Tuesday, October 12, 2021

The soul of America is at stake. Biden was right

Joe Biden was elected because he was not  Donald Trump. In fact, as a person, he was Trump's polar opposite.  Biden was, fair, earnest, positive,  logical, moral, experienced, and a known quantity.  He was not elected because of his build-back better slogan. It never caught on because he never explained it in a way that was memorable. It is not working now because neither he nor the progressives have explained it well enough. There is a scramble now to give some time to explain it. When its elements are taken separately, they are popular but are not tied to the legislation in voters' minds... It is not an inspiring theme to just list a shorthand of what is in it. Obama had a hard time even selling the ACA because no one grasped the details or even how it was affordable..  Just waiting a couple of years until the benefits are experienced and slowly it dawns on people is too late for the next election cycle.   Hillary Clinton had the same problem.  She would bullet point her public policy proposals like a laundry list..and note how it would benefit segments of her targeted demographics again and again until the eyes of the audience would glaze over. The pressure is on both Biden and progressives to do the same thing.:" List its title and be done" is not inspiring or enough. It must be put in a context that means something to ones' gut. 

Biden should return to his original campaign theme, The Battle for the Soul of America.  and show how his BBB fits in. Above all, he now has enough evidence and experience in the past year, he should contrast it with the lack of soul and the damage to our soul committed by both the GOP leaders and the former president lusting for a second term and still in control of the GOP.  We cannot separate Trump from his party because they are one in the same now. The answer is not to see the trees instead of the forest. We need to see how what the forest is and why the trees contribute to it. The forest that we could have lost in the weeds is what is the soul of America. The Trump movement has become the beetle that is eating away at what has been our soul. The soul is, the ideal we have set for selves in the past and have not always met, but we have not abandoned it yet.  The soul is severely under attack. and Biden needs to show how it is happening..

 We know what has been the soul of America that made us so great.  It is hard work and being rewarded for that work.  We have made it hard for so many in America to even make enough to make a living. We can raise the minimum wage and it is rising, but we can do more to help them afford child care, give them an education for jobs we need today without going into debt, so we can have an extra two years of free education in community college. We can; help them plan their family and pregnancies and give them the tools to; keep them healthy so they can work and afford their health care. We know what helps women stay in the workforce: choice and vaccines for themselves and for those they love. and help to care for. those who are their responsibility. 

What the soul of America is not: a government that puts the power in the hands of those who are the minority. voting block.. regardless of which party. is in power and denies the ability of those they lord over to express themselves in the ballot box.   The soul is a government to reflect the will of its people, the majority, but it also protects the rights of those with other views and with complaints to demonstrate peacefully and to make their case in the media.  That is the soul we once were and should be in the future.


The soul of America we know looks at facts and data and asks questions of science and demands evidence before developing public policy.  To do otherwise on a whim or a theory is to court failure:.the" old garbage in, garbage out"  formula.. 

The soul of America is to promote fairness, not to excuse corruption or to condemn whistleblowers the moment they present their evidence whether it is in business or government,. 

The soul of America is fair play. We make the effort to provide umpires and referees in sports. It is that same sense of fairness that should be the soul of America in public policy and in our lives and our businesses.  It is not the soul of America to support cheaters and below-the-belt attackers and to look the other way when we see it..  However, fairness calls for instant replays and some checks and balances and consequences to constrain corruption of those in power with proof and evidence are for all to see.  Simply calling someone a cheater and a liar and whine they were a victim of foul play without evidence and proof is why we have had hearings and investigative reporters.  They are to be heard, not stonewalled.  That is the essence of a fair judicial and media system.  That is the soul of America and the way we learn who does not play fair or seeks to feather their own nests of power and wealth. Glorifying cheaters and law evaders who make it big is not part of our ideal.. Approval of robber barons and fraudsters is not the soul of America.  



https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/jul/14/are-state-legislators-really-seeking-power-overrul/

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html




https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/gop-grave-threat-american-democracy/618693/




  

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