Every election, especially every presidential election is about choosing the kind of leadership the electorate wants for the nation for the next four years. Those choices have been, for the last several decades a choice between leaders who support moderate capitalism or more radical capitalism. Those options did not bode well for much of the populace, workers, unions and the poor, not to mention the racial or religious minorities.
In 2016 as the Democratic Party chose to block the progressive candidate, Bernie Sanders, who spoke to the needs of the average voter, in favor of the corporate candidate, Hilary Clinton, with all her baggage, the result was that the voting public balked and turned to the Republicans with their con-man candidate, Donald Trump, and his radical capitalism. In fact, the entire nation turned red as a result of that choice.
Since then, the national Democrats have been trying to deny the validity of that election, first by blaming everyone else: the Bernie supporters, the Russians, Wikileaks or the illegalities of Trump. The focus was to destroy Trump as a potential political figure.
In the 2020 election the Democrats again, chose a corporate democrat, with somewhat of a nod to the progressives, and even then, barely won the election. Then Donald Trump tried to throw out the results with a variety of methods and finally with a direct assault on the Capital trying to prevent the election from being verified.
Since that time the Democrats have spent over 3 years trying to make Donald Trump accountable through legal actions. As we have watched this process grind on, seemingly interminably, we again see how wealth and power can slow the legal system down to a crawl. Eventually the entire legal process is in jeopardy if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, and we watch all that legal work begin to disappear.
Meanwhile, the economy moves on, continuing to reward the billionaire class, while the income inequality continues ever upward, and the ordinary citizens are left to deal with price increases, often beyond the ability of wage increases to keep up.
On the international level, this administration seems to be bent on restarting the cold war, expanding NATO and funding proxy wars against Russia in Ukraine, against China in Taiwan, against the Palestinians in Israel, and against Yemen with the Saudis. That is not to mention our continual undercover intervention in the Pakistani elections and a multitude of other dark operations around the world. All of this is justified with the pretense that these are efforts of “pristine democracies” against evil dictatorships. In spite of the fact that our democracy, after years of control by our economic aristocracy, lies in a shambles and nearly all the world can see that.
While this administration seems to be focused on billions to fund these wars, even as they verge on genocide at time, while spending little on humanitarian aid to Africa, the Middle East (especially Gaza). The US, at the behest of Israel, has now gone so far as to work to defund the UN agency created to help the Palestinians since 1947. This administration has also continued to prevent international intervention through our veto power in the UN.
Meanwhile, as those billions are going to support dubious foreign adventures, domestically we are not funding the needs of our own populace, infrastructure, climate change, social justice, immigration, and reforming the economic system to reign in income inequality and reinstate a progressive tax system to support the democratization of the nation again.
So, here we are on the verge of another election, an election that will choose the leadership of this nation for the next four years. On one hand we have a blatant conman who is willing to gut what is left of our democracy and install himself as leader. On the other hand, we have a severely damaged President who seems to be willing to risk the election rather that exert any control over Israel in its apparently genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza while reducing our funding of any humanitarian efforts. To add to all that, this administration wants to punish any who would protest or disagree with its unilateral decisions. This goes so far as to risk broadening the war in the Middle East and punishing any nations that disagree with its blind support of Israel.
Under Biden’s leadership we have watched our international credibility collapse, our support of human rights and humanitarianism dissolve, and our support of efforts to reign in global warming left in the dust.
Finally, the choice comes down to an out-of-control leader who flaunts all norms and laws in his pursuit of his personal goals, or a leader who says he represents the hope for democracy while exhibiting a disregard for much of what democracy in this nation stands for.
Not much to choose from. It seems to be between two stubborn old men who want to impose their version of reality on this nation.
Bob, I subscribe to the narrative ("Leadership Choices") you have shared today, and I share your sense of despair at, once again, not having much to choose from at the top of the ticket. Especially, after the presumed murder of Alexei Navalny, I feel the "leadership void" that we continually experience here in the US! Long live Yulia Navalnaya!