Why I will vote for the Democratic Slate this Election by Gaurang G. Vaishnav (Part 3 of 4)

Continued from Part 2: Why I will not Vote for Trump

Now let me state briefly why I will not vote for Trump or any other Republican in the coming election.

I will vote for a total Democratic slate because I believe that when we elect a leader, we should not only look at his policies but also at his character. Two cannot be divorced. Just because one is promising to do good work, does not mean that we give pass to his severe character flaws.

These are my core Hindu values from which I cannot separate my actions. (1) Compassion for the less fortunate (2) Respect for women (3) Worshipping and nurturing environment (4) Dialogue with the opponent, not demonization (5) Equality of all human being (6) Full faith in Democracy (7) Integrity of character

Let me evaluate Trump on this seven-point matrix.

• (1) Compassion: Trump disdains poor people. His record as a landlord in New York is self-evident. Putting children of asylum-seeking people and illegal migrants in cages says it all. His disparaging remarks about soldiers who gave their lives at Normandy and then at the Arlington cemetery shines a light on a person who is unable to have any empathy.
• (2) Respect for Women: A person who boasts that he can grab a woman by her private part, who walks on women contestants in the nude or in process of undressing in the dressing room at a pageant, one who pays off prostitutes to keep his extramarital affairs a secret, one who has been accused of sexual attacks and rape by several women, obviously has no respect for women. For him, they are simply a thing to use and discard.
• (3) Environment: Trump does not believe that the environment needs protection or nurturing. He has refused to consider any scientific evidence. He is blind to catastrophic floods and  fires engulfing USA with more severity every year. He has weakened all rules governing pollution by industries. When the whole world is going towards solar power, he is actively promoting coal mining. He believes that the USA is the boss, it has the first right on all world resources and unbridled consumption and the world may go to hell.
• (4) Dialogue: The whole Hindu philosophy is based on dialogue. The six philosophies of Darshana (Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta) came into being and exist today only because we respect differing viewpoints .The famous story of the dialogue between Adi Shankaracharya and Pundit Mandan Mishra further exemplifies importance of dialogue. Trump has insulted, ridiculed and demonized everyone not only from the Democratic Party, reporters and the world leaders but his own colleagues and people who once worked for him. He has no patience for any dialogue because he is incapable of digesting thoughts. With him it is my way or highway. He is a classic example of a delusional and deranged mind.
• (5) Equality: Trump first demonized all Latin American illegal immigrants as rapists and murderers. Then he showed his true colors after death of George Floyd at under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Resulting nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, violence and riots which included many white Americans besides the black community gave him only a license to spew more venom against the Blacks and incite his racist base to retaliatory violence. He is mean to the core; his hatred of people of color is so intense that he did not care to pay final respects to a Civil Rights Movement giant John Robert Lewis. His characterizing of Ku Klux Klan members at the Charlottesville rampage in 2017 as “fine young men” leaves no doubt about his White Supremacist mind. 

One may disagree with the BLM movement. Like one of my friends, one may label Blacks as Lazy, living on government dole, obese, irresponsible as parents and with no morals- all of which is mischaracterization of a whole race and that too without looking at the historic context, but one cannot ignore that Blacks do not have a level playing field. I find it very disturbing when I sense the streak of racism in my Hindu friends; they froglet that we are only one shade above the Blacks when it comes to the skin color. If today Trump can go after the Blacks, Latinos or Muslims,  tomorrow, it could be turn of Hindus too. To feel secure because we are highly educated and in the upper echelons of income brackets (as compared to other minorities) is to fool ourselves. Just ask the dead professors, scientists, entrepreneurs and successful businessmen in Mao’s China, Stalin’s Russia, Pol Pot’s Kampuchea (Cambodia), Idi Amin’s Uganda and Hitler’s Germany.

• (6) Democracy: Democracy is a very fragile concept. It endures so long as all participants value it and abide by norms meant to preserve and protect it. Moment one gets impatient especially a leader and short circuits it to achieve desired results, democracy dies. Death of a democracy is always a slow process. what was unacceptable becomes acceptable today as a stop get measure because of some exigency, decay creeps in, and one after the other pillars of democracy erode and fall. Anyone who does not take notice of acts that weaken the democracy, does not protest it and does not work to restore it, is as guilty as the person who is destroying the democracy. 

Out of 195 countries in the world hardly 55 have functioning democracies. Economist Intelligence Unit, a UK based company has developed a Democracy Index which is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories, measuring pluralism, civil liberties and political culture. It indexes 166 countries (rest are countries that came into being after the Democracy Index was developed.)  USA is at number 25 with a score of 7.96 out of 10 and Bharat is number 51 with a score of 6.9.  Thus, in a sea of undemocratic world, it is all the more important for us to protect and preserve our democracy.

But Trump fails on all counts of democracy.

(A) Trump has made the Senate and the Congress his own pocket bureau. All senators have been rendered spineless. Anyone who raises voice against him is publicly pilloried and threatened with a Primary.  When the impeachment proceedings began in the House, the Republican majority leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell shamelessly said that he will coordinate Trump’s defense with the White House. The Senate and the House ate supposed to be independent branches of the government and are meant to act as  checks and balances on the government and the president. Senator Susan Collins and Mitt Romney who make a show of their independence also proved who they really are- tools in the design to make the Supreme Court completely partisan to implement the racist, anti-women,  anti-minority  White Supremacist agenda of the Evangelical Christians by voting for the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and supporting nomination for the Supreme Court just before the election respectively.  This depraved, spineless genuflecting in front of Trump again and again by every Republican Congressman and senator has proved beyond doubt that the independence of the legislature  has been killed by Trump.

(B)Trump has terrorized the bureaucracy into abject submission.  He has fired Inspector Generals at will when their findings were harming him personally. He has put people with questionable past in important positions. In some cases, he has appointed a fox to guard a chicken coop. He has destroyed public trust in FBI, CDC, etc. by vilifying them to serve his own interests. No president before him has done that. Thus, Trump has decimated the Executive branch.

(C) Trump has packed judiciary with rightwing judges who do not even show pretense of being impartial. His haste to fill the position on the Supreme Court vacated by Ruth Bader Ginsburg while her body lies in rest at the supreme Court building is nauseating, especially when the same cabal of Republican senators refused to bring for discussion a nominee of President Obama when judge  Anthony Scalia died full eight months before the presidential election.  Trump taking cues from the Federalist society in selecting extreme rightwing judges for the Supreme Court is an affront to democracy where there are opinions severally opposed to the Federalist View. So, Trump  has hit the third nail in the coffin of democracy by weakening and polarizing the highest court of the Land.

(D)Trump  has discredited the media by labeling anything unfavorable to him as fake news. He views media as his enemy. He singles out reporters and urges their bosses to fire him/her. He demeans women reporters. He gives insulting nicknames to reporters. He has killed the spirit of journalism and thereby Trump has destroyed the freedom of the press. 

Thus, Trump has effectively damaged the four  pillars of a democracy- The Legislature, The Executive,  The Judiciary and The Free Press.

• (7) Integrity of Character: After all that I have mentioned above, not much needs to be said about Trump’s  lack of character. He is a person with no morality or conscience. He is a pathological liar. He is a cheat and corrupt to the core. He promotes nepotism and sycophancy. He does not think twice to betray his associate/friend if he can make a buck or save his skin. He is foulmouthed, condescending and uncouth. He exhibits all the traits of a Mafia Don. He is too selfish, and his world revolves around himself. He surrounds himself with criminals. Many of his close confidantes have ended up in prison and others are facing court trials. He himself is under investigation in a number of cases in New York. His charity was fined heavily and was ordered to shut down for malpractices. Same was the case with Trump University. The latest revelations about his financial status, his deals with Turkey, Moscow and Philippines, etc. create serious doubts about his ability to put the interests of USA above his personal interest. That is a security threat for the country, if a President is compromised because of financial pressures in his personal life. He is known to stiffing his vendors and lenders. Between 2010 and 2018, he has shortchanged his lenders to the tune of $287 million. Would you do  a business with such an individual? Worse, would you put him in a position where he could decide your and country’s future? He interferes with the Justice department when his crony friend is up for sentencing. He pardons criminals like Roger stone who now parrots the idea that Trump should not accept a defeat and send in troops in the streets and declare a Marshall law.  What else one needs to know that the country and the democracy can never be safe in the hands of such a person?

How could I who claim to be a proud Hindu vote for a person who scores a big Zero on all the values that I hold dear and talk about to others, unless I am a total hypocrite? . (To be continued to part 4 OF 4)

Gaurang G. Vaishnav,   Tampa, FL

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