In This Election, Focus on the Platform
Our country is at a turning point.
There are two roads:
Moving in the direction of healthcare access, economic justice, and a slowdown of climate change
or
Moving in the direction of underregulated Capitalism, overregulated healthcare (especially for women), and reducing government spending on social programs.
In this election, talk about what voters want.
Healthcare:
Medicare and Medicaid provide a safety net for poor and elderly people. Because of the ACA, more people have health insurance now. Concerns about healthcare is a priority for Americans, regardless of party affiliation.
Unexpected medical bills and health care costs top the list of expenses that adults, regardless of partisanship, say they worry about affording, with three in four adults saying they are “very” or “somewhat worried” about being able to afford unexpected medical bills (74%) or the cost of health care services (73%) for themselves and their family. Just over half (55%) report worrying about being able to afford prescription drug costs, and about half of insured adults (48%) say they are worried about being able to afford their monthly health insurance premium. Source:KFF poll 2024.
Women’s healthcare:
Americans are more polarized regarding abortion rights than they were the last time we had a presidential election. Mixed in with the controversy over abortion access is further restrictions on access to birth control and the eliminating the right to use live embryos in Invitro Fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy.
Economic justice:
The data show that America is doing better, economically, in the past three years. However, the polling data show that Americans don’t think so. Supporting your position on the economy needs to include ways that things are headed towards a better economic future for all Americans. This includes pointing out how Federal laws and policies affect the lives of voters:
- Social security
- Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid
- Federal Tax Policy
- Unionization of workplaces
Climate change:
Polls show that a significant majority of Americans think there needs to be action to change the trajectory of climate change that is causing more storms and related disasters. This is an issue that matters to younger voters (76%) more than older voters (58%), but seems to matter to most Americans, Republicans as well as Democrats.
Civil rights:
Underlying every economic policy and most Federal laws is a recognition of the needs of all Americans, or the willful disregard for some in order to benefit others. Whose needs are addressed in America is in our hands.
I wrote this on the day that President Biden withdrew from his position as candidate-presumptive and endorsed Kamala Harris for President.
Biden, Clinton and the manipulation of public opinion
Clinton
Not only did people claim to be apathetic about Hilary Clinton’s run for President because of her email security breach. She also had, it was reported, a variety of mental and physical ailments.
President Biden is old. He is doing a very taxing job. All that is true. However, the playbook they used to undermine Hilary Clinton worked a lot better on the current President.
Biden
It was over a year ago when I became aware of the pile-on regarding Biden’s age. I was in New York and saw a headline in the New York Post about Biden falling.
That was the news story, President Biden tripped.
When I searched for “new york post biden fell” on Google, I realize that I could have been in New York on June 1, 2023, September 26, 2023, May 8, 2024, May 15, 2024, or June 1, 2024. It seems like the New York Post photographers are getting some kind of bonus for catching Biden being wrong-footed.
When I am 81, I hope nobody is following me around, waiting for me to trip.