This Election Demands Three Issues be on Joe Biden’s To Do List

The 2020 Election was historic in multiple ways. There can be no doubt that it was a second American Revolution, and the winner, Joe Biden, was celebrated in city streets around the world.

This was a war between the American people and the right-wing political machine. It was a notice to Moscow Mitch McConnell and his cronies that this is our country, not theirs. They are elected to work for us.

Let’s begin with the obvious; Moscow Mitch.

This 78-year-old, white, racist has failed our country for 36 years and last Tuesday the ignorant voters of Kentucky gave him six more years to f**k up our government. He created the “party of no.” On the Senate Majority Leader’s desk are nearly 400 bills passed in the House. He has refused to allow a single vote on any of them. Why? He and his party would be exposed as the party of special interests when they cast their vote against issues which would serve the people.

If term limits for congress existed, Moscow Mitch would not have been in the senate during President Obama’s administration or Trump’s. He is the ‘poster boy’ offering proof that congress must establish a law preventing “career politicians.”

I complain about Moscow Mitch, Chuck Grassley, John Cornyn, and Lindsey Graham, among others, and my Republican friends are tired of Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Bernie Sanders. On this, we are all correct. It’s time for young men and women who are more diverse and representative of our nation’s people to serve us in Washington.

In 1992 Bill Clinton won the popular vote and the Electoral College. The same was true in 1996. This is 2020, and only once in 16 years has a Republican president captured the popular vote. That happened in 2004 when Bush 43 was running for reelection in 2004. If the people, not the states, chose our president, a Democrat would have been living in the White House for the past 27 years.

The only fact which matters is that every vote should count. The 2016 and 2020 elections prove that the Electoral College is unconstitutional. In both elections the people did not matter, and millions of voters were not heard. The truth is that they wasted their time.

Regardless of who you voted for, the winner was decided by the Electoral College. If Biden had lost, he would have received an historical number of votes but not the presidency. This is wrong, and no argument will ever convince me otherwise.

Win or lose, my vote should mean something. It is the only weapon we have against our government’s corruption.

Finally, after an historic voter turnout, as the most contagious virus in modern history began a resurgence, voters turned out in record numbers. Added to the mail-in ballots, more than 146 million men and women made their choice known. In several countries voting day is a national holiday. America should follow their lead. Voting is a right and a responsibility.  Everyone should be able to vote from seven in the morning until seven at night. They shouldn’t have to stand in long lines before or after work or school, or be forced to take the day off without pay.  

We should not celebrate “President’s Day” because history has proven that many of our leaders were corrupt or incompetent, or both. We should celebrate the day the people choose the man or woman who will lead them for the next four years.

Change is needed. America must move forward into the 21^st century and these changes would go a long way in improving our failed system.

Op-ed by James Turnage

Photo courtesy of Steve Baker

My writing can be found HERE