A vote for Harris-Walz will protect civil rights for everyone
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 18 hours ago • 1 commentsBy: Howard Berkowitz (The Asheville Citizen Times)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Howard Berkowitz - Opinion
We have a choice in November: Trump, with divisive attacks on immigrants and "others" and preferential treatment for the wealthy, or Vice President Harris's platform advancing average Americans.
Much rhetoric can be traced back to the arguments framers of the constitution had. In 1776 the Declaration of Independence was followed by the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution was necessary 12 years later to keep the union together, establishing the powers of the central government over the states. The First 10 Amendments (Bill of Rights) were added to ensure no federal government tyranny. The Founding Fathers knew slavery would need to be addressed as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were at odds with each other. The Declaration stating all men are created equal while the Constitution stated lesser value for Black men, with women ignored. The conservatives wishing to preserve the social hierarchy of control by rich white men were at odds with the greater majority of Americans who wanted opportunity and a say in government. This tug of war has never stopped.
With the fighting of the Civil War it appeared the North's philosophy of government as stated by Lincoln — "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, for themselves — in their separate and individual capacities" — prevailed. After a failed reconstruction the South emerged with the same racial hierarchy that left Black people out entirely.
Republicans took control of the presidency and both houses of Congress in the 1920s with anti-Immigrant and "anti-other" rhetoric. They bent the government to the will of business. This facilitated the 1929 Stock Market crash and Great Depression. FDR and the New Deal restarted the economy. Anti-New Dealers argued if a government answered to the needs of the ordinary Americans it was a radical experiment.
The 1950s found business, religious and political leaders insisting the federal government's defense of civil rights was an attempt to replace white men with minorities and women. McCarthy was hunting Communists and demonizing Unions, journalists and "others" as threatening the social order. The decade also produced the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision desegregating schools. The 1960s followed with Johnson's Great Society Programs, passing legislation for civil rights, voting rights, Medicare, anti-poverty programs and other programs to benefit average Americans.
The 1970s and 1980s witnessed Nixon and Regan and trickle down economics, fear of immigrants, minorities and welfare queens. Nixon pulled together a coalition of pro-business Republicans, southern states, traditionalists and law and order voters in this new "conservative" platform to fight these "others" and maintain social values and hierarchies. This swing of government to business and the rich lead to the demise of American manufacturing, seeing leveraged buyouts selling off companies for their assets and the mass relocation of business overseas and right-to-work states taking advantage of cheap labor. Corporations abandoned any pretense of supporting their employees and communities.
Obama swung the attention back to the needs of average Americans with the ACA and other legislation. The Trump years were filled with chaos. The Trump tax cuts added $2 trillion to the national debt. Trump ignored the pandemic and mocked scientists. Trump took office with a sky rocketing stock market, and quickly derailed it with tariffs. By the time Trump left office with a failed insurrection, the United States democracy was downgraded from "full democracy" to "flawed democracy." The current choice is Harris-Walz or Trump-Vance. How many times have we witnessed this? Elect Republicans during times of high employment and thriving stock market, appealing to hate and division, with a promise to cut taxes. Each time it has led to large corporate profits, business relocations, large increases in unemployment and inevitably financial disaster. We saw Democrats clean up the messes in 2021, 2009, 1993 and 1933.
Rather than make the mistakes of the past, we must choose Harris-Walz with commitment to expand and protect civil rights for all Americans, protect woman's rights over her body, investment in the country's infrastructure, middle class tax cuts, lower prescription drug prices, higher minimum wages and border safety through steps such as the bipartisan Senate bill Speaker Mike Johnson scuttled on Trump's direction. Harris-Walz offers an outlook of hope for a better country for all Americans, not just the wealthy ones at the head of the social hierarchy.
Howard Berkowitz is a retired Senior Lockheed Martin Production Operations Manager who has resided in WNC for the past 10 years. He is an active in local and national politics.
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