I was a stout libertarian for about five years. I also did not vote in 2016. When people say that nothing will change if we keep voting for the two major parties or that they may not vote this year, I understand you and I hear you. However, as stereotypical as it might sound, this election is different.
I am voting for Joe Biden this year. Let me tell you why.
Donald Trump is not just some other Republican. He is different, and not in a good way. He is not just another Republican president who the liberals or the “mainstream media” just don’t like. It is not traditional Republican values that Trump represents, and it is not traditional Republican values that Trump’s critics are worried about. Donald Trump is a dangerous president who does not care to follow or preserve the values of our country.
Donald Trump is an authoritarian president. Trump, and most of the Republicans in Congress, think that the country should be run based on a loyalty to him. Trump thinks that he alone can fix it, he has said as much. Donald Trump despises the Democrats. Instead of understanding that we have an adversarial system, he attacks them as if it isn’t part of their job to offer a balance. Trump, likewise, does not represent a large swath of the American public. He doesn’t even try to.
I’m not a registered Democrat, but when he calls Democrats “stupid,” “Marxists,” “socialists,” or “violent extremists,” I know that he is not representing me or many Americans. Remember, he is the president, the only political position that every single American votes for; he is supposed to represent all of us. We have a political polarization problem, and he is making it worse. He is supposed to unite us, not divide us.
Donald Trump is a president unlike any we have had before. Think about it. The United States of America, a land that was once a beacon of freedom, justice, equality and opportunity across the world, elected an authoritarian president who does not represent any of these. He might represent it for his supporters, and he might verbalize these words, but he doesn’t represent it for immigrants, black people, poor people, Democrats, or people who simply disagree with him.
America was once a land that was the brightest beacon of hope and justice for people all across the world. It provided hope for those people who lived in authoritarian or communist states or dictatorships. For them, America represented a place that advocated and fought for freedom, equality and justice unlike the systems that they lived in. The idea of America was a hope that truth and justice will prevail. To a degree, we still represent some of this, but Trump has knocked us off of that prestigious pedestal. Another four years of Trump will permanently damage our standing.
Instead, Trump has done the following.
He separated immigrant children, some less than a year old, from their families (and no, this was not a policy carryover from Obama as Trump likes to say). Trump has fired whistleblowers and inspectors general who reported illicit or corrupt behavior within the executive branch. These positions are a key check against an overreach of governmental power. No president has tried so hard, and got away with so much, in eliminating checks on himself. Likewise, he does not care about the checks placed on him by the Constitution. The checks and balances have failed to offer a check against him because he undermines the courts and Congress and does what he wants to anyway. And Republicans in Congress have rolled over to him. He has said plainly that Article 2 of the Constitution, the article that describes executive power, gives him total power.
He has installed loyal partisan hacks to high levels of government, many of which have never been approved by the Senate and are currently serving in an “acting” role. These people are loyal to him rather than to us, the American people. As one example, John Ratcliffe, previously a Republican Congressman, became the director of National Intelligence. Ratcliffe had no experience whatsoever in intelligence operations. Instead, his major merit was that he was a loyalist to Trump.
Trump fired FBI Director James Comey because he would not stop investigations into Russian interference that potentially involved illicit behavior on the part of Trump. He successfully blocked testimony that was likely damaging to him as well. Trump pardons his friends, like Roger Stone or Michael Flynn, who have been found guilty of lying to Congress or to the courts (and no, these people were not treated unfairly as Trump lies to say). Trump has used the immense powers of his office to pressure the Justice Department to investigate his political enemies. He has fired the prosecutors who would not follow these orders. Trump, instead of being a law-and-order president, has corrupted law and order to benefit himself.
Trump has had conversations with Vladimir Putin behind closed doors without any note takers or other representatives of the American government present. And we still don’t know what was said. Trump publicly stated that he trusts Putin over our own intelligence agencies. Our American founders created the impeachment clause specifically to prevent presidents who may be beholden to foreign interests. Trump has failed that test because we are nowhere near certain that he isn’t compromised personally or financially.
Trump, by meeting with the North Koreans multiple times, has given them a large platform with the most powerful person on earth. And he has been played by them. Because Trump thinks he has a relationship with Kim Jong Un, a dangerous dictator with nuclear weapons, Trump has reduced our defensive military operations in South Korea. Needless to say, Japan and South Korea are not happy about this. And we shouldn’t be either. An aggressive, nuclear dictatorship makes all of us less safe.
Trump almost invited the Taliban to Camp David. Luckily this did not happen, but if it did, it would give sanction and prestige to a terrorist group that has killed thousands of Americans and murdered thousands of innocent people. Think about it. A terrorist group would have had direct contact with the most powerful country and person on earth. The White House is a powerful voice for our world. It’s voice cannot be used irresponsibly. George W. Bush said that we do not negotiate with terrorists. Apparently, Trump does. We cannot give a voice to terrorists.
Trump has cratered our national credibility. America, a place that is supposed to be the leader in science and technology, has performed among the worst in response to the coronavirus. We have left our allies, like the Kurds, out in the dust by breaking military agreements. Trump has insulted and alienated our allies in the European Union and NATO. Germany has even prepared for a world in which the United States effectively does not exist and instead leaves a massive power void for countries like Russia or China to exploit and fill. America, instead of being a beacon of hope and equality, has become an icon of rage, irrationality, and nationalism under Trump.
In short, no president has ever been as dangerous to our form of government as Trump is and will continue to be if he is re-elected.
Because of these things, this election is different. This time it is true that this election is the most important in our lifetime. In years past, it hasn’t been true. Our government was not on the line when we were electing traditional Republicans or Democrats. Neither were fundamentally dangerous. But this year is different. Trump isn’t a traditional Republican who aspires to protect and promote our values. It was a mistaken trope to call elections of years past the most important of our lifetime. In those elections, it wasn’t dangerous to vote third party. In this election it is.
That is why I am voting for Joe Biden. He does represent the traditional American values. You might disagree with him on certain policies as I do, but this election is not about policies. It is about preserving this American Experiment. Call me a hypocrite if you’d like. But I’d prefer to say that I was mistaken in years past. If you don’t vote, or you vote third party this year, and Trump is re-elected, you will be like me for the last four years. You will regret every single day that Trump is our president. He is not only an embarrassment. He is systematically undermining our form of government that we have developed over the last 250 years. His behavior is unlike any previous president. He is a danger to our future.
This election is literally the most important of your lifetime. Trump must be removed.
Alex Auman is a Richmond Country native. He currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He writes about politics, ideas and current events.
