December 17, 2023December 17, 2023 An Open Letter to President Biden and the DNC (A note about why I am writing this ((Since first launching this website and blog back in 2004, I’ve managed to avoid discussing or writing about politics. Over the last two decades, however, much has changed and society now has reached a point where the everyday actions of politicians will decide whether our future is simply one of survival, or something more positive.)).) Dear President Joe Biden and Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jaime R. Harrison, After learning today of President Biden’s second scheduled visit to Milwaukee in less than six months ((Biden will campaign in Milwaukee this coming Wednesday, December 20, 2023. He previously campaigned here on August 15, 2023.)), I feel I must share what I as an ordinary voter ((Who am I? Demographically I am a cis male living on the lower end of what is defined financially as “middle class.” I am not a celebrity nor an influencer. I work hard at my 40+ hour/week job and do my best to live ethically and respect others. I do not belong to a political party, but usually vote for Democratic candidates — and I DO vote.)) have been feeling and thinking for the past year. Simply put, if Joe Biden runs unopposed in the upcoming Democratic presidential primaries, I will not vote to reelect him in the November 2024 election. How did I get to this point? In 2016. we were repeatedly told by the Democratic Party leadership (and others on the left) that even if we didn’t agree with Hillary Clinton, it was critical to vote for her to prevent someone like Trump from becoming president. I agreed and voted for Hillary. In 2020. we were repeatedly told by the Democratic Party leadership (and others on the left) that even if we didn’t agree with Joe Biden, it was critical to vote for him to prevent Trump from continuing as president. I agreed and voted for Biden. ((During the 2020 campaign, many voters (and based on everyone I know and everything I heard, I suspect it actually was “most” voters) saw the 2020 presidential election as a referendum on whether Donald Trump should be allowed to remain in the White House for four more years. The specific Democratic nominee running against Trump became largely irrelevant — instead voters like myself bought in to the (largely unspoken) messaging of “anyone but Trump.” To be clear, Joe Biden was not my first/preferred choice for president in 2020 (that was Bernie Sanders, with Elizabeth Warren as a close second), but once Biden received the Democratic nomination I felt it was imperative to vote for Biden as a vote against Trump.)) And now in the year leading up to the 2024 presidential election, we again are being told by the Democratic Party leadership (and others on the left) that even if we don’t agree with Joe Biden, it is imperative to vote for him to prevent Trump from returning as president. Why don’t I agree with that appeal this time around? 2024 will be the third consecutive presidential election where the electorate is being told “a vote for the Democratic nominee is a vote against Trump.” Unlike 2016 and 2020, however, this time around the electorate has had no say in choosing who that Democratic nominee will be. Joe Biden is entering the 2024 primary season with no significant ((At the time of this article, Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips are the only other declared Democratic presidential candidates, and both trail Biden by 60 points in most polls.)) challengers in the Democratic state primaries. The reality is that Biden has already been crowned the 2024 Democratic nominee by the party establishment, without a single vote being cast for him. The Joe Biden presidency, however, has not been one that I am proud to have voted for. Biden may be classified by the media and political pundits as a moderate Democrat, but his positions (and subsequent actions as President) on a number of key issues have been problematic and barely indistinguishable from those of the Republicans. Here is a short list of key issues where Biden is totally out-of-sync with constituents like myself: Climate Change — Despite the science denial from the GOP, we’ve been aware of climate change for decades. Unfortunately we’ve now reached a point where the Earth is warming faster than most models expected, with the result that climate change is the greatest threat to continued human existence. And critically, we’re running out of time to stop that threat. Up until now, politicians have done little to counter climate change. Was rejoining the Paris Accords important? Yes. Is that anywhere near enough to stop climate change? The adage “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” comes to mind. Bold action is required, to the point where the President’s work to slow and stop climate change should be the clear #1 priority. The Biden administration has not only been slow to address climate change, they’ve taken huge steps in the wrong direction, such as greenlighting expansive new drilling for oil in Alaska. Under the actions taken by Joe Biden thus far, we are not even slowing climate change. The current threat has been covered extensively elsewhere ((A few sources: NASA: Vital Signs of the Planet, NASA: How Do We Know Climate Change is Real?, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), InsideClimateNews.org)), but the bottom line is that we’ve blown past the point where Earth’s climate can support our current lifestyle and are racing toward the point where most of the life on this planet withers into extinction. Immigration — President Biden’s approach to immigration shares one very unfortunately quality with the GOP’s approach; lack of respect for the individuals (humans!) who find themselves out of options and fighting for survival. Instead of making the effort to understand what has happened to these people and anchoring policy on that knowledge, the Biden administration continues the fiction that immigration is somehow akin to pest control. As just one example, in February the administration released a rule barring migrants from applying for asylum in the US if they traveled through a third country on their way to the US-Mexico border. Disturbingly this rule mirrors Trump-era policies because by default it assumes those migrants are ineligible for asylum (until proven otherwise) ((This example hints at a larger question underlying how the US classifies and treats immigrants. The longstanding questionable logic has been that until an immigrant receives US Citizenship, they are not entitled to the so-called “universal” rights and legal protections provided through the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and other Amendments. Thus for example an immigrant can be held/jailed for any length of time without a hearing. If we truly believe these universal rights apply to everyone, however, then why does our system go out of its way to deny those rights to non-citizens? Is an individual less human based solely on where they live or were born?)). Plus if the previously mentioned issue of climate change isn’t brought under control, immigration will become an even larger issue. COVID-19 — With over 1,000 deaths and 23,000 new hospital admissions in the US every week due to COVID-19 ((Data as of December 9, 2023.)), the pandemic is most definitely NOT OVER. But almost since beginning his term, President Biden has taken an “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” attitude, including ending the national emergency response to COVID-19 back in April of this year. In addition, given that one of the president’s responsibilities should be setting a positive example for Americans, Biden’s flippant attitude about mask wearing is problematic. Mask wearing has been proven ((People who always wear an N95/KN95 mask in indoor public settings are 83% less likely to test positive for COVID-19 than those that don’t wear a mask. Andrejko KL, Pry JM, Myers JF, et al. Effectiveness of Face Mask or Respirator Use in Indoor Public Settings for Prevention of SARS-CoV‑2 Infection — California, February–December 2021.)) to be one of the most effective methods of stopping the spread of COVID-19 (not to mention preventing the spread of numerous other airborne germs). Surgeons and other medical personnel have worn masks regularly for over a century ((The Lancet: “A history of the medical mask and the rise of throwaway culture”)) because masks are proven to reduce the spread of infections and disease. And the reality is that for many immunocompromised Americans, masks often are the only things standing between them and a potentially fatal illness. If President Biden doesn’t have the political spine to stand up to the science deniers and wear a mask in public, at least stop making chuckling asides about “forgetting” to wear a mask. Ending Economic Disparity — President Biden talks nearly constantly about how he fights for the average American, those in the middle and lower classes. Yet in spite of all that bluster, we’ve seen no real action in the last three years that would seek to change the base inequity. An astounding 11.5% of all Americans and 17.1% of African Americans ((US Census: Poverty in the United States — 2022)) are living below the poverty level ((There is a hate-filled yet commonly repeated neoliberal narrative that claims that if an American is poor, it is somehow their own fault. But the number one predictor of how much money you earn is not how hard (or how many hours) you work; the number one predictor of financial success is how wealthy your family is. Simply put, if your family is affluent, you likely will grow up to be affluent as well. That is not the promise of the American Dream that we are taught, but study after study consistently documents how the wealthy grow wealthier, while the poor remain poor.)). Governing for the wealthy is the Republicans schtick — why not differentiate yourself and actually “walk the walk” when it comes to defending the middle class? The option to choose among multiple potential candidates is critically important to voters, even when an incumbent is running. Presidential primaries provide voters with the opportunity to select the candidate they believe is best qualified to serve as president. But when only one candidate is on the ballot for a given party’s primary elections, the choice is taken away from the voters and instead the party leadership (including the single preordained nominee) make the choice for millions of others. Finally, a note regarding President Biden’s upcoming visit to Milwaukee. To me, the December 20 visit comes across as nothing more than politicking. Simply put, if Joe Biden needs to explain to me how my life has improved over the last three years, then my life probably has not improved in any realistic way. It’s what I call “Biden-splaining,” the Biden version of mansplaining. And the fact that he is flying god-knows-how-many staffers and Secret Service people all over the country to inform us how much better our lives have become is 1) condescending, 2) disrespectful of our own abilities to assess our circumstances, and 3) an excessive and irresponsible waste of jet fuel in these times when we need to be doing everything possible to stop climate change. In closing, I sincerely hope that you (President Biden, DNC Chair Harrison, and the rest of the Democratic Party establishment) will provide voters with actual options during the upcoming Democratic Primary races. Otherwise even with President Biden positioned as the “vote against Trump,” that may not be enough for Biden to win reelection in 2024. Regards, Kevin A. Barnes Photo Credit: Image by Freepik. Footnotes: Politics