Month: August 2024

Saturday morning, I awakened to a message from a dear former colleague responding to one of my posts titled, “Some Reasons to Vote Blue Across the Ballot”. One of the reasons I listed was, “immigration reform and border security”. In her message, she wrote: “This administration has failed in border security! Why let them continue?” My immediate response was to proclaim that they did not fail. And then I proceeded to explain why. We should all know about important issues in preparation to respond to a plethora of questions based on false claims coming our way before this election.

In the next weeks, Republicans will say that Biden, and specifically presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, failed to secure the border. They will lie about her actual role at the border by falsely labeling her “the border czar”. Her actual assignment was to visit countries to determine the reasons for increased migration and to find ways to work with those countries to stem it. That was her assignment, not to visit the border to enforce draconian policies that endanger innocent lives or cause irreparable harm to people fleeing violence and poverty in search of a better life.

Our border patrol already works hard to capture drug and human traffickers and to prevent terrorists and violent criminals from entering the country. As a result of their efforts, there have been no terrorist attacks by a migrant and only two violent murders in a country of over 300 million people. And most drug traffickers are Americans. The facts contradict the fear mongering typical of Republicans and conservative media. And yet, they cite imminent danger as their main reason for using any means necessary to secure the border, including building an expensive wall paid for by our tax dollars, and not by Mexico.

The Biden administration proves to be an ethical and humane administration that refuses to continue or allow acts of cruelty like those under Trump. I recall how the Trump administration kept children in cages and how he purposefully separated parents from their children without keeping records of the children’s location as part of his “zero-tolerance” policy. According to NPR some 5,000 children were separated under Trump and to this day, some families have yet to be reunited. That cruelty was eventually stopped by a U.S. district judge. In 2023, the Biden administration settled a class action lawsuit filed for damages for that horrible act of inhumanity.

The reality is that the pandemic allowed Trump to enact Title 42 COVID restrictions which curtailed migration on the basis of the emergency. Under Title 42, border agents were allowed to immediately deny entry to migrants without giving them a chance to ask for asylum. Title 42 expired and without a pandemic emergency that would keep Title 42 lawful, Biden did not extend it. The previous law, Title 8, went into effect. That restored any migrant’s right to ask for asylum and enter the country until their case could be adjudicated which typically takes years.

In response to the current laws and the crisis at the border, the Biden administration worked with a bi-partisan group of senate members to draft the strictest border laws in decades that would numerically limit the number of migrants granted entry, provide for more border patrol agents, provide more judges to reduce case wait times from years to months. In addition, the bill would make stricter asylum rules, provide better technology to detect drugs among other provisions. Just as the law was about to pass, Donald Trump demanded that Republicans reject the legislation because he wanted to run his campaign on chaos at the border. He said that passing the law would give Biden a “win” and he wanted to claim credit for fixing the border. So, the border security bill failed. This failure lies squarely at the feet of Trump and cowardly Republicans who put loyalty to Trump before the country. And it also exposes their lies about the violent threat migrants actually pose to average Americans.

There are many drivers to our border. First, there is the violence and economic crisis fueled by the U.S. demand for illegal drugs and worsened by the pandemic. Second, there is a demand for cheap exploitable labor in several U.S. industries that require back-breaking work and little education. Third, there are greedy human traffickers who use the constant Republican announcements that our borders are open to convince their victims to spend money and risk their lives to journey here. And finally, there is the promise of a better life whether that means freedom from tyranny, safety from violent drug cartels, or economic prosperity from available jobs. Of course, there are those who seek to enter the country to do us harm, but they are actually a very small minority, and our border patrol rightly concentrate their efforts on preventing those people from entering the country.

Most migrants, whether they entered the country as asylum seekers or illegally, want nothing more than to live peacefully and to earn a living. Very few commit crimes against people or property. They are hard-working people who add more to our economy than they subtract from it. Once they are able to find jobs, they make purchases, pay state and local sales taxes, start businesses, pay income taxes, and they pay into Social Security and Medi-care even though they will never receive benefits from either program. Their cheap labor keeps our prices artificially low. In the mind of Trump, these migrants are doing what he considers to be “black jobs”. He continuously says that migrants are stealing the jobs suitable for black and brown people as though this is a reason to vote for him. His racism and thoughts about the role of black and brown people in this country is evident.

In fact, Trump represents a segment of the Republican Party who are white suprematists and Christian nationalists. We must remind voters that Trump enacted a Muslim ban and openly said he was against immigration to the U.S. of people from “shit hole” countries. He said he prefers people from Norway and Sweden. He repeatedly characterizes migrants as rapists, murderers, and insane people who will “poison the blood” of our nation, a Hitler phase. The anti-affirmative action, anti-CRT, anti-Woke, anti-DEI, anti-public school, and anti-history policies of the Republican Party and particularly of Project 2025 are designed to return black and brown people to historically “black jobs” and to return women to the kitchen and LGBTQ folks to the closet.

Who needs the labor of black and brown immigrants if American women are forced to have lots of babies? Who needs more black and brown immigrants if homegrown black and brown people are forced into the labor-intensive jobs again and public-school graduates fill our military ranks? Who needs immigrants if child labor laws are relaxed, and retirement becomes a luxury reserved for the independently wealthy?

If we are able to elect Kamala Harris and give her a majority in the House and Senate, she has promised to sign the border security bill into law. In addition, she will push to restore and preserve our reproductive freedoms and will protect our freedom to pursue our dreams, to be who we are, and to love whom we love without discrimination. Our job is to know the issues on the table and to dispel the misinformation, misconceptions, and outright lies being spread by Trump, conservative news outlets, and too many supporters of the Republican Party.

I suspect most Americans going about their daily lives seldom give much thought to whether they are liberal or conservative. Most people are likely a mixed bag when it comes to social and economic political ideology and if they vote at all, they tend to vote for people they like without regard to how that candidate’s stance on important social and economic issues will affect their lives. In the past, it may not have mattered too much who wins an election. However, this election is much different. We can’t afford to ignore low information nor disengaged citizens. The stakes are way too high. In the coming months, those of us who understand the consequences of this election must do all we can to inform the uninformed and to convince the apathetic among us to vote.

I’m a Christian liberal who spends a lot of time trying to convince others to elect candidates who will help to build the kind of society that I want to live in and a society where “everyone’s” children and grandchildren have the opportunity to thrive. Conservatives want the same thing for themselves and “their posterity”. Our idea of an ideal society differs.

As a liberal, I believe in a strong social safety net that prevents vulnerable people from starving and freezing in the streets. I believe in investing in the underlying welfare of all Americans by providing access to affordable healthcare, adequate education, clean air and water, roads and bridges, public safety, and emergency services. Liberals believe that a strong safety net empowers and enables people to work hard, support themselves, be inventive, pursue opportunities, and contribute their talent without worry and restrictions. Liberals believe that economic and social opportunities reduce crime, particularly crimes for economic gain. Conversely, conservatives believe that private businesses, churches, and individuals with a monetary incentive or an altruistic incentive are best suited to provide most of these services to citizens at market prices. They trust market incentives and religious sermons to ensure public safety against greedy unethical capitalists and petty criminals. In conservative thinking, the impoverished, fortified by religious underpinnings, should depend on the charity of others as opposed to a government safety net or resorting to crime. But just in case, they are willing to incarcerate impoverished law breakers and allow the market to punish unethical clergy and businesses. They envision a society where Americans pay the private sector for healthcare, education, roads and bridges, emergency services, and even those prisons.

These opposing views over human nature and the role of government fuel the fight over tax policies. This is why liberals fight to expand the safety net while conservatives consistently fight against funding food stamps, school lunches, public schools, improving prison conditions, moderating banking costs and debt relief, environmental protections, public health initiatives, and access to affordable healthcare. Conservatives genuinely believe these programs rob Americans of the incentive to work, the opportunity to be charitable, and stifle the competitive market’s ability to make bigger profits. Liberals believe these policies give hope, broaden opportunities, stem crime, and save lives.

Liberals believe that private sector monetary incentives or greed without regulations always lead to the exploitation of the vulnerable, the loss of innocent lives, and environmental hazards. Our country has a history of slavery, child labor, unsafe working conditions, and unfettered pollution that liberals worked to end. However, conservatives want to return to the days of deregulation. They are willing to sacrifice human lives and the environment for short-term profits because they believe poor working conditions, unbreathable air and undrinkable water, as well as low pay will incentivize “the fittest” people to work harder to improve their lives. In the conservative mind, a poor person remains poor because they are too lazy or too stupid to do better, so they rightly deserve their impoverished place in society. They believe that liberals want to rob from the rich to give to the undeserving poor through socially engineered safety nets. They believe some people are inherently better than others and that the better people deserve everything and the poor, nothing.

Liberals see people differently. They believe that every American is inherently equal and should have the freedom to choose how to live their lives without harming others. Liberals believe that children trapped in poverty have limited access to the very bootstraps for “pulling oneself up” that conservatives insist is a virtue lacking among the poor. Not surprisingly, a disproportionate number of the poor are from historically oppressed groups.

Conservatives fought integration, the Civil Rights Movement, and programs like Affirmative Action that opened previously closed doors to women and people of color. And they haven’t changed their tune, now fighting against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Conservatives have dug in their heels against a multicultural society, insisting instead that Christian males and some would add, “white” Christian males are the founders and rightful conquerors of this country and that they are therefore the only ones deserving of freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. They believe they have a mandate to return this country to the time when they made all the rules and held the highest positions. They pretend as if they are the only ones capable of leadership. They seek a return to the times when women, people of color, and LGBTQ people lived as second-class citizens.

Project 2025 is the blueprint made for Trump to follow if given a second term. His public denials are just more lies as proven by British undercover journalists in a taped interview of one of the authors. Project 2025 is designed to take this country to a place where the social safety net no longer exists and where women, non-Christians, and LGBTQ folks are stripped of their basic civil liberties and subjected to male Christian leadership. The idea is for women to be subjected to the men in their lives while stripping them of their reproductive rights and trapping them in marriages. The plight of people of color will be erased from the history books as contributors to the nation and as victims of a racist system that trapped many of them in cycles of poverty. LGBTQ folks will be stripped of their rights and their visibility. And immigration will be limited to white Christians. The disabled will become beggars. Any mention of climate change will be illegal. Liberal opposition will be silenced by the military. And the private sector market economy will be free of regulation to exploit workers and the environment as they take over healthcare, education, prisons, law enforcement, and infrastructure.

Those are the stakes in this election in a nutshell. Make sure your family, neighbors and friends know that sitting this election out can have dire consequences for them and the people they love. We must vote as though our lives depend on it, because it does.

When did we stop expecting sanity and common decency from our candidates, elected officials, and each other? I’m appalled at the things elected officials say in congressional hearings, particularly MAGA Republicans. Some in the media will try to claim that it’s a both sides issue. But I’d argue that they either haven’t been watching the hearings or they are more interested in retaining viewers than acknowledging reality.

Since Republican leaders decided that gaining political power was their top priority, they threw their support behind a loudmouth bully whom they knew was the epitome of everything they once claimed to distain. The insults, the constant lying, the conspiracy theories, the history of fraud, the immorality and even the criminal behavior was not enough to make the majority of them condemn nor reject him. They sold their soul to Trump for the promise of power. So, Trump became the standard bearer for public behavior among MAGA.

And it’s ugly. It’s not just the cult-like worship of Trump or the wrapping of themselves in the American flag, but their entire mean-spirited demeanor. As Trump continues making speeches filled with insults, lies, false promises and threats of violence, his followers emulate him on social media while the news outlets platform him with minimal fact checking as though he is a sane and decent candidate.

I get it, corporate media are in business for the views that bring in revenue. However, beyond that they realize the necessity of protecting their correspondents from violent threats since Trump attacks both outlets and individual journalists whenever he doesn’t like a question or his coverage. But this isn’t normal, and it certainly isn’t the kind of news environment that is healthy for our country. Our information channels are poisoned by a profit motive and cowardice.

Trump is a singular figure who has damaged the sanity and decency of a large segment of the population. The racism, misogyny, and the vitriol towards everyone who isn’t MAGA is not only divisive, but it is destructive to the nation. Families and friendships are being ripped apart along political lines. Sane and decent Republicans have fled the Party and become independents. But other, non-MAGA Republican leaders, remain attached to a movement they may privately loathe, hoping that MAGA is their ticket to continued political power.

The reality is that a nation of people cannot make good decisions for the future when information is corrupted with unchecked lies and tainted by conspiracies. Citizens who cannot trust the news media to deliver accurate information will fall prey to a con man who tells them what they want to hear. And right now, MAGA wants to hear that Trump will return this nation to a time when white Christian men were superior and privileged, where gays and transgender were closeted, where women were second class citizens who had babies and took care of the home, and where people of color knew their place (subservient to them). They prefer to hide history and our human differences in favor of a more comfortable narrative, no matter how inaccurate. They somehow believe a sweet American mythology is an effective route to a unified patriotism. And even more dangerous, they choose to ignore scientific warnings about global warming, pandemics, and environmental issues in favor of familiar comforts and old behaviors. All the while they are fed a steady diet of fear that migrants are invading the country from terrorists’ groups, prisons and insane asylums and that they are lying in wait to murder them in their beds.

Trump, a seasoned con man, has successfully weaponized their fears and offers a false hope of protection and assurances that they won’t need to change because he will magically, if not forcefully, restore their comfort in the world. He promises to deport migrants who he has convinced his followers are crazy criminals out to kill them and to steal “black jobs”. And since Project 2025 has been revealed and has become unpopular, he claims to know nothing about it. The reality is that it was tailored to his next presidency by people in his previous administration along with the Hertiage Foundation. He is lying when he tries to distance himself from it.

Project 2025 is the blueprint for a nation where the basic rights and the social safety net are pulled from beneath the most vulnerable among us. It is a recipe for disaster for anyone who is not wealthy, healthy, male, Christian, and highly ambitious. It is survival of the fittest with an unrealistic belief that the people negatively affected will not rebel. Human history has shown us that revolution is inevitable when people are oppressed and without hope. In other words, the comfort Trump offers MAGA is nothing but an illusion. His motive is to stay out of prison, be adored by his followers, and to line his pockets from the presidency once again by charging us millions for his golf trips and hosting foreign leaders at his hotels. This time the Supreme Court has made it possible for him to take bribes with impunity. And he most certainly will. Only money and adoration feed his insatiable ego.

I’m thankful that President Biden stepped aside just in time to allow Kamala Harris to become the new democratic nominee. She has energized the Party and sane Americans with a forward-looking message of guaranteed freedoms, prosperity, the rule of law, and an appreciation for the strength found in our diversity. I love her mantra, “We’re not going back!” If anyone can bring this nation back to sanity and decency, it is definitely the leadership of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. They likely are not perfect people (no one is), but the difference in their character, demeanor, and vision for the future is already evident to the reasonable among us.

So, we must do our part to bring sanity and decency back to the nation. Our duty begins with voting this November. We must support the candidacy of Democrats across the ballot, then make sure we are registered to vote, and then vote blue across the ballot as early as possible. Be aware that MAGA will do everything to suppress the vote and to steal the election, but we must not be deterred from nor denied a fair election outcome. As I said in my last blog post, we must win in overwhelming numbers to silence the election deniers. The sanity and decency of our nation depends on each of us.

The energy and momentum are clearly on the side of the democratic nominee, Kamala Harris. The polls have tightened, and some are now giving Harris a slight edge over Trump. But in this election, a slim win, particularly in battleground states, will not be enough to silence claims of voter fraud and refusals to certify elections. In addition to the presidency, we need to secure majorities in the House and Senate to really secure women’s reproductive rights, voting rights, protections for the environment, enact border security, and mitigate child poverty. In our approach to this election, we must be “wise as serpents and gentle as doves” as Jesus admonished in Matthew 10:16. It starts with sharing information.

A few people are unaware that our presidents are not elected by popular vote. They may see polls that put Kamala Harris ahead and think she will win and so they may decide to stay home, not thinking that we also need the House and the Senate to get things done and that state and local officials matter too. So, we must remind them that staying home must not be an option in any state. We must also remind folks that when it comes to the presidency, winning the most votes does not necessarily result in a win because of the electoral college. As a Californian, it drives me crazy that far less populated states or battleground states actually end up determining the outcomes of our presidential elections. These states include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. So, what’s does our wise strategy entail?

First, we, and everyone we know, absolutely must be registered to vote. A simple click on vote.gov will allow any citizen to register or update their registration if there have been changes. Please be aware that there are numerous reports that voters are finding that their registrations have been “magically” cancelled. Everyone should check their voter registration status through the National Association of Secretaries of State website NASS. You’ll click the link to “Voter registration status”.

Our next job is to determine when, where, and how to vote. In red states, urban cities often experience excessively long lines. This is a form of voter suppression. Although unfair, it is wise to determine alternatives to help reduce waiting times. Every state is different when it comes to when and how you can cast your ballot. Some states allow for early voting, drop boxes, and absentee voting. Plan to take advantage of voting in a way to shorten the lines. That same NASS website provides detailed information by state. That said, also make sure the college students living in battleground states have registered to vote absentee if they are going away to college. This ensures that they vote in the county where they live and where they are aware of the candidates and the issues. However, if they are going away to school in a battleground state, it might be more advantageous if they vote in the local election there. The voter registration requirements are on the NASS website and college students should ensure that they have the proper ID handy for that particular state as some states, like Texas, will not accept student IDs.

Having the proper ID ready is the final step in preparation for voting for everyone. States differ in their voter ID requirements and so it is imperative to check the requirements since many state laws have become stricter since the 2020 election. Once again, the NASS website provides state by state information on proper voter ID requirements.

At that site, you will find links to every detail related to voting by state, including information for voting by absentee ballot and how to become a poll worker. In addition, you will be able to find out who your county election officials are so you can contact them regarding any concerns you might have, such as unreasonably long lines, security concerns, or the rumors circulating that he or she might refuse to certify the election if Trump loses.

Beyond voting, we must each consider giving our time, talent, and treasure to the campaign to win this election across the entire ballot. Options include donating to the Harris campaign and to local candidates, especially to candidates in key battleground states for the House and Senate. We can volunteer, we can register voters, we can set out lawn signs, we can wear campaign gear, we can talk to our friends, family members, and neighbors about the issues and candidates we support. We can make social media posts and respond to misinformation. Artists can do art. Singers can sing songs. We can attend rallies. We each have a bit of time, talent and treasure to put to work.

This is going to be an historic election no matter which candidate wins. It is the election that will determine what direction our nation is headed. Are we returning to a past of inequality where wealthy Christian white males make all the rules and Trump lies flood our airways or towards a future where everyone has a seat at the table, and every citizen has the opportunity to succeed. The choice is ours to make, but we must be wise in our preparations for the election, steadfast as we cast our ballots, and resolved to ensure they are counted fairly. Only a decisive win, with undeniably large numbers for Harris, will silence the naysayers and make those who think violence is the answer, think twice.