Understanding the Biden Voter

After Trump's election in 2016, several books came out, including J.D. Vance's overhyped Hillbilly Elegy, which attempted to explain the "Trump voter."

So, not to be outdone, here's my "Biden Voter for Dummies" guide.

First of all, the Biden voter reads lots of good books, old and new. Maybe start with David McCullogh's John Adams, and follow that up with McCullogh's 1776. Try Richard Reeves' President Kennedy: Profile in Power. Add on Braungart and McDonough's Cradle to Cradle, and revisit Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. For some heavy reading, go back more than a century to Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History, followed by ADM (Ret.) James Stavridis' Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World's Oceans to get a 21st-century perspective. Instead of Vance, try David Joy's The Weight of This World or Where All Light Tends to Go which focus on meth and opioids in the southern Appalachians. And if you want to learn more about the intersection of racism and economics in the South, Wiley Cash's historical novel The Last Ballad will explain why there were no unions in the Carolina cotton mills.

And the Biden voter listens to music. Iris Dement, James McMurtry, Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers are a good start. The Drive-by Truckers and American Aquarium have new releases talking about politics and life in the pandemic. Try anything, and everything, that has Rhiannon Giddens involved. And most of all, all of John Prine - the entire catalog. Or make it simple by tuning in to WNCW 88.7 FM, or stream at https://www.wncw.org/.

And begin and end with the Bible. Start with Isaiah and Ezekiel and Micah to get a glimpse of what God might have to say about what a just and righteous society should look like.

Reading and listening to all that will help you understand the Biden voter. 

Good luck!

A Principled Conservative Party

A common thread through many op-ed columnists that I read these days is the need for the rise of some kind of "principled conservative" political party. It's really more difficult to dig down beyond the label to find out what that means. There are catch phrases thrown around like "fiscal conservatism" and "limited government." These sound harmless enough, but in practice (at least in my adult lifetime) they have been empty promises (or threats, depending on one's perspective). And using the word "principled" seems to suggest a rejection of more than a half-century of the Southern strategy, where the conservatives embraced the Southern segregationists.

Yet those of us who grew up in the Jim Crow south (schools in Union County, SC were segregated until my 9th-grade year), understand that without the segregationists and their ideological descendants, the current Republican Party as we know it would go the way of the 19th-century Whigs and Know-Nothings. If the GOP decided to reject the Southern strategy and confess much as Lee Atwater did on his deathbed, what appeal would "principled conservatism" have? More importantly, what would be the major policy planks in a "principled conservative" party platform?

Well, some might start with fiscal conservatism as a significant plank. That one is pretty easy to rip up, as for all their talk of fiscal conservatism, in practice the GOP has run up huge deficits in the cause of tax cuts for the wealthy, and using the plank as a bludgeon against the economic safety net.

Advancing free market capitalism might be a plank. But taxpayer-funded giveaways to profitable corporations doesn't fit into any textbook definition of capitalism, at least without the modifier "crony" attached. At it's worst, such crony capitalism turns into oligarchy, or in the extreme, fascism.

Law and order might be a plank. But law and order without aggressive protection of the people's 4th amendment right coupled with the equal protection of the laws descends into the kind of police state that the most vile tyrant would applaud.

Limited government might be a plank. But, like with law and order, those were planks of the segregationists, who used them as baseball bats (sometimes literally) against those who marched to advance their 4th amendment and equal protection rights. In the segregated South, that was a dog-whistle, saying, "Don't let the big bad government make my little Susie go to school with those people."

So I would like the details filled in. What would a principled conservative party look like? To whom would it appeal? Who are some current prominent politicians that would represent this principled conservative party? 

Inquiring minds want to know!

Swearing Off Trump

 I posted on Facebook over the weekend that I am done with Trump - no more comments, no more rants, no more railing against his manifold sins and wickedness. Instead, I'm looking forward to January 20, 2021. On that day I believe we will see reborn the promise of America, as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take their oaths of office. What can we look forward to?

• Restoration of American influence on the world stage. The election results have brought a collective sigh of relief to our traditional allies in Western Europe, signaling a renewed vigor in the NATO alliance. As a result, we are likely to see the Iran nuclear deal restored, putting the brakes on Iran's ambitions in a multi-national effort that President Obama crafted. Recommitting the United States to the Paris Agreement could spur the United States into world leadership in the 21st-century global energy transition. 
• Renewed vigor in environmental policy. President-elect Biden outlined an assertive environmental and energy policy during the campaign, signaling restoration of the Clean Power Plan, breathing new life into the Environmental Protection Agency, and building on nearly a half century of the triumvirate of environmental legislation: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
• Sensible, comprehensive immigration reform. Early in his term, President-elect Biden will reverse harmful executive orders put in place by Donald Trump. Then he will push Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform along the lines of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. That bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support, but was blocked in the House by then-Speaker John Boehner. 
• Restore and improve the Voting Rights Act of 1965. If preclearance was unfair because it didn't apply to all states, then revise the law to require the Justice Department to clear every state election law change before they take effect. Establish Federal standards for election technology, absentee ballot handling, early voting, and other critical matters for Federal elections.
• Respect for the separation of powers and our norms and traditions. With deep experience in both the Legislative and Executive branches, Biden is steeped in institutional history. He knows how to make the deals that need to be made to improve the lives of the American people. 

Most of all, I'm looking forward to a President who does not seek to be the center of attention all day, every day.