Current Events
2024 USA Presidential Election
Lot of people are struggling with the upcoming presidential election, and see it as a choice between two terrible candidates. Many are feeling that they will be voting against a candidate instead of for a candidate. Here are some options people may be considering:
Don't bother voting. The 2020 presidential election had 67% voter turnout.
Note that voter suppression is a real thing that prevents people from voting through polling place restrictions or closures, targeted voter roll purges, and other practices.
Vote for a third party, which historically has no chance of winning.
Try to replace one of the candidates at the last minute - for example replacing Biden with a different Democrat party sponsored candidate.
Vote for the least bad candidate
This is amplified by popular media reporting on politics, which is almost exclusively focused on the character and nature of the candidates and has very little to say about their policies and what they will do if elected. Instead the news that reaches most people is about Red Team's felony trials and convictions, and Blue Team's weak and possibly mentally unfit leadership.
Vote for a platform, not a person
But it is still possible to find platform information, and that matters because we aren't really voting for a single person but for an administration. Let's take a quick look at their stated administration policies in the sections at the bottom. A lot of policy statements are promises and not specific enough to understand what would actually be done.
Now that we are refreshed on the policies, we still have to separate what these administrations actually do vs. what they may be promising, which can be done by combining promises with the accomplishments of past red team and blue team administrations. Here are some differences between the platforms:
Red - Deport millions of immigrants who are in violation of immigration policy.
Red - Pass nation-wide school choice, which in practice defunds public schools in favor of private schools
Red - Suppress school teaching of historic/systemic racism, gender science, LGBTQ+ and other culture war topics.
Red - Reduce taxes and all kinds of regulations on businesses, such as pollution regulations. Increase fossil fuel production.
Red - Protect police from lawsuits. End "politically motivated persecution" of Trump and others in the court systems.
Red - Make it harder to vote.
Blue - Incentivize electric cars, improved rail systems, and other ways to slightly address pollution and climate change.
Blue - Raise the minimum wage. Improve healthcare coverage with zero-premium plans provided by the government. Improve worker protections and increase funding for enforcement of worker protections. Improve protections for women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, aim for racial justice and equity.
Blue - Pass gun control laws
Blue - Nation-wide ban on school choice, which will strengthen public schools.
Blue - Make it easier to vote.
Since third party votes are wasted until we use ranked choice voting, use this information to vote for the platform that you want the most.
Not done yet!
Then, look for things we want that neither administration is offering.
If you want government to deal with the missing topics, or deal more effectively on topics that are weak promises, the best course of action is to get involved locally and build political power in your community on those topics.
Consider reading these related articles next:
Wedge Issues - https://www.globaldragons.org/wedge-issues
Building Community - https://www.globaldragons.org/building-community
Appendix - Platform info
(read the link, this is just a quick summary)
Immigration - Border security and immigration policy. Build a southern border wall and deport millions of immigrants who are in violation of immigration policy.
Economy/Taxes
Rebuild our domestic manufacturing economy and become energy independent by increasing use of fossil fuels. Protect our domestic industry from global trade with high tariffs on imports. Prevent China from buying US assets and ban certain types of imports from China like cars. Ban international outsourcing for companies that do business with the Federal Government.
Keep the military well-funded and best in the world
End income tax on tips (alternative to raising minimum wage)
No cuts and no changes to Social Security and Medicare
End the federal electric vehicle mandate (referring to emission standards set by Biden's EPA), and cut other regulations that get in the way of the economy.
Voting - same-day voting only, voter IDs, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship.
Housing - Make housing more affordable by reducing inflation (lowering interest rates) and selling federal land to private developers. End homelessness.
Education - Create affordable alternatives to four-year College degrees. Pass universal school choice (using public school funding for alternative schools of parents choice). Remove federal funding for schools that include Critical Race Theory, "radical gender ideology", and "other" inappropriate content. Restore the 1776 Commission. Ban male to female trans athletes from competing in women's sports. Give more power to states for education.
Healthcare - Make healthcare more affordable by improving transparency, choice, and competition.
Protect gun rights
Protect police from lawsuits.
(As of July 10th, 2024, I could only find national policy platform from 2020)
Immigration - increase asylum and undocumented immigrant protections. End wealth tests for immigrants. Provide path to citizenship for people in the country.
Economy/Taxes -
Raise the minimum wage and pass union supporting laws (such as PRO Act). Repeal "right to work" laws and take action on non-compete clauses, no-poaching agreements and other contracts that force workers into mandatory arbitration.
Increase Dept of Labor and EEOC funding to enforce labor laws and fight racial/gender discrimination.
Implement paid sick and leave system. 12 weeks paid family/medical leave per year. Improve tax incentives for child/dependent care costs and childcare providers.
Fund clean energy. Improve the rail system to reduce pollution and increase access to jobs.
Improve access to internet and clean water and clean air.
Support domestic manufacturing, by modifying tax and import laws. Improve small business and farm lending.
Fight unfair global trade practices from China (or others) who manipulate currency exchange or use unfair subsidies to dump products into USA market. Crack down on US companies outsourcing.
Increase taxes on higher earners, corporations, and investors.
No cuts and no changes to Social Security and Medicare
Reduce military spending
Voting - Stop voter roll purges. Stop closure of polling places that target certain kinds of voters. Challenge state laws that make it harder to vote. Make election day a national holiday.
Housing - improve home buying tax credits. Expand low-income housing credits to incentivize private-sector construction of affordable housing. End homelessness. Do more to protect renters and equal access to housing.
Education - Ban school choice. Improve funding for public schools and improve equity across zip codes. Make college free for families earning less than $125,000 a year (80% of families at the time). Student debt relief.
Healthcare - incentivize states to expand medicaid, raise incentives for rural health centers etc. Increase food subisidies for kids and low income people. Create a "public option" for healthcare with no premium run by the government. Legislate prescription drug pricing. Increase transparency and competition. Gender-affirming healthcare, abortion/reproductive healthcare. Fight state laws that limit these. Improve mental healthcare to reduce gun violence.
Gun rights - add universal background check. End online sales. No guns for domestic abusers or violent felons etc. Ban "assault weapons" and high capacity magazines. Increase gun licensing and use restrictions. Civil liability for gun manufacturers.
Reform the criminal justice system. Protect women's rights. Protect LGBTQ+ rights. Protect disability rights. Achieve racial justice and equity.
Deal with climate change