The-Ave.US

President

This is easy: Vote for Biden.

Character and competence matter; Trump has none of either.

Biden knows how to govern; Trump only knows how to pander to his fan base.

Biden respects the rule of law, checks and balances, and constitutional and legal restraints on presidential powers; Trump has a dictator mentality.

Biden listens to people who know what they’re talking about; Trump disdains science, the medical profession, and promotes dangerous ignorance and helps spread false conspiracy theories.

Biden will prioritize taming Covid-19 and saving lives over prematurely reopening the economy; Trump’s Covid-19 disastrous leadership has saddled the American people with the most infections and deaths of any country in the world.

Trump turned his back on the alliances that protected democracies for 75 years and deterred a third world war, coddled our adversaries while getting nothing in return, and made America a laughingstock; Biden will repair those alliances, and make America respected and trusted again.

Trump also has turned his back on health care for millions of Americans, and is currently pushing the courts to gut what remains of Obamacare — and has offered nothing to replace it — after packing the courts with rightwing judges who are out of sync with the thinking and needs of a majority of the American people.

This election also has special significance for senior citizens, because Trump is scheming to defund Social Security and Medicare, which could end benefits from those programs as early as 2023 and 2021, respectively.

Last, but not least, Biden will try to unite us; Trump has fostered and enflamed the terrible divisiveness tearing our country apart. Consequently, democracy itself is on trial in this election. Aaron Sorkin said, “the institutions of our democracy are great things, but they need to be populated by competent people who consider public service to be a calling.”[1] Biden is that; Trump is the antithesis of that.

Washington Governor

This is easy, too: Vote for Inslee.

Inslee is a successful two-term governor seeking a third term at a time when we also need competent leadership at the state level to help us get through the worst health and economic crisis of our lifetimes.

The GOP had no serious candidates this year, and ended up with a nominee who cuts a ridiculous figure: A small-town police chief of a one-man police department whose only claims to fame are (a) refusing to enforce laws he doesn’t like, and (b) threatening a sexual assault victim for reporting the assault. Culp also is a constitutionalist, a far-right fringe group wedded to ideological absurdities; and The Stranger, a Seattle alt-left newspaper, quoted Culp (here) as believing, “Democracy is a step toward socialism, which is a step towards communism.” That’s not someone to vote for, if you want to keep your right to vote.

Congress

This blog has a national audience, and there are 435 House and 35 Senate seats on ballots in 50 states. Democrats are favored to expand their House majority by 10-20 seats and pick up several Senate seats. If that happens, the average American should welcome, not fear, Democratic control of Congress for the next two years. After that, the pendulum quite likely will swing back to divided government again, as it usually does.

Democratic control of the White House and Congress would likely mean (a) a functioning government, (b) tax increases for people with incomes over $400,000 a year (but none for those earning less), (c) a $3.4 trillion Covid-19 relief bill, as opposed to the $0.5 trillion ceiling GOP Senators are currently imposing on the nation as it heads into a Covid-19 second wave, and (d) long-delayed spending on America’s crumbling infrastructure, which is vital to a thriving economy. (Biden has proposed spending $1.3 trillion to repair highways and bridges, replace water pipes, and bring broadband to rural areas and schools.)

Democrats are not socialists, but recognize that regulated capitalism is less likely to self-destruct than laissez-faire capitalism, which is the basic lesson of the last 150 years of American economic history. In addition, the Republican Senators most likely to lose their seats in this election haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory over the last four years, so they won’t be missed. The shape of things to come in Washington D.C., if the election goes as expected, will help America get through this crisis with less loss of life and recover more quickly once the health emergency has passed.

[1] USA Today, 10/19/20, p. 7B

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