Splinters on 2020 Election Issues

• The four perpetrators of the George Floyd murder were a racially diverse team of Minneapolis, Minnesota police officers: Derek Chauvin (Caucasian), J. Alexander Kueng (African-American), Thomas Lane (Caucasian), and Tou Thao (Southeast Asian Hmong). This reality speaks to the rancid culture of the department.

• U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr is functioning as a combination of Donald Trump’s legal and propaganda advisor as did Hans Frank and Joseph Goebbels for Adolph Hitler during World War II, respectively.

Donald J. Trump is on a downward spiral in all the national polls in his ability to defeat Joe Biden in the November election. He has low ratings in unifying the nation, overall job approval, and improvement of race relations. Yet he is still perceived, by a narrow margin, as the best person to manage the U.S. economy. His decline in support among Independents, Evangelicals, white college graduates, and white males along with his political antics has caused some Democrats to view him as their “ace in the hole” in 2020.

Despite these poll numbers, Trump is doubling down on a law and order theme in an attempt to replicate Richard Nixon’s successful 1968 presidential campaign. He has also been aggressive in championing police conduct when all demographic sectors of America’s voters are in increasing turmoil over police behavior, and is careening from one insult of Americans to another like a drunken sailor.

Trump goes out of his way to re-tweet revolting conspiracy theories including the assertion that the 75 year-old white male, Martin Gugino, who was violently pushed to the cement sidewalk by the Buffalo, New York police department’s emergency response team, was an Antifa provocateur who was spying on the police for the left-wing political group.

Nonetheless, Trump is close enough to the margin of error in most of the important polls to remain competitive for getting the 270 electoral votes needed to return to the White House. His win or loss will ultimately be determined by his ability to get away with illegal campaign tactics.

Most important among those will be his campaign’s willingness to implement numerous voter suppression strategies in order to win key battleground states, such as those which were on display in Georgia in last Tuesday’s primary which was ‘A hot, flaming mess’ of long wait times, fewer voting precincts, manipulation of absentee and mail-in ballots, late arrival of voting machines, and voter roll purges.

These strategies have been most pronounced in those states where Republicans control the governor’s office and/or the legislature. In addition, the Russian trolls are on the warpath again in all-out support of Trump. We can expect that Georgia was a trial run for what is sure to happen on November 3^rd unless forcefully confronted.

Nonetheless, Biden is currently positioned to win if he makes the right vice presidential pick, makes amends with the younger African American, white, Latinx, and Asian communities, and further excites their older counterparts. To ensure victory, he must quickly step up to the plate.

Biden’s vice presidential pick is all the more important since she needs to be able to generate an increased turnout among women voters and voters of color, especially African Americans, whose lack of participation sank Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Without this turnaround and his selection of the right black female running mate, he has no chance of winning.

The eleven most frequently mentioned female candidates for his running mate, according to polls of registered Democratic voters and Biden’s strategic advisors and donors are: Govs. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM); Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI); Stacey Abrams, 2018 gubernatorial candidate (D-GA); Dr. Susan Rice (D), Obama’s U.N. Ambassador and National Security Advisor; Congresswoman Val Demings (D-FL); and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-GA).

In examining this group, we can first eliminate the less likely contenders who would bring little to the ticket and who have minimal national name recognition. This group includes Dr. Susan Rice, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham; Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Tammy Duckworth; and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

The three cops, Sens. Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar and Congresswoman Val Demings should be next to fall off the list. Each has a record that would damage Biden’s prospects among the Democratic base. He already has his own problem in this area as author of the 1994 Crime Bill which has been the linchpin for mass incarceration of males of color.

Sen. Harris fought vigorously to uphold convictions that were obtained through official misconduct, including evidence tampering, false testimony, the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors, with 600 cases against minority males based on evidence provided by a corrupt lab technician.

Amy Klobuchar routinely turned a blind eye toward police abuse in Hennepin County, Minnesota where she served as prosecutor, and George Floyd was murdered. She convicted a 16-year-old black male, Myon Burrell, in 2002 for murder with questionable evidence obtained from a jailhouse snitch and used her coziness with the police union to launch her victorious campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2007.

Congresswoman Val Demings had a spotty record while serving as a police officer and police chief in Orlando, Florida. As an Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) staffer, she never found evidence to dismiss an officer for use of excessive force although Orlando had one of the highest rates in the nation. Later as police chief, she ruled that an officer followed procedure when he broke the neck in the takedown of an 84 year-old white male. The victim was awarded $880,000 in a civil suit against the City of Orlando.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was high on the list earlier, has been seriously undermined by her husband’s attempt to use her name to get around the stay-at-home order she had issued for Michigan. Trump would have a field day since he and Gov. Whitmer have quarreled over that issue.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who the progressives claim would bring that group to Biden across the nation, could not win her own state during the Democratic primary and placed third behind Biden and Bernie Sanders. Moreover, her claim of Native American heritage (albeit several generations back and that her own brothers never claimed) would prove problematic in a national campaign. And given that her fellow progressive, Bernie, has not endorsed her for the position, she would not be viable on the national stage.

As noted in a previous column, Stacey Abrams is the only aspirant who possesses the necessary traits and experience to help Biden in his pitched battle with Trump. She would hit the ground running, has the expertise to push back against myriad voter suppression initiatives, and would quickly recognize others that have not yet appeared.

Furthermore, Ms. Abrams would generate immense enthusiasm among all segments of the Democratic base because she has a record of doing so. Finally, Biden needs to lean into the national African American community, particularly its millennials, who have been reluctant to come out in large numbers during a presidential election since the Obama campaigns.

Charlemagne tha God, a popular radio personality, who has a huge following among the aforementioned group, has advised Biden to do this. He needs to affirmatively respond to that request via the selection of Stacey Abrams for his VP if he is to beat Trump.