This country needs a real leader. It needs vision, or at the very least a president who cares about others, doesn’t lie and seeks solutions. America must elect Joe Biden on Nov. 3.
Biden would make a fine president even if it were a normal election year. This is not a normal year. Biden’s life and experience as a public servant make him eminently qualified to serve as commander in chief. Barack Obama obviously thought so, which is why he asked Biden to be his vice president.
Of course, qualifications and credentials have become all but irrelevant in our currently warped political reality. Donald Trump was elected in 2016 and he has had hundreds of chances to prove his doubters wrong.
Unfortunately, his presidency has been an abject failure. Full stop.
Biden is not a traditional change candidate, but his perspective makes him uniquely suited for this moment. Even after nearly 50 years in Washington, Biden is a rare political creature who has not fallen victim to the cynical, destructive environment that has poisoned national politics.
Forged from when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate as a young man and into his days as vice president, Biden is a consensus builder with a proven ability to get things done. The Congress of 2021 will be different and even more partisan than the one he left in 2009, but Biden will have an opportunity to lead with focus, honed over eight years as vice president — more than our current president has done in the past four.
Combined with victories by Democrats like Jaime Harrison in the U.S. Senate, Biden will be in a position to help rebuild our institutions, including regulatory and safety net programs dismantled by the current administration. Biden will also need to lead efforts to reassert the powers of the legislative branch on critical policies as right-wing ideologues tee up challenges that threaten equal rights, freedom of speech and abortion before the Trump-packed conservative Supreme Court.
Biden is not perfect. He is not a progressive leader like the ones grassroots Democrats voted for in the 2018 midterm elections and pushed for in the 2020 presidential primary. Still, he will look after America’s long-suffering working class more than the current president. He will build on the good work done early in the Obama administration, such as the Affordable Care Act. He will restore respect for America from our allies.
A new president will not cure this nation’s ills. We will be living for a long time with the lingering effects of four years of incompetence, manipulation and lies. A vote for Biden signals the rejection of the deceit and dysfunction that has seized control of our political system and threatens to unravel our American experiment.
Instead of today’s reality TV politics that abandon morals in favor of political bloodsport, Biden’s presidency will help build communities, expand opportunities and ensure equality for people in South Carolina who have been left behind.
America needs a change. It needs a real leader. Elect Joe Biden on Nov. 3.
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