos; and he courts and fawns over autocrats across the world such as his “love affair” with North Korea’s Kim Jong Il; his obsequious fealty of uncertain origin to Russia’s Vladimir Putin; his indifference to Turkey’s Reycip Erdogan’s violence towards legal protests on American streets, and his inability to critique Saudi Arabia after the Jamal Khashoggi murder.
Get Involved
I’m sure my leanings and my politics are not a surprise to any of my regular readers, with my original (and still active) commitment to direct 10% of revenue to clean energy projects, and the occasional humorous photo that might slip into my website.
Originally photographed in the Bush years, repurposed for today’s egoist-in-chief; I briefly made notecards featuring this photo as gifts.
A 2017 photo of some earlier walnut and maple coasters. Alas, the president outlasted my inventory of this popular design.
So though I may be preaching to the choir, I plead with everyone who can:
Vote: If you can, vote in person; if you can’t in person, drop off your ballot at a polling place or vote by mail. If you have any uncertainty on voting procedures or rules in your state, check out vote.org.
Write letters: Encourage uncertain-but-democratic-leaning voters in battleground states to get out and vote, such as via this letter writing initiative.
Donate: Donate to the national campaign, or just donate to Amy McGrath’s campaign in her goal unseat perhaps one of the worst excuses for a human being and key Trump enabler, Moscow Mitch McConnell.
Get & stay engaged: Apply to be a poll worker in your county; volunteer with the local chapter of the Democratic Party in the many additional get-out-the-vote initiatives taking place throughout the country.