JOE BIDEN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2020 BECAUSE AMERICA NEEDS A PRESIDENT WHOSE CHARACTER WE CAN ADMIRE, AND WHO WE CAN TRUST, WE CAN RESPECT, AND WHO RESPECTS US

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     As the title of this column clearly conveys, my choice for president in 2020 is Joe Biden. But, at present, there are 21 Democrats who have officially announced their candidacy, as each seeks the Democratic nomination with the aim at being the one who will wipe the floors with their opponents and to then beat the Republican nominee with a broomstick - be it Donald Trump or somebody else. Notwithstanding my metaphors, I encourage all of the Democrats in the 2020 race to not play dirty. Republicans hit below the belt in their 2016 model "clown car."  Democrats and left-leaning Independents nationwide have to weed out the rest of the field quickly when responding to polling surveys and making financial contributions.  If the Democrats echo the Republicans from the last election season, it won't be the "elephant" in the room that will be in trouble, it will be the "donkey" that will be painted as a jackass, and that means America could end up with the same orange-haired "rhinoceros" in The White House, whose goal in life is to run over anything or anyone in his path.

     Regular readers of The Controversy are well aware that I identify myself as an ultra-progressive liberal Democrat.  That being said, though, I actively and aggressively campaigned in 2016 for Hillary Clinton, not Bernie Sanders...and I'm often asked why.  

     In a perfect world - which of course we don't live in - Mrs. Clinton should have won in 2016.  We all know that the Democratic nominee triumphed in the popular vote three years ago by about 3-million ballots, but the archaic electoral vote put Donald Trump in the Oval Office.  Unfortunately - nay tragically - the former secretary of state is disliked, perhaps hated, and wrongly so, not only by Republicans but by too many Independents and even by some Democrats.  It's a shame because America wouldn't be suffering the problems of today if Secretary Clinton was in The White House.  But Hillary Clinton is not an ultra-progressive liberal Democrat.

     I have always blamed Senator Sanders - in addition to Russia's interference in 

our general election, as well as former F.B.I. director James Comey's October 28th letter to Congress, eleven days before that election - for Mrs. Clinton not getting the votes she needed to defeat Donald Trump in 2016.  But if Sanders had pulled out of the race on March 1st when I wrote my column, SAY GOODBYE, BERNIE...and if the Vermont Independent (he's never actually changed his party affiliation to become a Democrat) had gotten behind Secretary Clinton 100 percent, plus if he had then persuaded the "Bernie Backers" to switch their allegiance to the former New York senator, Mrs. Clinton would have won the presidency.  Instead, Sanders didn't endorse Secretary Clinton until July 12th.  By then it was too late.

     Sanders knew in March 2016 that he couldn't win the Democratic nomination, but he stayed in the race until long after the last primary vote was counted in California, and he badmouthed Mrs. Clinton when there was no way her Democratic supporters would abandon her.  But Sanders did hurt Secretary Clinton with the all-important Independents.  It was a stab in the back to Mrs. Clinton and a politically fatal mistake, which ultimately helped to elect Trump.  Too many people who cheered for Bernie Sanders throughout the campaign wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton simply as a matter of principle.  As a result, 77,744 people in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, who voted for President Barack Obama in 2012, stayed home on November 8th, 2016 and didn't vote at all.  It was the electoral votes from those three states that put Trump over the top.  Those 77,744 Americans would have made the difference in Hillary Clinton winning.  But there were enough Independents who held their noses and pulled the lever for Donald Trump.  Yet they wouldn't do the same for Secretary Clinton. Their decision will puzzle me if I live to be 200 years old.  Nothing similar better happen to whomever becomes the obvious Democratic nominee early on in the 2020 campaign.
    

     My regular readers know that when it comes to being a cheerleader, I spent eight years - from January 2009 to January 2017 - on the sidelines, while he was president, rooting for President Obama.  And I still do.  I did the same from January 1993 to January 2001 for President Bill Clinton.  And again, I still do.   

     Many people wonder - and actually ask me - how I can be so madly in-love with politicians like Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (alphabetically) when none of them would be labeled by themselves or others as an ultra-progressive liberal Democrat.  It's simple. Because besides using those three words to describe myself, I also am realistic.  As
  

long as the president is a Democrat, and he...or she...believes in the same basic liberal principles as I do...even though he or she may not necessarily be progressive with their ideas - or as some would call "far left" - I'm going to support that person who Democrats overall have nominated to be our candidate in the general election.  In order for a Democrat to win in 2020, he or she needs to receive votes from not only the far left, but from those closer to the center, and even those conservative Democrats.  And yes, there are some Democrats - albeit probably not that many - who identify themselves as conservatives.  Mr. Biden, Mr. Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, and Mr. Obama are each in their own ways "liberal."  But it's not just their policies that I have to be attracted to, but to them as a person.  And after being nauseated by Donald Trump and his rally rants and Twitter tirades, Americans deserve a president - as we always have had in the past - who brings decorum to the office of the president.  Even President Richard Nixon - who made a destructive mistake for his presidency by covering up the Watergate scandal - remained a gentleman.  Although Mr. Nixon resigned his office in disgrace, he still was tremendously successful as president, and some of his accomplishments were historic.  
   

     I don't want anyone to take my praise for Richard Nixon to in any way excuse him for his unlawful behavior, for lying to the American people, and for spearheading a conspiracy to cover-up a crime.  It was July 27th, 29th and 30th, 1974 when the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against President Nixon for charges of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.  With the handwriting on the walls of both chambers in the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Nixon was convinced by Republican leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate that House impeachment and Senate conviction was inevitable and that he would be removed from office.  Therefore, our 37th commander-in-chief undeniably deserved the punishment he received when he was, in essence, forced to resign, effective at noon on August 9th, 1974.  
    

     But before that fateful day nearly 45 years ago, let us remember some of the significant achievements on President Nixon's watch, in no particular order of importance. On January 27th, 1973, Mr. Nixon signed the Paris Peace Accords to terminate U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which ended the controversial conflict.  Also that same year, he put a stop to our nation's military draft.  The year before - in February, 1972, President Nixon traveled to the People's Republic of China.  That monumental visit opened up a relationship between the U.S. and the communist Asian nation.  During

the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Mr. Nixon supported Israel with extensive aid, which Prime Minister Golda Meir is quoted as saying "saved" her country.  On July 5th, 1971, President Nixon formally lowered America's voting age from 21 to 18 when he certified the 26th Amendment of the Constitution.  Other meaningful and memorable events during Richard Nixon's tenure included the peaceful desegregation of public schools in our southern states, which commenced in the fall of 1969.  According to the Richard Nixon Foundation, "In 1968, nearly 70 percent of black children were segregated from their white peers.  By the end of Mr. Nixon's first term (in January 1973), it was just 8 percent."  President Nixon was responsible for dedicating 100-million dollars to launch the war on cancer. His efforts helped to create national cancer centers to battle the heartbreaking disease.  Mr. Nixon signed an executive order on December 2nd, 1970 to establish the Environmental Protection Agency.  He founded the EPA because of concerns over conservation and pollution nearly half a century ago.  And President Nixon was

instrumental in making sure that President John F. Kennedy's dream of space travel to the moon would come true.  In a joint session of Congress, on May 25th, 1961, President Kennedy delivered a speech that would forever move our country and our world forward. "I believe that this nation should commit itself, to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth." Donald Trump has not ever...and will not ever...come close to a fraction of the success during his presidency that Richard Nixon accomplished while he was in The White House.  Nevertheless, President Nixon still concealed a crime and lied to all of America when on November 17th, 1973, he infamously stated, "I'm not a crook."  But of course he was.  However, that being said, it's worth repeating what I wrote in my last column on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2019.  "He (Donald Trump) is the most dishonest, fraudulent U.S. president that America has ever known.  Trump makes Richard Nixon smell like a fragrant springtime bouquet of fresh White House Rose Garden flowers."

     I still believe Donald Trump's political racing days are over - or will be before Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020.  I'm looking for Congress to finish the job that Special Counsel Robert Mueller couldn't do.  And that's to find whatever is needed to legally and constitutionally remove Trump from office.  Mueller's words in his report articulated that the door is not closed on proving Trump of criminal wrongdoing.  "The evidence we obtained about the president's actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred.  Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."
    

     I am without question not cut from the same bolt of fabric as anyone who continues to support Donald Trump.  Theirs is a tattered and torn polyester rag while I've been blessed with pure cashmere. Beyond politics, we share contrasting values, and we paint a different portrait of what the president of the United States should represent.  I have to be attracted to a candidate's character.  Character means much more to me than the politics.  If any Democrat were to ever speak out with wickedly evil insults as Trump has done over and over again, I would never, ever, support that person. And if such a candidate was one who I did promote, but later he or she became a venomous vulture voicing vile verbiage, I would pull my endorsement like a slab of Atlantic City saltwater taffy.

     If Hillary Clinton had been elected president in 2016, she would have never deliberately offended Americans or treated any human being with the malice that Donald Trump is known for doing, time and time again.  President Barack Obama never did, and a President Joe Biden never would either.  But if Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, or Mr. Biden ever did inadvertently insult anyone, they would apologize. There'd be no wait, no delay.  Their "I'm sorry" would roll off their tongues immediately.  Donald Trump has never apologized for anything.
    

     If Joe Biden is President Biden, he would never lock babies in cages.  In fact, no Democrat would.  No Republican - other than Donald Trump - would either. A President Biden would never belittle or sully the name of Senator John McCain, accusing him of not being a hero when he served our country with valor and honor as a U.S. Navy officer and a Vietnam prisoner of war.  A President Biden would never disparage a Gold Star mother and father, or a federal judge, or a disabled reporter.  A President Biden would never denigrate Mexicans, all Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews, the LGBTQ community, and women. And a President Biden - as he did two years ago as the former vice president, and as he continues to do as a presidential candidate - will always denounce and condemn white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
    

     In an online video, former Vice President Joe Biden, on Thursday, April 25th, 2019, announced that he is a 2020 candidate for president of the United States.  Below is a transcript of that 3-minute and 29-second video.

     "Charlottesville, Virginia is home to the author of one of the great documents in human history.  We know it by heart.  'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights.' We’ve heard it so often, it’s almost a cliché.  But it’s who we are.  We haven’t always lived up to these ideals; Jefferson himself didn’t.  But we have never before walked away from them.  Charlottesville is also home to a defining moment for this nation in the last few years.  It was there on August of 2017 we saw Klansmen and white supremacists and neo-Nazis come out in the open, their crazed faces illuminated by torches, veins bulging, and bearing the fangs of racism.  Chanting the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the ‘30s.  And they were met by a courageous group of Americans, and a violent clash ensued, and a brave young woman lost her life.  And that’s when we heard the words from the president of the United States that stunned the world and shocked the conscience of this nation. He said there were “some very fine people on both sides.” Very fine people on both sides?  With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. And in that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.  I wrote at the time that we’re in the battle for the soul of this nation.  Well that’s even more true today.  We are in the battle for the soul of this nation.  I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time.  But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation — who we are — and I cannot stand by and watch that happen.  The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America America, is at stake.  That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.  Folks, America’s an idea, an idea that’s stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant.  It gives hope to the most desperate people on earth, it guarantees that everyone is treated with dignity and gives hate no safe harbor.  It instills in every person in this country the belief that no matter where you start in life, there’s nothing you can’t achieve if you work at it.  That’s what we believe.  And above all else, that’s what’s at stake in this election.  We can’t forget what happened in Charlottesville.  Even more important, we have to remember who we are.  This is America."
    

     I have criticized Donald Trump for nearly four years - since he first became a candidate - that his ruthless demeanor and his obscene and obnoxious temperament illustrate the behavior of someone who is morally and ethically unfit to serve as president of the United States.  One of those pro-Trumpers, who enjoys raising Trump higher and higher on to his pernicious pedestal of profanity, wrote the following to me recently. "Gary, if Joe Biden - or whomever is the (2020) Democratic nominee - makes offensive, insulting, vile, vulgar, reprehensible, repugnant, vindictive comments, but you love his policies, you're telling me you would vote for a far right-wing candidate who is anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, who wants full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, wants to legalize conceal carry (carrying a concealed weapon), wants no background checks for all gun purchases, and wants to shut down all immigration from our southern border, but he is a real nice guy, doesn't play dirty, and never has a bad word to say about anyone, you are going to vote for the far right-winger?  If you say yes to that, you are a liar.  Personality does matter, but number one on the list has to be policy and core beliefs."

     I can promise that with the 2020 Democratic nominee - whether it ends up being Joe Biden (again my choice) or somebody else - if that person utters vicious and abhorrent language similar to the words described by The Controversy reader above, I would no longer give that individual my vote.  But I can assure you that no Democrat - in fact, no Republican other than Trump - would ever act in the detestable, repulsive, and cruel manner that Trump has done since June 16th, 2015 when he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president.

     First - unlike Donald Trump - I am not a liar.  Would I vote for the "far right-winger?"  No, I would not.  I would sooner write-in a name, even though I would know that the person could not win.  But in all good conscience, I could not...and would not...vote for someone who treated people with such hatred.  

     Second, the reader doesn't seem to understand the essence of "core beliefs." The following is provided by the Mental Health and Family Wellbeing team at Anglicare Southern Queensland in Queensland, Australia.  The Controversy thanks them and is grateful for their expert explanation.

     "Core beliefs are basic beliefs about ourselves, other people, and the world we live in.  They are things we hold to be absolute truths deep down, underneath all our 'surface' thoughts.  Essentially, core beliefs determine how you perceive and interpret the world.  (Core beliefs) sit in the basement of your mind.  When something happens, your mind will open the basement and consult the core belief that is most likely to keep you safe and defend you against the world.  Core beliefs are very convincing.  They are full of persuasion and conviction.  A core belief is something you accept as true without question.  That means you can expect that every day it will seem just as true as it was the day before.  Your beliefs are seated deep within you, so your mind lives your life around them, without thinking about them, questioning them or even really being aware of them.  Core beliefs are very important to a person.  Your core beliefs (are) the basic picture of how you are viewed and treated by others.  Core beliefs have a direct impact on the way we perceive the world and interpret what happens.  They color our judgments of others and also our self judgments.  They formulate the rules you live by every day."
        

     Unlike the reader that I quoted, who voted for Trump, the core beliefs of my candidates - from the past - are generally the same as mine.  As for the present, Joe Biden fits perfectly. He is a distinguished Democratic Party icon and an American treasure.  During a White House ceremony on January 12th, 2017, President Obama rightfully presented Vice President Biden with America's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction.  Joe Biden is an honorable statesman who cares

for others and who will do whatever is humanly possible to make better the lives of every American.  Mr. Biden exudes leadership, courage, humility and integrity.  He can communicate with honesty and dignity not deception and profanity, and he has a positive attitude towards Americans - all Americans - not just white, wealthy men.  Joe Biden is truthful.  He can be trusted by the people of our country not to lie 10,000 times.  The United States of America needs a president whose character we can admire, and who we can respect and who respects us. That's Joe Biden.  Unacceptable behavior cannot be tolerated. Voters should never applaud anyone who has engaged in hate, as too many people in our country have done with Donald Trump.  As Aaron Sorkin wrote

for Michael Douglas when he portrayed the fictional President Andrew Shepherd in the 1995 motion picture, The American President, "I can tell you without hesitation, being president of this country, is entirely about character."
    

     So why do I continue to support candidates who aren't as far to the left as I am?  Because as Vice President Biden noted, "This is America." There is no law that says an ultra-progressive liberal Democrat is required to vote for an ultra-progressive liberal Democrat.  Character and core beliefs are absolutely essential to me, even if the person doesn't lean as far to the left as I do.  But Vice President Biden isn't an ultra-progressive liberal Democrat either, and neither are most Democrats.  After a speech he gave on Friday, April 5th in Washington, DC at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers conference, Mr. Biden told reporters, "If you look at all the polling data, and look at the actual results...the fact of the matter is, the vast majority of the members of the Democratic Party are still basically liberal to moderate Democrats in the traditional sense."  As for he himself, Mr. Biden's self-description is, "I'm an Obama-Biden Democrat, and I'm proud of it."
    

     If Democrats throughout our country are voting in the primaries and caucuses for a candidate who appears to be on track to winning the nomination, I would wholeheartedly urge that the other Democratic candidates step aside in a prompt fashion and graciously cease competition when they know there's no possibility of them winning the Party's top spot. If they don't act accordingly - specifically if Bernie Sanders gives an encore performance to 2016, or anyone else is second in the race with no chance of becoming first - that person will receive boos not applause from many millions of Americans.  If Sanders' or any other candidate's selfish actions destroy our chances of a Democrat taking the presidential oath of office on January 20th, 2021 then that individual is not worthy of being part of this process. Therefore, Democrats nationwide - and the candidates themselves - need to get behind one person very early, so victory in 2020 can be blue not red.  
    

     As always, America's presidential election is about who is best to lead our country.  But this time - more than ever before - this election needs to be about who can beat the Republican, especially if that Republican is Donald Trump.  The Democrat who can do both is Joe Biden.  And if you're a Republican, and you're fed up with Trump and the G.O.P., I hope you'll realize in 2020...that it's right...to be on the left.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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Photo credits: Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images (Former Vice President Joe Biden #1), Scott Eisen (Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), NBC News and Today Screenshot (Former F.B.I. Director James Comey), Getty Images (Former President Bill Clinton and Former President Barack Obama), The Associated Press/Getty Images/Alamy (Former President Barack Obama, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Former President Bill Clinton), Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters (Former Vice President Joe Biden #2), Richard Nixon Foundation (Former President Richard Nixon #1), The Associated Press (Former President Richard Nixon #2), PhotoQuest/Getty Images (Former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir), The Associated Press (Former President John F. Kennedy), Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call (Special Counsel Robert Mueller), David Becker/Reuters (Donald Trump #1), The Associated Press (Former Vice President Joe Biden and Former Senator John McCain), Biden For President (Former Vice President Joe Biden #3), Reuters (Donald Trump #2), The Associated Press (Former President Barack Obama and Former Vice President Joe Biden #1), IMDb (Aaron Sorkin), Columbia Pictures/Universal Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment/Wildwood Enterprises (Michael Douglas in The American President), Twitter (Former President Barack Obama and Former Vice President Joe Biden #2), Douliery Olivier/Abaca Press/Sipa USA/Newscom (Senator Bernie Sanders) and Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCUniversal (Former Vice President Joe Biden #4)   

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