Joe Biden Gets It Done

 Joe Biden Gets it Done

It is his election to lose

I have never been as optimistic about a presidential election as I am about this one. We now have a rematch between the strongest Democrat and the weakest Republican their respective parties could have picked.

President Biden’s recent State of the Union Address laid to rest all of the posturing about his age or mental acuity. He was able to speak clearly about his accomplishments and plans for governing while dealing spectacularly with the GOP hecklers. He was feisty and enjoyed the give and take. He followed the speech with his proposed 2025 budget which addresses many of the major concerns of most Americans. Rather than retreat into a safe middle ground in this election year, Biden tacked clearly left as he took on unconscionable wealth disparity, reproductive healthcare, support for organized labor and other progressive issues.

Recognizing Wisconsin as a pivotable swing state, his announcements yesterday for urban improvements in Milwaukee and Vice President Harris’ visits touting economic growth and reproductive healthcare were welcome news. Even Dr. Jill Biden has made trips here to show the administration’s support for Wisconsin working families.

Biden has shown what can be accomplished when given majorities in both houses of Congress. His infrastructure improvement actions, reductions in inflation and unemployment, reductions in student loan debt, pushbacks against Big Pharma and others show working American families he is clearly on our side.

As the MAGA majority in the House of Representatives continues to shrink with resignations and retirements, it is still possible that Democrats and more sensible Republicans can come together on a discharge petition forcing Speaker Johnson to bring the bills providing aid to Ukraine and Israel to a vote in the House. The aid for Ukraine has overwhelming support among voters in both parties and among GOP House members who are not aligned with the far-right Freedom Caucus apparently controlled by the former occupant of the White House. There is even hope for passage of the bi-partisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate.

All of these positive and productive measures show us that President Biden is more than fit to lead the country for another four-year term.

In stark contrast, the GOP has all but nominated the former president for the rematch. The cult surrounding him has gutted the Republican National Committee of anyone who dares to question the party’s choice. What funds the RNC may have will soon be diverted from electing Republicans up and down their ticket to a slush fund to help the former president pay the judgments against him and the lawyers defending him in his several state and federal criminal cases.

The former president has fully embraced authoritarian Christian nationalism and vowed to end democracy as we know it by eliminating federal civil service, ending protections for minorities, women and the LBNGTQI community. He has vowed to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after those who oppose him and to detain immigrants and others he deems unworthy.

The GOP response to President Biden’s State of the Union address by a young woman Senator sitting in her kitchen feigning outrage and disbelief could not have sent a more telling message. Women belong in their kitchens, serving their men and producing more babies even if they are elected to the United States Senate.

We have yet to hear a single message from the GOP that addresses how a GOP led administration might deal with protecting democracy abroad, making working families more financially secure or how elderly Americans might survive after their Social Security and Medicare earned benefits are taken away.

Most importantly, the GOP has no plan on how their candidate might fulfill the duties of his office, much less play golf, from inside a prison cell. Clearly, the GOP believes that there will be no criminal convictions of their candidate before November and that after election day all these pesky prosecutions will just go away. Having spent several decades in criminal courts, I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty that the odds of the former president avoiding conviction and prison time are practically nil.

Last time around Joe Biden won the presidency by over 7 million votes. This time, the margin of victory will be much larger and democracy will prevail.