The Central Question Before Us

 

The Central Question Before Us

The essential question of the 2020 presidential campaign is that of determining the key problems this nation needs to tackle within the next 10-20 years and which candidate and political party is best equipped to meet this challenge. No doubt, people differ on identifying these problems and that would be a worthwhile discussion.  Everything else is of a secondary nature. Given the large-scale failure of the federal government to effectively address our current crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic, any baseline for equipping the nation to meet the challenges of our times will require sound governance, combined with a modicum of national consensus in order to create the political climate to establish solid policy initiatives over a significant period of time.  

On these counts, alone, a Biden administration offers the likely prospect that federal positions will be competently filled with seasoned professionals, that cabinet departments will function based on reasoned policy formulation, and that the chief executive will focus his energies on fulfilling the national interest to the best of his understanding and ability. This will include grappling intelligently with divergent options opened up in any policy discussion, in which the president, informed by his executive team, will make decisions by assessing the cogency of various alternatives, including a reasoned assessment of trade-offs. Contrast this with the attempt by the current president to filter out and repress any sources of information which contradicts his uninformed mind, in which the government, in his corrupt view, is little more than an external projection of his unhinged id.

It seems to me that VP Biden has a fine grasp of the significance of the historical moment he may be about to enter into, in which the entirety of his career and value system calls him to embrace with the singularity of purpose and clarity of vision to rise to the occasion. This is in exact contrast to the current occupant of the White House who, apparently, is psychologically incapable of distinguishing what some of his supporters’ project as the national interest from that of his own self-interest, as he has narrowly defined it. On consensus building, Biden has drawn substantial support from a wide sector of the US public, spanning the ideological gamut from former Republican Governor, John Kasich to Bernie Sanders, from Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security Director under George W. Bush, to US Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and from Cindy McCain to Elizabeth Warren.

The Democratic Party has acted with much finesse in developing a range of policy initiatives on the economy, racial relations, immigration reform, health care, workforce development, and the environment through in-depth discussions between its liberal and progressive bases. All these issues identify the key policy focal areas that matter to the current and longer-term interests in buttressing the political, social, and economic sustainability of this nation.

Go to the Biden-Harris, Bold Ideas site at (https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/) for an overview. There you will see a well-constructed set of proposals linked to economic revitalization and the creation of good paying American jobs focused on building “a modern, sustainable infrastructure now and [that of] deliver[ing] an equitable clean energy future.” Biden’s plans also include a revised tax policy designed to help fund his “Build Back Better” proposal and a life-long learning education policy to equip the nation to meet the challenges of an increasing global and technologically-based economy. Biden also provides for an immigration policy oriented to address the longer-term problems within Central America that compel large numbers of people to flee that region. He also includes a health care plan that consists of a public option as well as a private market approach for those wanting to maintain the health care plans of their employers. Biden’s policy initiatives also address the critical matter of racial equity, veteran needs, gun violence, and several other areas of a social and economic nature.

At the core of Biden’s set of proposals is an integrated approach to the various challenges provoked by severe environmental problems, arguably the existential crisis of our times. This is so because issues related to global warming and the residual problems of the degradation of the environment will profoundly impact the quality of life in this country in a negative way in terms of flooding of our coastlines, the bursting forth of severe storms, like Hurricane Sandy of 2012,  and increased droughts linked to water shortages and devasting fires, as we have witnessed in the past two months in the far west.

Longer-term environmental crises will only intensify these problems. These will result in worldwide catastrophes linked to war due to diminished resources of arable land throughout extensive sectors of the globe and forced emigration of large numbers of people from those areas. These problems will put increased pressure on adjacent nations, often forced to take in the large brunt of fleeing populations, which will severely stretch their own limited resources. Such flight will also result in large-scale migration into Europe, in which Germany has magnificently stepped up with a very generous refugee policy, yet at the cost of much social strain, particularly a xenophobic reaction exhibited throughout Europe, mirroring that in the US under the Trump administration.

In these closing weeks of the campaign, give thought to what a Biden-Harris administration has to offer in contrast to another four years of a Trump-Pence led government.  If Trump’s attempt to prevent Biden from clearly laying out his vision in the recent presidential debate debacle is any indication of what the current administration has to offer, it is, at best, not much. 

2020