There is nothing that frustrates me more than listening to “undecided” voters. Less than fourteen days before the election, what is there to be undecided about? Is the question on the table, “Do you prefer Michael Jackson or Prince?”
Our musical tastes are personal and have absolutely no impact on domestic or international policy. President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden? Now, that is a serious decision that will determine the future trajectory — downward or upward — of America as we know her. Our decision will change the course of not only American history, but global as well.
Trump is a proud racist. One of the most painful, damaging and potential lasting effects of the Trump presidency is the comfort with which racist White Americans, now comfortably spew their own insecurities and hatred not only at Blacks, but all minority groups, including immigrants. Having been encouraged by the President, the FBI has labeled some of them as nothing more than domestic-born terrorists.
Had America not elected President Barack Obama to the White House, Trump would have never been elected. Even the most illiterate of racist Whites would have laughed and sent him humiliated and packing back to his financially underwater, Russian debt-owed, business enterprises. He would have been encouraged to stand in a mirror and direct his trademark comment of “You’re Fired” at himself.
Sure, there were other variables, including sexism, Russian interference, too many folks deciding not to vote, White women supporting Trump as well as Secretary Hillary Clinton running a poor campaign. But the underlying factor was racism. Let us not forget that the seed of Trump’s 2016 run was challenging President Obama’s citizenship. According to 2018 poll, 51 percent of Republicans believe that he was born in Kenya. Hawaii is currently represented in the Congress by four members.
I continue to be amazed by those who support the president, despite his mishandling of COVID-19. On Election Day, there will, conservatively, be 240,000 dead Americans, including the president of my alma mater, Saint Augustine’s University, Dr. Irving P. McPhail, 70, and the mother-in-law of a former colleague, Sabina Evangelista-Grasso, 77. Our pain from COVID-19 is real and continues with seemingly no end in sight for the foreseeable future.
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans. Does his birthplace change the fact that he assassinated President John F. Kennedy? The pandemic had to start somewhere. Who cares where it originated? Therefore, how are Trump’s tired refrains of blaming China as the origin of COVID-19 of any comfort whatsoever to a grieving nation?
At the first debate, Trump openly mocked Biden for always wearing a mask: “I don’t wear masks like him. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away then shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
Three days later, Trump himself tested positive for COVID-19, along with the first lady, their son Barron and approximately twenty-six other administration officials. Having tested positive for the very virus he had previously dismissed as a “hoax by the Dems,” a part of me honestly wanted to believe that he would finally take it more seriously and seek to protect all Americans, including his far too often mask-less supporters. Any hope of that was dashed by his petulant motorcade around the hospital. Hermetically sealed in the car with his Secret Service detail, he waved to his supporters who themselves ignored social distancing and many were without masks.
At the final debate, Trump bragged that “we have turned the corner” with the virus. He said, “Americans are learning to live with it.” Later that week, 83,000 new positive cases were reported in one day here in the United States. After each of his super-spreader rallies, COVID-19 numbers increase.
In the first debate, Trump mocked Biden for always wearing masks. He makes fun of the very safety precautions that the Biden-Harris campaign takes to PREVENT the spread of the virus. The reality president regularly dismisses the expertise and advice of Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the world’s premier epidemiologists. Does this sound like a president who is genuinely concerned about ANYONE’s health? What a mockery of the presidency!
Former first lady Michelle Obama once said, “I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.” Trump’s presidency has revealed him for who he is at his core: an uncaring, incompetent, unsympathetic, disingenuous, insecure and spiteful shell of a man. To me, the choice is clear: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
So, why are you still undecided?