We Need to Talk About the 2020 Election

What do you think is the purpose of the federal government?

According to the Constitution, it would seem like the government’s purpose is to “[…] establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity […]”

Specifically, I want to focus on the part that states “promote the general Welfare.” It’s generally been interpreted by federal courts that this phrase refers to the government’s ability to tax the public in order to provide services that benefit the public. (Cornell Law School has a great analysis of how this phrase has been interpreted over the years.)

And personally, I agree. A large part of the government’s purpose should be to protect and uplift the general public. In practical terms, that means it’s the government’s responsibility to tax us fairly and use that money to fund services such as infrastructure, education, defense, health care, environmental protection, food safety, and more. By requiring residents to pool together resources, the country benefits as a whole.

So what does all this have to do with the 2020 presidential election?

Well, everything.

The government affects every aspect of our lives. And government and politics are intertwined whether we like it or not. So none of us can really afford to ignore politics.

Whether you vote and who you vote for has a massive impact on our government’s ability to do its job of caring for all its people. And under the current administration, I’d argue the government isn’t doing a good job of caring for all its people.

The Current Situation

Let’s take a look at some topics you might care about and how the Trump administration has handled them since it came into power on January 20, 2017:

Health and Wellness

• The first months of Trump’s presidency included an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CB) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), enacting the “Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017” would have increased the number of people who were uninsured by 17 million in 2018, to 27 million in 2020 and to 32 million in 2026. The bill would have eliminated the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid eligibility and eliminated subsidies for insurance purchased through the marketplaces established by the ACA. Premiums in the nongroup market were predicted to increase by roughly 25 percent in 2018, increasing to 50 percent in 2020 and doubling by 2026. In May 2017, the House of Representatives passed a bill to repeal much of the ACA. In July 2017, the Senate narrowly blocked an ACA repeal bill. As recently as June 25, 2020, the Trump administration had asked the Supreme Court to declare the ACA unconstitutional.
• In June 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a repeal of a 2015 expansion of the Clean Water Act. The 2015 interpretation of the act had given the federal government authority over wetlands, headwaters, and small water bodies. At the time, environmentalists had said the expanded powers of the act would help lead to cleaner natural bodies of water and healthier drinking water. In September 2019, the rule was officially repealed.
• In October 2017, Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency. If he had instead declared the crisis a “national emergency,” it would have triggered access to FEMA’s disaster relief funds, providing access to millions of dollars in aid. By declaring the crisis a “national public health emergency,” only $57,000 could be made available. It wasn’t until September 2019 that it was announced that $1.8 billion would be made available to state and local governments to combat the opioid crisis.
• On March 26, 2020, Trump stated during a press briefing regarding the coronavirus: “This was something that nobody has ever thought could happen to this country. I’m not even blaming — look, we inherited a broken situation, but I don’t totally blame the people that were before me and this administration. Nobody would have ever thought a thing like this could have happened.” And on May 15, 2020, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said: “They claim pandemics only happen once every 100 years, but what if that is no longer true? We want to be ready, early, for the next one. Because clearly, the Obama administration did not leave any kind of game plan for something like this.” However, it was revealed that a National Security Council (NSC) document had existed from the Obama era titled “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.” There were also similar documents created for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The playbook listed “novel coronaviruses” as a pathogen “that would cause heightened concern.” Additionally, a former Trump administration economist stated that his team alerted the White House about the dangers of a looming pandemic outbreak in September 2019. Today, the United States has the largest number of reported COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Environment

• Trump signed executive memos on January 24, 2017 to advance construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines. Keystone XL was blocked by the Obama administration on the grounds that it could impact local communities, water supplies, and cultural heritage sites. The Dakota Access project also drew criticism that it would taint drinking water and threaten sacred worship grounds. On November 17, 2017, the Keystone pipeline, the sister project of the Keystone XL pipeline, spilled 210,000 gallons of oil near the border of South Dakota and North Dakota. In April 2019, Trump signed executive orders making it easier for gas and oil companies to lay pipelines without being blocked by states citing the Clean Water Act. In October 2019, the Keystone pipeline leaked 383,000 gallons of oil in North Dakota.
• In April 2017, the EPA removed or altered all information about climate change on its website, claiming it sought to “reflect the approach of new leadership.” EPA administrator Scott Pruitt had previously stated he didn’t believe carbon dioxide was a primary contributor to global warming.
• In June 2017, the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement. Countries who signed the pact agreed to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Almost 200 countries had signed on to the agreement in 2015, setting their own goals. The U.S. is the only country to have left the pact.
• In May 2019, the U.S. Interior Department granted leases for copper mining to resume near the Boundary Waters Wilderness area in Minnesota. In 2016, the Obama administration had paused new mineral development in the area in order to conduct an extensive environmental impact statement (EIS) analysis to determine whether the Boundary Waters should be withdrawn from mining. The Trump Administration cancelled the analysis and instead implemented a faster and less demanding assessment. Conservation groups have decried the mining operations due the environmental risk posed to the area’s gray wolves, black bears, moose, and a variety of fish.
• In June 2019, the EPA issued its final Affordable Clean Energy rule, replacing the Clean Power Plan from the Obama era. Whereas the Clean Power Plan set state-by-state goals for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, the Affordable Clean Energy rule regulates emissions of individual power plants. According to an analysis by the EPA itself, the new rule could lead to as many as 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 and up to 15,000 new cases of upper respiratory problems, a rise in bronchitis, and tens of thousands of missed school days.

Race/Immigrant Relations

• In January 2017, Trump signed an executive order that imposed a 90-day ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. and indefinitely halted incoming refugees from Syria. Trump claimed that limiting immigration and refugees would protect the country from terrorists. But in the fifteen years since 9/11, none of the deadly attackers who killed people on American soil came from the banned countries. In March 2017, Trump issued a revised ban that blocked citizens from six Muslim-majority countries, dropping Iraq, and reinstated a temporary ban on all refugees.
• In June 2017, anonymous White House officials told the New York Times that Trump had said Haitians “all have AIDS” and Nigerian immigrants would never “go back to their huts.” Although the White House denied the exact wording, it didn’t deny the overall description of the meeting.
• On August 12, 2017, the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia attracted the attention of neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. White nationalists chanted phrases like “Jews will not replace us.” The rally eventually broke out into skirmishes and the National Guard was called in to help police clear the area. As the rally dispersed, a man drove his car into the crowd and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer. After the attack and Hyer’s death, Trump refused to rebuke the white nationalists, stating, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.” A few days later, Trump said there were “some very fine people on both sides.”
• In November 2017, Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos from Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, a far-right, anti-Muslim group. The titles of the three videos were “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch Boy on crutches!”, “Muslim destroys a statue of Virgin Mary!”, and “Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!” Fransen had previously been found guilty for aggravated harassment of a Muslim woman.
• On April 6, 2018, the Trump administration implemented a new “zero-tolerance policy” for anyone crossing the southern border illegally. In June 2018, it was announced that 1,995 migrant children were separated from 1,940 adults between the period of April 19 to May 31. Trump blamed the Democrats, tweeting, “The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda.” In June 2018, it was reported that children were being kept “in cages” in a Texas facility. By September 28, 2018, it was reported that 13,000 migrant children were being held in a tent city without access to legal services or education. In December 2018, a seven-year-old and an eight-year-old from Guatemala died in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol. In April 2019, a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant died in the custody of U.S. Border Patrol.
• In October 2018, Trump announced he would send 5,200 active-duty military troops to the southern border to guard against what he called “an invasion of our country.” A caravan of 3,500 Central American migrants, half of whom were girls and women, were heading toward the United States and planned to enter regardless of legal status. Caravan members had varied reasons for wanting to enter the United States, with many citing concerns for safety or an otherwise inescapable poverty.
• On May 9, 2019, Trump asked his rally audience “how do you stop these people?” in reference to migrants at the border. An audience member yelled, “Shoot them!” to which Trump smirked and joked “That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement. Only in the Panhandle!”
• On June 27, 2019, Trump made a series of tweets attacking four congresswomen of color: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley. He said they “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all).” And “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. […] These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough.” Ocasio-Cortez was born in New York, Tlaib in Detroit, and Pressley in Cincinnati.
• On January 31, 2020, Trump imposed travel restrictions on six more countries with substantial Muslim populations: Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.
• In May 2020, Trump made tweets on the Minneapolis protests in response to the killing of George Floyd. He referred to the protestors as “THUGS” and said “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
• On June 28, 2020, Trump tweeted a video showing a supporter of his shouting “white power” at anti-Trump protestors at The Villages, a Florida retirement community. Before the tweet was deleted, it had said “Thank you to the great people of The Villages.”

Education

• In February 2017, Betsy DeVos was confirmed as education secretary in an unprecedented 51-50 vote. At the time of her appointment to lead the Department of Education, DeVos had no government experience and no experience working in (or attending) public schools.
• In a March 2018 interview with 60 Minutes, DeVos stated that she had not visited any schools that were underperforming and didn’t know any basic public school statistics in her home state of Michigan.
• In July 2019, one of the biggest teachers unions in the country filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education. They claimed that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program violates federal law and the Constitution. The program was created in 2007 to help those who worked full-time in public service receive forgiveness for their student loans. The program stated that if a person makes loan payments for 10 years and works in a qualifying job, it will forgive what remains of their federal student loan debt. But at the time of the lawsuit, the Department of Education reported that they only approved 1% of applicants for loan forgiveness.
• In March 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act was signed into law, which included $30 billion for education institutions hurt by the pandemic, $14 billion for higher education, and $13.5 billion for elementary and secondary schools. In May, it was revealed that DeVos had put $180 million of the relief money toward creating “microgrants” that parents could use for private school tuition for their children. She also directed school districts to share millions of dollars meant for low-income students with wealthy private schools. And she took $350 million meant for struggling colleges and allocated them to small colleges (most of which were private, religious, or on the margins of higher education) regardless of need.
• In May 2020, Trump vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have provided protections to veterans and other vulnerable populations defrauded by predatory schools.

LGBT

• On February 22, 2017, Trump signed an executive order that ended an Obama-era directive that allowed transgender students to use school bathrooms that matched their gender identity.
• On July 26, 2017, Trump tweeted that the military would no longer allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity. On August 25, 2017, he followed up on his tweets by signing a directive to prevent transgender people from joining the military. Although lower courts initially blocked the directive, on January 22, 2019, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to lift injunctions that blocked the policy.
• On June 12, 2020, the Trump administration eliminated health care protections for transgender patients.
• On June 18, 2020, Trump referred to two Supreme Court rulings (one that protected young immigrants from deportation, and another that protected LGBT workers) as “shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives.” He also tweeted, “Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?”

Military/Veterans

• On October 4, 2017, four soldiers in the US Armed Forces were killed in Niger. On October 16, Trump was asked why he hadn’t spoken about the fallen soldiers. He said he had written the families personal letters which would “go out either today or tomorrow.” He also insinuated that Obama had not called the families of fallen soldiers, which was not true. On the 17th, Trump placed a condolence call to Myeshia Johnson, the widow of one of the fallen servicemen. When Mrs. Johnson later discussed her call with the president, she said Trump forgot her husband’s name during the call and “heard him stumbling” as he tried to remember. Trump then tweeted, “I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!”
• In August 2018, after the death of Senator John McCain, Trump issued no initial public statement and declined to answer questions about McCain, despite him being a veteran who had spent 31 years in the Senate. Flags were lowered on the Saturday night after McCain’s death and raised again Sunday, which is the bare minimum required by law.
• Trump’s “Salute to America” program on July 4, 2019, included military flyovers and cost $1.2 million. The Defense Department stated the money came largely from budgets dedicated to military training.
• On November 7, 2019, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million to settle claims that the Trump Foundation misused money raised for charitable donations during his 2016 campaign. The money was raised during a television fundraiser for veterans.
• Despite the Pentagon stating they were “open to a bipartisan discussion on the topic” of removing Confederate names from military bases, on June 10, 2020, Trump tweeted otherwise: “My Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.”

National Security/Foreign Relations

• On March 3, 2017, it was revealed that as governor of Indiana, Vice President Mike Pence used his personal email for state business. Pence’s office announced the AOL email had been hacked, including information deemed “confidential and too sensitive to release to the public.”
• On May 12, 2017, Trump shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador at a White House meeting. One U.S. official was quoted as saying Trump had “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we’ve shared with our own allies.”
• On August 8, 2017, Trump threatened to North Korea that if they make more threats, “they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” This was after North Korea had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range capable of reaching the continental United States. After Trump’s message, North Korea warned that it was considering a strike that would create “an enveloping fire” around Guam, where the United States operates a critical Air Force base.
• On September 19, 2017, during a speech at the UN General Assembly, Trump called Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man” and threatened to “totally destroy North Korea.”
• On January 2, 2018, Trump tweeted, “North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
• On May 8, 2018, Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, a 2015 agreement reached by seven countries after more than two years of negotiations. The deal had granted billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for Iran’s agreement not to develop or acquire any nuclear weapons. The United States reimposed pre-deal sanctions on Iran.
• On July 21, 2018, Trump threatened Iranian president with a tweet: “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS.”
• On February 8, 2019, Trump tweeted: “North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse. […] I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket – an Economic one!”
• On August 2, 2019, the United States withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War-era agreement between the United States and Russia that limited the types of weapons the two nations could possess or pursue.
• On January 2, 2020, without notifying Congress, Trump ordered an airstrike that killed an Iranian general, prompting worry about war with Iran. Trump said he believed there were plans for “imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and American personnel.” But Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that Trump “didn’t cite a specific piece of evidence.”

(Big, big thanks to this collection of Trump’s actions for helping me put this list together.)

If we at all share similar values, then the list above (which only scratches the surface) hopefully made you upset about the actions of our current administration. And in turn, I hope you feel that it’s dangerous to keep Donald Trump in office for four more years.

So now that we’re at this point: Do we agree? Do you think we need a new president to replace Donald Trump? If not, then I’d love to hear from you to understand where you’re coming from. But if yes, then let’s talk about our options.

Who Else Can We Vote For?

Here are the individuals commonly considered to be the other major candidates in this election:

• Joe Biden (Democratic Party)
• Howie Hawkins (Green Party)
• Jo Jorgensen (Libertarian Party)

There’s a decent chance you haven’t heard of Hawkins or Jorgensen, so let’s talk about them first.

Howie Hawkins hails himself as the first US candidate to campaign for a Green New Deal (back in 2010). He was there for the foundation of the US Green Party in 1984 and has remained active in the party. Hawkins has run for office 24 times in New York and has won 0 times. But he has generally performed better as time has gone on.

Being in the Green Party, it’s natural that he supports reaching zero carbon emissions and 100% clean energy by 2030 and he plans to ban fracking and new fossil fuel infrastructure. Some other Hawkins policies include: cutting the military budget by 75%, establishing a $20 minimum wage, having Medicare for All, offering lifelong free public education, registering voters automatically, restoring affirmative action, defending abortion rights, passing the Equal Rights Amendment, legalizing marijuana, decriminalizing sex work, restoring net neutrality, and having a progressive wealth tax.

Dr. Jo Jorgensen has a background in psychology and became president and owner of a software duplication company. She has run a business consulting company since 2002. In terms of politics, her experience in office is non-existent. She has been a voting Libertarian since 1980 and joined the party in 1983. She has served as Greenville County chair, state vice chair, and national marketing director for the Libertarian Party. In 1992, Jorgensen was the Libertarian Party candidate for South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District. And in 1996, she was the Libertarian Party nominee for Vice President.

As a Libertarian, she believes in a minimal federal government and her policies match accordingly. Her policies include: no US involvement in foreign wars, increasing price competition in the health care sphere, vetoing any spending bills that would lead to a deficit or debt ceiling increase, pursuing zero emission energy sources like nuclear, allowing people to opt out of Social Security, eliminating trade tariffs, reducing regulations that increase the costs of housing, significantly reducing taxes, and eliminating the Department of Education.

It’s possible you see things you like about Hawkins or Jorgensen. Personally, a lot of Hawkins’ policies really resonate with me. But I don’t believe voting for someone like Hawkins or Jorgensen is a wise decision. At least, not in our current election system.

The vast majority of states currently use a “first past the post” (FPTP) or “winner take all” system when voting for president. In this system, a candidate just needs to have more votes than all the other candidates to win. And each voter only gets to select their top choice. But that top choice is usually a Democrat or Republican for a reason. FPTP systems encourage the development of a two-party system because that’s often the only approach that can satisfy a majority of people. When you have two parties — one that’s more liberal and one that’s more conservative — voters are pooled into one side or the other. But if, say, an ultra liberal party become popular, it would likely pull away votes that otherwise would have gone toward the umbrella liberal party. The end result is theoretically that the conservative party gets the plurality of the vote and the two liberal parties lose. Even though a majority of voters were liberal in some way, the conservative party candidate becomes their representative.

At this point, some people may argue, “Those ultra liberal voters weren’t necessarily going to vote for the umbrella liberal party. Without the ultra liberal candidate that lined up with their political ideals, they probably would have abstained from voting completely.” To that, I have to ask these ultra liberal voters…what are you doing? By not supporting the umbrella liberal party, you’re making it easier for the conservative party to get the plurality of the vote. Would you really prefer the conservative party be in charge instead of the umbrella liberal party (which is closer to your ideals, even if only by a little)?

It’s at this point that you might become upset with the whole system. And that’s why we need to replace FPTP voting with something that supports more political parties, like ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting lets you sort your candidates by how much you want them to win. This means you can put your favorite candidate as choice #1, but you can also have your back-up candidate ranked as choice #2 in case there isn’t enough support for your favorite. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the first choices, that candidate wins. If there is no majority winner, then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who had that eliminated candidate selected as choice #1 will have their choice #2 selected as their vote instead. This process continues until a candidate has more than 50% of the votes. This style of voting ensures that no vote is ever “wasted” on a candidate who is unlikely to win under our current system.

And the thing is…currently votes that aren’t for the two major parties are essentially wasted votes. There simply isn’t enough support (or at the very least, enough people willing to risk voting 3rd party) to expect a Libertarian or Green Party candidate to win the presidency under our current system.

And So We Reach Biden

I voted for Obama in 2012. For Sanders in the 2016 primaries. For Clinton in the 2016 general. And for Warren in the 2020 primaries. I can look back at those votes fairly confident that I didn’t majorly betray my personal beliefs.

I can’t necessarily say the same if I vote for Biden. Tara Reade’s accusations about Biden sexually assaulting her could very well be true. She may have changed her story over the years, but it makes sense considering the sensitivity of the topic, the likely trauma from the event, and the amount of power Biden wields.

But as much as it pains me to say this…it’s too late now. By the time Reade had escalated her allegation to sexual assault, the Democratic primaries were already down to Biden and Sanders, with Sanders ending his campaign just two weeks later. And as I mentioned above, the current electoral system basically forces us into Trump versus Biden.

If it’s a question between Trump or Biden, then the answer should be clear. Trump has been accused of worse crimes by more women.

And politically, Biden has shifted to the left quite a bit. Going by my voting history, you can see why I’d think that’s a good thing. His proposed policies include: reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, recommitting the United States to the Paris Agreement, providing teachers with competitive wage and benefits, fixing and simplifying the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, nearly tripling Title I funding (which goes to schools serving a high number of children from low-income families), providing universal pre-kindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-olds, offering a public health insurance option like Medicare, limiting price increases for drugs to the inflation rate, expanding access to contraception, defending health care protections for people regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, passing the Equality Act, reversing the transgender military ban, and more.

There are a lot of reasons not to vote for Biden. But I believe there are far more reasons to vote for him over letting Trump stay in office. At the very least, we should expect Biden to surround himself with and appoint competent, qualified people in many important roles across government. That change alone could help improve the lives of millions of Americans — imagine how the current pandemic would have been handled by a team that listened to competent, qualified health professionals.

So this November, I plan to vote for Biden, despite all the issues that come with that.

I hope I’ve convinced you to do the same.