Grateful for President Biden
Grateful for President Biden
I say a brief prayer of thanks each morning that I wake up and remember that Joe Biden is president, rather than his predecessor. In recent years I’ve listened to NPR almost every morning when I first get up. During the 2016 campaign and the four years of the Trump administration, I was on edge each morning worrying about what horrible message might have been tweeted out overnight. It wasn’t just Trump’s actions that were upsetting, it was the disrespectful way he spoke of people he disagreed with and his unwillingness to respect common courtesies and traditions.
His decision-making was alarming. Every time a new appointment was announced, I could be fairly certain the person named was hostile to the purpose of the government post in which the person was to serve. The Education Secretary had no experience with public schools and seemed determined to stop any programs that would help them. Anti-environmentalists were appointed to positions where protecting the environment ought to have been a primary purpose. National monuments were in jeopardy. Who would have thought that an effort would be made to undermine the post office? At first it sounded like a sick joke, until pictures were shared of needed sorting machines being removed and scrapped along with actual mailboxes.
Now we have a president who speaks respectfully to everyone and shows compassion to those who are suffering, a man who is respected by leaders throughout the world, even though international regard for our country has been seriously damaged by the past administration. Foreigners have now seen the underbelly of selfishness, fraud, and stupidity that threatens to again take over our government.
Under President Biden we have many strong, well-qualified women in leadership positions, as well as men reflecting the diversity of our country. I no longer feel the need to check out each appointee to determine if they have the necessary background for the appointment they’ve received. I know that they have been well vetted and not selected because of campaign contributions, an appearance on FOX TV, or advocacy of an off-beat theory that caught the attention of our former president, a man who seemed to pride himself on not reading background material for any decision, but instead relied on personal feelings and the advice of TV commentators.
I am so grateful for the change of tone of messages from the White House and the existence of action plans that recognize the need to expand healthcare, reduce poverty, protect our parks and natural areas, increase respect for our diverse population and help prevent environmental disasters being brought on by climate change.
So much damage was done to our credibility as a nation, to the ability of our federal employees to do their jobs and to the long-range planning needed to prepare for the future, that it will probably take years to repair the harm done, if it is even possible.
At a time when so much progress is being made, it is disheartening to hear newscasters and newspaper headlines continually reporting that Biden is failing in the polls. The media is pre-occupied with highlighting controversy as a means of improving their ratings. They readily repeat the party line of the Republicans, whose only platform is undermining the president and opposing any legislation supported by Democrats. With no positive program of their own, the energy of most Republicans focuses on obstruction, with lies about a stolen election, and undermining all programs of the current administration, even those that would aid their own constituents. We now know that their game plan includes gerrymandering election districts so that only Republicans have a good chance of winning future elections, creating election laws which are patterned after the Jim Crow laws it took years to get rid of after the Civil War, and packing the courts with radical conservatives who have been trained and vetted to support an extremist agenda, far out of step with the views of most Americans.
I come from a family of long-time Republicans and served in several appointed government positions as a Republican, even running for the state legislature as a Republican. I don’t recognize the Republican Party of today. Along with many other people who have studied the disturbing trends in our country, I wonder each day whether our democracy will survive. Once voting rights are undermined and the government controlled by people skilled in rigging elections, we will be no different than the many countries now controlled by dictators and oligarchs. I keep hoping that a few Republicans in Congress will decide to act for the benefit of the country and join forces with the Democrats to get needed legislation adopted, rather than to line their pockets with campaign donations. It doesn’t look like that will happen. In fact, the strategy now seems to be to take the lies and obstructionist policies to local communities by stirring up hostility toward local school boards, public health employees and local election officials.
I wish I could see a way out of this depressing dilemma, which, unfortunately, comes at a time of a pandemic, which has been made worse by the poor planning and lack of constructive leadership of the Trump administration and the current opposition of many Republicans to common sense measures that could help control the spread of the disease.
We each need to do what we can to stop this threat to our country. For myself, I’m donating to organizations, elected officials, and candidates who support civil rights, environmental protection, and good government. I hope others will join me in that effort and find additional ways to save our heritage of fair elections and protection of natural areas, while we also seek to remedy the challenges of poverty, income inequality, and lack of adequate healthcare for all.
