Last week, I wrote a piece offering five reasons to re-elect Donald Trump. In the interest of balance, I will offer five reasons to vote for Joe Biden. Again, none of the reasons are in any particular order or have anything to do with Joe Biden.
Reason #1 – Avoid A War With Iran
Peace in the Middle East is among the accomplishments Trump supporters point to as a reason to re-elect the president. In the last few weeks, the Trump Administration has announced agreements normalizing relations between Israel and United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan. Moreover, there have been whispers that Saudi Arabia may also be ready to join the bandwagon. Good news, right? Not so fast. I firmly believe that the agreements are not about peace but, rather, an effort to isolate Iran and in preparation for a confrontation, if not outright war. In recent days, Iran has been accused of interfering with our elections. Another sign that a second Trump term could lead to war with Iran.
Another Middle East conflict would be a disaster for America and Europe. I say this as someone who was caught up in the neocon rhetoric about bringing democracy to the Middle East and supported the Iraq War. The wars in the Middle East have come at a very high cost. Thousands of lives lost. Trillions of dollars spent. It created a refugee crisis which will destabilize Europe for decades to come. A Democrat administration would re-join the Iran Nuclear Deal and that would effectively take the possibility of war off the table – that alone is reason enough to support Biden.
Reason #2 – Jared and Ivanka Will Leave The Oval Office
At the beginning of the Trump Administration, a struggle ensued for the control of the agenda between Steve Bannon and Jared and Ivanka – affectionately known as Javanka. By August 2017, the clear winner was daddy’s princess as Bannon was forced out.
Bannon may have been the first to fall but not the only one. Anyone who crossed Javanka would, sooner or later, be shown the door. Trump promised to hire “best people”. Instead, we got two neophytes with zero qualifications to be chief advisors to the president except their family ties. John F. Kennedy had Bobby. We got Jared and Ivanka – another sign of America’s decline.
Thanks to Javanka, the MAGA agenda is essentially a mix of standard mainstream Republican fare with a few New York liberal policies thrown in. Despite all the hysterics about Trump being a fascist, he has governed like a Jeb! with mean tweets. He spent his political capital on tax cuts, deregulation and military spending along prison reform, family medical leave and billions of dollars to empower women around the world. This is not the agenda that was promised in 2016. This is not the agenda right wing populists voted for but it’s the agenda that Jared and Ivanka favor. There are those who still nurture the fantasy that Trump will tell his daughter and son-in-law to go back to private life. Poor souls, they are delusional. The only way the princess and her prince consort will leave the Oval Office is for Trump to lose tomorrow.
Reason #3 – The New Democrat Coalition Will Fall Apart
It has become a habit among conservatives to blame minority voters for their losses – well that and voter fraud. It is a fact that minorities have traditionally given a large share of their vote to the Democrats. However, the Democrats were able to gain control of the House in 2018 and put Texas in play because of white suburban voters. In 2016, Trump received a lower percentage of the white vote than Mitt Romney – a trend that has continued to accelerate. This year’s presidential contest is coming down to white suburban voters again. The candidate who wins their vote will be the next president of the United States.
If Biden wins, I just don’t see how this new coalition the Democratic Party has cobbled together will survive. The only thing that the likes of Omar shares with the likes of Cindy McCain is their deep hatred for Donald Trump. The Never Trump Republicans are simply using the Biden candidacy to get rid of Trump and declare populism dead. That will be achieved on Day One of the Biden presidency. What about the rest of the term?
Biden has already signaled that he will abandon much of the progressive agenda when it comes to healthcare and energy. That will make the white centrist voters very happy but it will enrage progressives. Vice versa is also true. If Biden moves to the Left, he will lose white suburban support and that will cause the Democrats to lose the House. The new Democrat coalition created by Trump Derangement Syndrome has already shown its fragility over the summer. Initially, white suburban voters were very supportive of the protests inspired by the death of the George Floyd. But it didn’t take long for them to sour on the BLM agenda. Again, the new Democratic coalition is not sustainable and will fall apart in short order.
Reason #4 – The GOP Deserves To Lose
Often I am asked by my Republican friends why I focus most of my fire on the GOP instead of the Democrats. It’s very simple. I have given my time, money and vote to Republicans and they owe while the same is not true of the Democrats who owe me nothing. Moreover, I find the GOP more insidious and dangerous than the Democrats when it comes to the issues I care about. I know what the Democrats stand for and that is why I don’t support them. The GOP, on the other hand, pretends to be on my side and the moment they get in power they turn their back on the agenda they campaigned on. I have come to the conclusion that the GOP’s main purpose is to prevent a party that will be oppose the Left from ever arising.
Whenever I bring up the fact that the GOP is phony opposition, the usual response from my Republican friends is to suggest that the solution is to reform the party. That is simply not a option. Whenever the base manages to nominate one of their own, the GOP establishment sabotages them in the general election. Just like they tried to sabotage Trump in 2016. Eventually, they simply settled to undermine the America First agenda by replacing it with Paul Ryan’s and Mitch McConnell’s policy priorities. The GOP has develop a very strong immune system that will prevent any effort to reform it. The only way to get a party that will represent right wing populism is for the GOP die at the hands of the Democrats.
Reason #5 – Will Further Discredit The Neoliberal Establishment
When Trump won four years ago, the neoliberal establishment that controls our government faced two choices in dealing with the new administration. It could have: 1) allowed Trump to fail on his own; or 2) engage in a scorched earth strategy with the ultimate goal of removing him from office. The establishment chose the latter.
The opposition to Trump, we are told, is due to his unfitness for office. If that was the case, why not just let him fail? Perhaps, the establishment was afraid he would succeed. Perhaps, the ruling class understood that Trump is just a symptom of their failure. If the so called experts had delivered peace and prosperity instead of endless wars and a shrinking middle class, voters would have never turned to a reality television star for president.
In their quest to remove Trump from office, the establishment has destroyed the credibility of every institution key to governing our country. Media, academia, intelligence agencies, FBI, Congress, the courts all come of out the last four years with their reputation in tatters. Polls show that a majority of Americans no longer trust our institutions and that will make it impossible for Biden to govern. He can talk about uniting the country, bringing back the pre-Trump status quo and normalcy all he wants. However, he won’t be able to deliver. Instead, as the country becomes further polarized and ungovernable, the neoliberal establishment will be discredited to the point that it won’t be able to recover opening the way for new kind of politics.
