There Are No Clean Hands In This Presidential Election

I have little faith in either candidate for president. My faith is in the people whom those candidates claim to represent.

So it looks like Joe Biden is officially, no longer just the presumptive, nominee. Everyone is talking about Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention. This year, the convention is a virtual convention. The speeches were recorded days ago and they have been rolled up into a single presentation that will span for days until the final votes are cast to confirm that Joe Biden is the nominee to run for president as the Democratic candidate opposing Donald Trump.

I have considered both men carefully, and I find that neither of them has clean hands. Both men have profited handsomely from a system of governance that they have promoted. Some call that system, “capitalism”. I have serious doubts that what we have in America today even passes for capitalism, let alone a free market. But I think it’s fair to say that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are wealthy as a result of the way the system is built. Therefore, their allegiance is to the system, not to us. They both owe a debt to the system, not to us.

When I see Joe Biden insist on promoting a public option for health care reform, rather than Medicare For All, I see him going against the poling. Medicare For All, as proposed by Bernie Sanders, is overwhelmingly popular among Democrats. Therefore, I must conclude that Joe Biden is not all that interested in real change.

Likewise, when I see Donald Trump nominate judges who are likely to rule against Medicare For All, I see a man who is not that interested in real change. When I see President Trump push lawsuits to overturn Obamacare, all the while, proffering no serious alternative, I see a man who isn’t committed to lasting, positive change for the country. Why is it that Trump and his GOP cohorts have no plan?

Joe Biden has been in politics for 50 years. He’s been in Congress for 50 years. Joe Biden has made enormous contributions to the legislative record in Congress that gave rise to the conditions that we face now, including the election of Donald Trump as president. Dare I say that nothing in politics is an accident?

Trump gave money to both parties. Trump is well aware of the influence that his money can buy, as noted by Vox in 2015: