Election 2020 - A Definitive Choice

American voters will be making a definitive choice in the Presidential election of 2020. This choice is a stark one between the current President, Donald Trump and the Democratic Party putative nominee for the Presidency, Joe Biden.

During the four years of his presidency, Donald Trump has shown himself to be largely incompetent to fulfill the complex and challenging responsibilities of that office. This has been exemplified many times during his administration. The most crucial and devastating proof of his essential inability to formulate reasoned and astute policy in the face of a national crisis is currently unfolding – that of course being his irrational and erratic response to the nationwide and global devastation brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic. His inability to comprehend the scope and complexity of this raging viral infection has been breathtakingly apparent and his refusal to formulate policy based upon the expert input of the scientists and epidemiologists who alone can find real and effective solutions to this crisis are striking and the resulting failure painfully devastating.

But even more troubling than this level of extreme incompetence is the unavoidable fact that he has a deranged mind, a wild and uncontrolled disdain for the truth and most importantly a deep-seated belief in white supremacy in an extremely pluralistic society and a determined and abiding inclination to the unabashed use of power and authoritarian rule. He has repeatedly used the office of the Presidency to enflame and exacerbate deep divisions that have long been festering within the American psyche. This has done great damage to American political life and stalled and stymied efforts that have been made in the past to address and correct serious social, cultural, and economic inequities that lie at the heart of many of the nation’s nagging problems.

With this in mind, if the voters at the poles in November choose this individual to continue as President, they will effectively be choosing a clearly autocratic government – an authoritarian regime. They would have declared themselves in agreement with a government that denies the legitimacy of the role of science and truth in public affairs; that consigns the agencies created for the public good such as the CDC and EPA to be agents of the powerful, that does not believe in the equality of all people and cares little for the health, safety and prosperity of its citizens. They would have ceded power to a government that seeks to control the nation’s destiny using the tactics of fear, lies, intimidation and ultimately employing violent means to establish its ascendency.

If the voters in November choose to go down this path, they will have effectively decided to abandon the essential aspects of a true Democratic Republic. Such a choice will have profound repercussions for the future and future generations. For, authoritarian rule will necessarily lead to utter and abysmal failure. The semblance of order and apparent security it promises is patently false; for it is not based on sound and moral principles and will ultimately fall from its own onerous weight as has been proven many times in the history of human civilizations.