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Hello Everyone:
After a short break, The Candidate Forum is back with a look ahead at the final sprint to the finish of the 2020 election cycle. It seems like forever ago that there were twenty-four potential Democratic nominees, including former Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE) and California Senator Kamala Harris (D). Slowly but surely, the field whittled itself down to the final two who now stand, ready challenge to the incumbent Republican ticket of Mr. Donald Trump (R-NY) and Vice President Mike Pence (R-IN). How would The Candidate Forum describe the bell lap of the 2020 Presidential Election? Being on the biggest and wildest roller coaster going as fast as it can go and you are barely able to hold on. With that image embedded in your brains, let us have a look.
Before we go any further, have you made a plan to vote? If you have not, text VOTE to 30330 and make a plan. If you plan to mail in your vote, make absolutely sure you postmark your secure completed ballot by midnight October 15th. This will give the post office enough time to process your ballot. If you are a sports fan and want to vote in person, all of the basketball arenas will available for you. For Los Angeles fans, Staples Center, home of the Lakers and Clippers, is here for you. Onward
As the top candidates emerged from their respective relatively trouble-free conventions into the bell lap of the race, both campaigns acknowledge the contest is getting tighter by the day. After months of virtual campaigning from his basement, the Gentleman from Delaware has launched a new in-person phase to help him mute any gains the incumbent makes.
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| The candidates cnn.com |
Anita Dunn, Biden campaign senior adviser told ABC News,
This campaign has always known that it's going to be a close race, it's going to be a tough race,... (abcnews.go.com; Aug. 31, 2020; date accessed Sept. 9, 2020)
An acknowledgment of the fact that "no Democrat presidential candidate since 1964 has earned more than 52.9% of the vote" (Ibid). She added,
...It's a polarized nation and we expect this kind of tightening (Ibid).
Each side has cast the other as fundamental existential threat to the American future, offering voters a starkly different concept of reality during the conventions. The Democrats have cast the incumbent president as an incompetent racist with autocratic leanings who has failed to protect the nation from the COVID-19 pandemic while undermining America's foundational democratic principles (Ibid). The Republicans have cast the Gentleman from Delaware as a senile old man under the control of the his party's radical left wing, completely incapable of protecting suburban voters from the lawless mob of protesters. Campaign rhetoric intended to gin up voters. One time Democrat nominee candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN) summed it up,
America doesn't feel like one country with all all the chaos and division,... We should be ready for literally anything in the next couple months,... 2020 isn't done serving up shocks and surprises (Ibid)
No truer words and today's revelation over how much the incumbent president knew about severity of the pandemic is a prime example.
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| The incumbent president and Bob Woodward esquire.com |
In March of this year, the incumbent president admitted to journalist Bob Woodward, "that he publicly downplayed the dangers of the coronavirus as it silently spread around the world, hoping to avoid a panic even as he recognized how 'deadly' the virus could be" (cbsnews.com; Sept. 9, 2020). Mr. Woodward interviewed the incumbent president for his new book Rage, and audio excepts of the recorded interviews were posted today by CNN and The Washington Post.
The incumbent president admitted to Mr. Woodward during a March 19th interview that he was deliberately downplaying the severity of the pandemic in public. He said,
I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to create a panic (cbsnews.com; Sept. 9, 2020).
This dubiously concerned sounding sentiment along with pushing the states to re-open and slow to don a mask seems to be part a concerted effort to create an alternate reality where he is the great savior of the United States. An alternate reality where the economy is booming, school children are marching off to class, industries are humming along, and COVID-19 does not exist. The incumbent president repeatedly pushed this narrative, even repeating that he believed the virus will go away (cbsnews.com; Sept. 9, 2020).
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| White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany politico.com |
Speaking to reporters today, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted the incumbent president always took the threat of the pandemic seriously from the start, despite the president's own statement to Mr. Woodward about publicly downplaying the threat. When asked if the president intentionally misled the public about the seriousness of the pandemic, Ms. McEnany insisted, Absolutely not (Ibid). She claimed,
The president has always been clear-eyed with the American people,... never downplayed the virus (Ibid)
Why is The Candidate Forum bringing up this subject? Two reasons: First, the pandemic will play a large role in determining who will sit in the Oval Office beginning 20 January 2020. Second, the incumbent president is facing new tests of his character and conceding, on the record, that he knew as early as February just how deadly COVID-19 is and deliberately played it down raises fresh questions.
| Trump quotes from The Atlantic msnbc.com |
Were any of you really surprised by allegations that the incumbent president made disparaging remarks about American war dead? You can read the full article, dated September 3rd, at theatlantic.com. The remarks, first reported in The Atlantic, later corroborated by several media outlets, seemed quite in sync with the incumbent president's public persona despite the flood of denials from current and former administration officials did little to diminish the impression that the incumbent president is someone who says mean things. When excepts of disgraced former Trump attorney Michael Cohen's book book portrayed the incumbent president as a cheat, liar, fraud, racist, predator, and grifter followed the explosive article, were you shocked?
In the final weeks of the seemingly endless election cycle, the incumbent president is hoping voters do not care. He will keep disparaging war heroes and generals while claiming how much he respects the military. He will ignore effort to reckon with this country's racist history while trying to convince suburban voters he is not a racist. Like in 2016, when vulgar comments he made on camera about committing sexual assault, voters find themselves in the position of deciding whether the incumbent president's character matters to them in the grand scheme. In 2016, it did not and we know the rest.
At the heart of the 2020 election cycles is character. Life changing events like the pandemic and protests have become tests of the incumbent president's fiber. Whether the incumbent president cared enough to confront the severity of pandemic, whether he had empathy for newly-unemployed Americans, and whether he show compassion toward those who have been historically oppressed.
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| Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE) en.wikipedia.org |
Former Vice President Joe Biden has specifically made the incumbent president's character a central argument for his election, and has been forthcoming about the fact that he might not be running for president had his rival been a more traditional Republican. For their part, Republicans have accepted the fact that character will play a central role in the voters' final decision-making in November. Programming during the Republican National Convention included personal testimonies from people how tried to cast the president as a caring, compassionate, empathetic person without a racist bone in his body.
Be that as it may, the post-convention poll, which have remained mostly steady, indicate that full volume glowing testimonials did very little to change the voters' impression of the incumbent president as childish, disrespectful, apathetic person. Which is why Jeffrey Goldberg's article in The Atlantic and revelations that the incumbent president deliberately downplayed the severity of the pandemic raise more doubts about whether Mr. Trump is has the moral fiber to serve a second term.
Despite testimonials from African American Republican claiming that the incumbent president cared about racial harmony, Mr. Trump's actions since the convention speak for themselves.
Since the convention, the incumbent president has dismissed the idea that structural racism exists in the United States--including during a controversial visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where police shot Jacob Blake in the back several times. When asked by reporters whether he believed systemic racism exists, he chose to focus instead on violence taking place during the demonstrations. He further codified his view into policy. This past Friday, his chief budget officer instructed the heads of federal agencies to dramatically alter racial sensitivity training programs for employees, deemed un-American propaganda (cnn.com; Sept. 7, 2020; date accessed Sept. 9, 2020). This past Sunday, the incumbent president announced that the US Department of Education would investigate whether California schools are using The New York Times Pulitzer-Prize winning "1619 Project" as part of their curriculum. Actions do speak louder than words.
Pandemic and protest will decide who sits in the Oval Office beginning 20 January 2020. Both candidates have painted a version of reality that voters will have to decide to accept. Actions speak volumes and voters will have to decide whose actions speak the loudest.
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