I have always felt uncomfortable listening to politicians talk about their competition. Even if the issue they were bringing up was relevant and true, It always feels like the motivation comes from the wrong place. I always felt you need to look at a candidates plans. I can find fairly substantial outlines of Joe Bidens. I admit I cannot find Donald Trumps. I see broad generalities from him (it will be really beautiful) but there's no meat behind the menu.
I don't need anyone to tell me Donald Trump is a liar, a racist and a bad manager. It was obvious from his actions and statements before he was president and is certainly obvious in my research now.
But if you do listen to candidates, then you need to take what they say and then look at other sources to understand what is true, what is out of context, what is false. And ignore stupid character attacks.
Is Joe Biden really sleepy (lol)? Is he really a radical leftist (does the radical left really even exist in the US in a meaningful way - I mean, what we call left, the Canadians and most of Europe laugh off and call center at best. The communist party here is a non-entity - there is barely any socialist party either. Ideas that republicans have represented as socialist, generally aren’t. Funding research for alternative power for instance - the government has funded research for most major breakthroughs - think NASA and Bio-Genetics), Is he going to defund the police (no, but he will look at reform which is badly needed), is he going to pack the court (no, but he''s going to look at reform which is badly needed). Is he a socialist/communist and at the same time accused of rabid capitalist tendencies of wanting to go after the presidency for personal gain? These are ridiculous - Biden is a moderate democrat and supports a capitalist economy. Research it and throw it out.
If you do your research you will find that Biden isn't a perfect guy - he has changed his position on some things over time - and I'm not perfect and have too - that is what thinking people do when they encounter new information. He is definitely a moderate. He's not a liberal by any stretch. I have areas where I don't agree with Joe's approach - I think his approach to healthcare stops short of what is ideal, but it's a moderate plan - and certainly the best - and only proposal available from a contending party. Not 100% for me, although I still feel like he is heading in a promising direction.
At the same time, if you do your research, you will find that Donald Trump is an egotist, a poor manager, lies constantly, works for himself before others. You can also see smart politicians that have used his willingness to pursue self as a mechanism to get what they want. His policies have been disastrous. He has skirted many of the protections put in place to keep our country in balance - for instance, he has skirted congressional approval of his cabinet his entire term.
He has touted himself as the "economy President" yet Bill Clinton and President Obama have had much more overall success for more people than he has (the economy needs to benefit everyone and his policies are aimed at helping, almost exclusively, the 1% - except where he sees an opportunity to benefit - like aiding farmers. It's not that I disagree with aiding farmers, but rather, he has done it only for personal gain. If farmers would predominantly vote Democrat, he'd not give them a dime.He has hurt so many Americans and immigrants alike, through policies and through propaganda.
The fact is, Democrats have performed much better than Republicans economically, consistently over time. The Republican reputation for overall economic expansion is unfounded - supply side economics make some investors happy but do little for the population - and let’s face it - this economy depends on consumers to create demand - and that drives business, so consumer oriented policy ends up improving everyone’s lives, not just the 1%^ and subsequently GDP and wealth increases for all.
I’m tired of the Political ads screaming at us - but more than that, I’m tired of the lies - I want to hear what a candidate will do and how, not calling their opponent names.
I’ve noticed Biden ads focusing much more on his plans (although there are still ads pointing out Trumps failures - but there are no untruths. At the same time I see Trump ads calling Kamala a communist, mistating Biden policy, even misrepresenting him on fracking (for god's sake it is horrible ecologically, but Biden clarified they’d work to change over to renewable sources and that fossil fuels would remain in our mix for years to come - yet that ads only say he will get rid of it). It’s the equivalent of Obama is coming for your guns. But he didn’t, did he?
When will the American public get tired enough of the laws to defund politicians - by demanding the passing of campaign reform - limit the amount of time allowed for campaigning to one month (October of an election year for National races, let’s say) and limit the amount that can be contributed to a campaign - getting rid of PACs (for all of those constitutional Republicans who don’t think the Supreme Court should be making policy, Citizen’s United is a case where the people of the US lost to big money donors - and that ruling should be overturned with law. We should set higher standards that allow the public to not only sue for defamation, but for fraudulent representation - so that politicians are held accountable for their words and deeds.
I’m admittedly a social liberal and a fiscal moderate. So Biden is who I choose (if you care),
If you are for Trump, I urge you to do your research iof you haven’t. If you still land on Trump, I'd love to hear about the concrete upon which you've laid your decision, with relatively unbiased references (in the vein of Reuters, BBC - or even the economist, which leans slightly right but is very truth based or NPR or NY Times which leans left but are very truth based).
I use https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ as a good source for media rating along with others, a useful tool in determining if your source is actually news or mixed propaganda and news.
References
]]https://www.thebalance.com/democrats-vs-republicans-which-is-better-for-the-economy-47718
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/kamala-harris-woke-capitalism-democrats/
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/01/us/politics/trump-presidency-dishonesty.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/business/socialist-biden-trump.html
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