Content Warning - This post contains mentions of or links to mentions of:
Abortion
Anti-Vaxxers
Bill Cosby
Donald Trump
Evangelicalism
George Wallace
HIV
Islamophobia
Joe Biden
Kanye West
Mike Pence
Miscarriage
Nazis
Politics
Racism
R*pe
Sexism
Sexual Assault
Slavery
Torture Porn
White Nationalists
It’s Time For The 2020 General Election
Here we are, folks. The 2020 General Election is on November 3rd. In Minnesota, early no-excuse voting started on September 18th, 46 days before Election Day. You can request your ballot by mail and mail it back or deliver it yourself, or you can vote early in person. MPR News had Secretary of State Steve Simon answer questions about early voting - it’s an excellent listen, and I suggest all Minnesota voters listen to it. Voters in other states, I strongly suggest that you check in with your Secretaries of State and see if you can vote early.
Remember, vote as early as you can. Not only because of COVID-19, but also because also of the risk of mail delays. It’s easy, it’s secure, it’s safer, and it’s efficient. Minnesota has safety protocols in place for in-person voting, including providing masks to those who need them wiping down stations, and protective gear for poll workers, but let’s do our part to keep each other safe and vote early. If you vote by mail, that means you won’t have to worry about being inside with anybody. If you vote early in-person, that means fewer people will be in line on Election Day itself. For more information, go to mnvotes.org.
So, get out there. Vote like your life depends on it. Because it just might. Because the life of a loved one does depend on it. Because my life depends on it.
The Candidates
Here are the candidates on the ballot for President and Vice President in Minnesota this year:
Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris - Democratic-Farmer-Labor [Note 1]
Donald J. Trump and Michael R. Pence - Republican
Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente and Darcy Richardson - Independence-Alliance
Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker - Green Party
Kanye West and Michelle Tidball - Independent
Brock Pierce and Karla Ballard - Independent
Gloria La Riva and Leonard Peltier - Socialism And Liberation
Alyson Kennedy and Malcolm Jarrett - Socialist Workers Party
Jo Jorgensen and Jeremy "Spike" Cohen - Libertarian Party
Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris
aka The Groper and The Cop
Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris have had a lot of coverage as they both were presidential candidates leading up to the primary election. Senator [Note 2] Biden was most recently the 47th Vice President of the United States. Senator Harris is the first Black and Asian-American woman on a major presidential ticket in United States history. They may be liberals, but they certainly are not leftists.
There are many reasons to vote for the Biden/Harris ticket - both are experienced politicians, and this is the party who responds to the constituents who care about things like health care, climate change, and education. The Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, while not perfect, significantly reduced the number of uninsured persons in the United States and reduced socioeconomic disparities in health care access - they would work to protect and hopefully improve this. “Democrats are committed to curbing the effects of climate change, protecting America’s natural resources, and ensuring the quality of our air, water, and land for current and future generations” is taken straight from the Democratic Party Platform; as climate change is a serious issue, we need people in office who will take it seriously. And Democrats are more likely to fund education, which helps our schools and our society; we need better education for all, we need affordable education for all, and we need a path there. These are but a few of the many reasons to vote for the Biden/Harris ticket.
However, it is understandable if one finds that they cannot vote for Senator Biden. He has a history of inappropriately touching women. He has publicly supported the Hyde Amendment (only changing tracks after it looked like it was causing him votes) and says that he worked with segregationists as if it is a good thing. I can’t fault people for not wanting to vote for him if they see in him their rapist because he resembles them in so many ways. Rebecca Watson (of Skepchick, not the actress) published a video, “Is it Your Moral Imperative to Vote for Joe Biden?” It is an excellent video, and I suggest that you watch it.
Senator Harris, in her position as Attorney General for California, rejected pleas by civil rights activists to investigate deadly police shootings of young black men in Los Angeles and San Francisco, had labeled herself as a “top cop” and “progressive prosecutor”, and she withheld support for special investigations of police shootings. Though she did in fact create and take charge of many police reforms during her tenure as Attorney General and has continued to push for reform as a United States Senator, it is difficult for some to look beyond the many people wrongfully detained, arrested, and killed just because of the color of their skin under her watch. Especially now, as many of us are attempting to abolish the police.
Donald J. Trump and Michael R. Pence
aka The Rapist and The Evangelical
The 45th President of the United States and 48th Vice President of the United States are seeking reelection this year. Under their administration, they have sought to dismantle environmental protections, repeal the Affordable Care Act, and lower corporate and estate taxes. Trump has had more turnover in his cabinet than the previous 5 presidents had over their entire administrations, was unable to accomplish much when his own party was in control of the 115th United States Congress, and lies more and more. This administration caused a farming crisis through a costly trade war, reinstated asset forfeiture, and failed in it’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. White nationalists are in the streets, children are still in cages, and there is a Muslim Ban.
There are many, many problems with Donald Trump. He went bankrupt 6 times; has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment at least 25 times; had two articles of impeachment levied against him; and a host of other terrible things. He has been openly racist and sexist, focused on his feud with the NFL instead of working on hurricane relief for Puerto Rico (in fact, Puerto Rico is still rebuilding from Hurricane Maria to this day due to botched responses from the federal government), and deployed federal law enforcement to cities during protests against police brutality. And for some reason, evangelicals are eating this up - Renegade Cut has an excellent video about this.
Speaking of evangelicals, Mike Pence is a born-again evangelical Christian. He is just as bad as the president, although he is quieter about it. He describes himself as a “Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order” but doesn’t give any of the compassion that Christianity talks about to people who aren’t white. This former Governor of Indiana uses his faith as a reason to harm others and does not believe in science. Because of that faith, his moral and ethical concerns actively made the HIV epidemic his state faced worse - not only because of the lack of needle-exchange programs, but because of the lack of accessible medical care. As Governor of Indiana, he also ignored a lead-contamination crisis, signed an anti-gay “religious objections” bill into law, and signed a bill into law that, among other things, required all fetal remains from abortions or miscarriages at any stage of a pregnancy be buried or cremated. Renegade Cut has a well-researched video about him.
I cannot overstate the importance of voting these two out of the White House. From Trump’s still not apologizing for calling for the death penalty for the Central Park 5 and telling four women of color to go back to “where they came from”, to Pence’s refusal to say “Black Lives Matter” and walking out of both a football game and a performance of Hamilton, these two have shown that they are only out to serve their own interests and the interests of people like them. We need a president and vice president who are out to serve the nation.
Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente and Darcy Richardson
aka The Dynasty Dreamer and The Author
I’ve heard of the Independence Party of Minnesota, but not the Independence-Alliance Party. After poking around for a bit, I discovered that the Alliance Party was formed as a union of many minor political parties, and the Independence Party of Minnesota is one such affiliate. That means that while in Minnesota, Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente and Darcy Richardson are running as Independence-Alliance Party, they’ll be running under different party names in other states. The California affiliate, the American Independent Party [Note 3] (as in, George Wallace’s party), has Kanye West instead of Richardson on their ballot for vice president [Note 4].
De La Fuente is no stranger to running for office, having run under the American Delta, Reform, Democratic, Republican, and Alliance banners over the years. He has run for United States President (2016 & 2020), United States Senate (Florida in 2016, 9 states in 2018), Mayor of New York City (2017), and US House of Representatives (2020). His playing around with politics may have changed election outcomes, and he ran for congress in hopes of improving his son’s chances in the same campaign. He has stated that he wants to create a political dynasty.
According to Wikipedia, Richardson is an American author, historian and political activist. His books seem to mostly be about third parties. After looking through the Our Campaigns, Ballotpedia, and Vote Smart pages about him, he seems to be pretty liberal. Dare I say, on the left end of the political spectrum in the United States.
Still, I wouldn’t vote for either of them for president or vice-president. They haven’t even been able to win a local election first, and I need to see them actually try to enact some policy before I start considering them for the top executive offices. Also, De La Fuente is trying to game the system, and I strongly disapprove of that.
Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker
The Green Party is more leftist than Democrats. Though the 2016 presidential candidate got cozy with anti-vaxxers, Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker appear to be cut from a completely different cloth. In fact, their own platform states that they support science-based public health measures, and want to put public health before private profits. They also support an ecosocialist green new deal, $20 minimum wage, worker cooperatives, ranked-choice national popular vote for president, DC statehood, and many other excellent platform issues.
Wikipedia states that Hawkins is a co-founder of the Green Party of the United States. He’s a trade unionist, environmental activist, served a tour in the US Marine Corps, and unsuccessfully ran for various offices over the years. In an interview with the Atlantic, he stated that he is not running to win - rather, he’s running to get his party better ballot access for local races in the future. Indeed, he’s not on the ballot in every state. For example, the Alaska Green Party has voted for The Honorable [Note 5] Jesse “The Body” Ventura for President and Cynthia McKinney for Vice President, while the Green Party of Rhode Island says it won’t put a Green candidate on the presidential ballot.
Walker is an independent socialist who describes herself as “a Fred Hampton, Assata Shakur socialist.” She’s an activist and a labor organizer, ran for sheriff against David A. Clarke Jr, and served in the Army Reserves. She is the second African-American vice-presidential nominee of the Green Party and the first from the state of South Carolina. What little I can find about her looks good.
If they both had more political experience on the local levels, and if we had ranked-choice voting, I would be willing to vote for these two candidates. However, they don’t have governmental experience and I have to be tactical with my vote, so I cannot vote for them. But I do like them as candidates.
Kanye West and Michelle Tidball
aka The Spoilers
I’m neither a lawyer nor a politician, and so the subtle differences that make up some of rules and regulations of candidacies are not my forte - with that in mind, it is my understanding that one must petition in order to have their names printed on the general election ballot as an independent in Minnesota. It’s not a political party - rather, it is a political principle. From the 2018 guide for minor party or independent candidates: “Candidate’s political party or political principle expressed in no more than three words. No part of a major party’s name may be used as a minor or independent candidate’s political party or political principle. In addition, the term “nonpartisan” cannot be used as the name of the political party or a statement of political principle.“
Kanye West. Self-made billionaire (and he desperately wants people to know about it). Best selling music artist (who is doing patch notes to his music like computer software). Christian convert (who makes his conversion out to be less about Jesus and more about Kanye). Has said that slavery was ‘a choice’. Is friends with Donald Trump. Is anti-abortion, anti-vacciene, and criticised Black History Month as “torture porn”. And so much more.
Who is Michelle Tidball, though? From what I can find, she describes herself as a “biblical life coach” who apparently does not watch the news. Apparently, after she was picked to be the vice president candidate, multiple pages from Tidball’s website for her nonprofit Bible study program were taken down. And from what I can find, she says that the way to treat mental illness is by doing chores. That’s concerning.
I can’t support any of this. What’s worse is that Democrats are alleging that West’s presidential run in some swing states is being encouraged by Republicans, which is unsurprising. In fact, he is aware of this and seems to support it. Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin said West’s move is a “pathetic attempt to pull votes from Joe Biden and steal this election for Trump”, and I wholeheartedly agree with that statement - especially since his petition to appear on the New Jersey ballot was withdrawn after the petition curiously showed a number of signatures that appeared to be nearly identical or incomplete.
Brock Pierce and Karla Ballard
Brock Pierce was an actor, is a cryptocurrency pioneer, and is a philanthropist (well, maybe). Karla Ballard is an entrepreneur, earned a Keepers of the Dream Award, and has been a chair on the Alliance for Women in Media. Their agenda is to “burst the bubble” and “bring real democracy to America”; their principles are rather boilerplate. There’s not much to say about these two, honestly - I can’t find much out there about them.
Gloria La Riva and Leonard Peltier
The Party for Socialism and Liberation exists to carry out the struggle for socialism inside the United States, and while it is a socialist party, it’s end goal is communism. This party formed in 2004 after splitting from the Workers World Party. This party makes me look like I’m right-wing - I’m certainly not socialist enough for them.
Gloria La Riva is a labor, community and anti-war activist, and has been a coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five. She has translated a book and produced documentaries, and she is a contributing writer for LiberationNews.org. In the early 1990s, she was the initiator of the Farmworkers Emergency Relief campaign, following a disastrous freeze that left tens of thousands of Central Valley agricultural workers with no income.
Though Activist Leonard Peltier is on the ballot in Minnesota as the vice presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, it has been announced that his health has deteriorated to the point that he had to withdraw his candidacy; his declining health, combined with the lack of medical facilities at the maximum security prison where he’s being held, makes it necessary to focus energy towards his health and legal matters. They have announced that activist and fighter for justice Sunil Freeman will take his place.
Sunil Freeman is an essayist and a poet. Everything else about him that I can find is from the Meet Sunil section of the La Riva for President website. This is also where to find the campaign’s Ten Point Socialist Campaign Program.
Alyson Kennedy and Malcolm Jarrett
The Socialist Workers Party is a Trotskyist, Castroist, Communist Party. Apparently, noted science fiction author Eric Flint was a member. Their weekly newspaper, The Militant, has been around since 1928.
Alyson Kennedy is a former coal miner and has been a socialist and trade union fighter for decades. She has said that teachers should be deciding when schools reopen, and that teacher’s unions must lead in that fight. She has also been active in the fight to defend a woman’s right to unrestricted access to family planning services, including the right to safe, secure abortions.
Malcolm Jarrett has taken part in worker strikes in multiple states. He believes in using union power to defend all working people. He has traveled to Cuba to offer solidarity with the Cuban peoples’ six-decade-long fight against the U.S. embargo and to be able to speak out more effectively in defense of the socialist revolution.
There’s not really much else that I could find about these two or their party, unless I wanted to read through every article of their newspaper. Which I don’t want to do. I’ve done enough wading through communist sites for the week already.
Jo Jorgensen and Jeremy "Spike" Cohen
The Libertarian Party is currently the third largest party in the United States, which means that it is the largest minor party. Described by some as “Republicans who want to smoke weed”, as both Republicans and Libertarians platform on the second amendment, free market economics, property rights, and fiscal conservatism, while also calling for the end of the prohibition of illegal drugs. There is currently one Libertarian in federal office.
Dr. Jo Jorgensen is a psychologist and lecturer who has never held elected office. She is on the ballot in all 50 states + DC, making this the sixth time the Libertarian party has accomplished this feat in its history - and yet she is receiving less attention than The Honorable [Note 5] Gary Johnson did. Her platform includes all the prototypical Libertarian fare centered around shrinking government, though among her listed issues is reducing red-tape and regulation so that medicine and treatments can get to patients faster. Except that the red-tape and regulation is what keeps poisons from reaching communities, so that’s cause for concern.
Jeremy "Spike" Cohen is an entrepreneur and a podcast producer. He believes that it is not up to the government to stop hate crimes, but rather that everyone should be allowed to defend themselves in whatever way they deem fit. Depending on the state, some ballots will either say Jeremy “Spike” Cohen or Jeremy Cohen. He was in fact the running mate of Vermin Supreme earlier this year. At 38, if he somehow becomes vice president, he’d be the second youngest person elected to the office [Note 6]; granted, the United States is a two party system, and so the Libertarians will be lucky to surpass 4.5% of the vote (their record being 3.29% in 2016) [Note 7].
Who Am I Voting For?
I live in a country that uses First Past The Post instead of the superior Ranked Choice Voting, which means I have to make certain that my vote does the most good. And that means I have to vote Democrat, and work hard to push the party to the Left. Get leftist candidates into local and state positions, demand that the legislature pass better bills, and work towards making Ranked Choice Voting a reality. Shift the Overton Window back towards the center; extreme things look normal now, and that is frightening. And voting Democrat for president and vice president is honestly the first step in undoing the damage that has been done over the past four years.
And what about voting for a third party? I would consider it, except that in a winner-take-all system like ours, third-party candidates take votes away from major party candidates who would be preferable. Yes, Greens tend to be closer to Democrats and Libertarians tend to be closer to Republicans, but that’s not true 100% of the time. In 2016, Dr. Stein and Governor Johnson’s combined votes, if they went to Secretary Clinton instead, would have ensured that she had the needed votes to secure victory. Voting third party is passively accepting the bigotry towards marginalized groups; sure, one could say “I didn’t vote Republican”, but one also didn’t vote to ensure that the party who would actually move forward on reform got into office, either.
Some would suggest voting for a third party candidate to send a message to Washington. An interesting idea, except that it doesn’t send a message to Washington - it sends a message to the disenfranchised, to the marginalized. It says that you are so supremely blessed that you can have a symbolic vote while the rest of us lack that luxury. The rest of us have to vote for survival.
I have to vote for survival. Which means I have to vote Democrat at the federal level. And I do want change, which happens from the bottom-up. Change literally begins at home - by getting municipalities and states to have ranked choice voting. Getting better policies at the local level and making certain to vote down-ballot. Forcing that change up the chain. It’s not fast and easy - it is a ponderous process.
Some will blame the people who don’t vote - never mind that many who don’t vote either can’t, are disenfranchised, or otherwise believe that they aren’t allowed to. Yes, there are those who refuse to vote, either out of dissatisfaction or to send a message to Washington - my stance on that is the same as voting for a third party candidate in an effort to send a message to Washington. But we must also remember that blaming people for not voting is often classist, ableist, and/or racist. Voter suppression runs rampant in the United States.
Though everyone must be able to be given time off to vote, that does not mean that jobs won’t find a way to retaliate against employees for taking that time off to vote - and not every state has a system for early voting. And then there are those who arrive to vote but get turned away due to lacking proper identification or are no longer registered to vote due to changed rules or purged voter rolls. Depending on the state, some felons lose the right to vote permanently, some temporarily, and some don’t at all, and it’s up for each individual to know which rule applies to them. And then there are those who are ill or disabled and can’t find accommodation, and those who cannot find transportation.
In Conclusion
When all is said and done, I’m voting for Biden/Harris. My loved ones and I rely on robust health insurance to stay alive. My loved ones need federal aid. States and provinces that have been ravished by natural disasters need help to rebuild. And we need to ensure that the people in the White House are people who know that science is not a hoax.
Notes
Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris are listed as being DFL in Minnesota because that is the Minnesota party affiliate to the Democratic Party.
Per the Protocol School of Washington’s On-Line Guide, a former vice president reverts to their previous title.
Apparently, the American Independent Party is confusing a number of California residents into registering as party members, making them believe that they are registering as Independents. People who learn about this tend to want out of that party.
Though De La Fuente and West are on the ticket, the American Independence Party website says: “American Independent Party Presidential Nominees, Trump-Pence for 2016 &, God willing, 2020”. I’m not going to dig into that at all - these guys are virtually Nazis.
Per the Protocol School of Washington’s On-Line Guide, like former vice presidents, a former governor does not retain the title “Governor”.
To date, the youngest Vice President of the United States was John C. Breckinridge. At the start of his vice presidency, his age was 36 years, 47 days.
Considering the sexism of voters, and that both candidates are totally inexperienced, I would honestly be surprised if they got 1.5% of the vote. But with how many Republicans jumped ship after Trump got into office, I could be way off. Time will tell.
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