Tag Archive: freedom

Trump vs. Biden

President Joe Biden

After Super Tuesday‘s results this week in both the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries, it is clear that Donald Trump and Joe Biden will have a 2024 rematch of their 2020 presidential election. Trump and Biden each won almost all of their Super Tuesday contests, with Trump losing only Vermont to Nikki Haley and Biden losing just American Samoa to someone named Jason Palmer. In the delegate count, Trump and Biden again are very well on their way to securing their respective party’s presidential nominations, with Trump thus far gaining 1,004 of the necessary 1,215 Republican delegates, and Biden getting 1,516 out of the required 1,968 delegates on the Democratic side. Haley has announced that she is abandoning her presidential campaign, but she refused to endorse Trump at this time.

Accordingly, as the nomination process now shifts to an early general election campaign between Trump and Biden, a key question is going to be: what is the 2024 presidential election about? The answer to that question may well determine who becomes our next president. For example, Trump and the Republicans will likely keep talking about trans bathroom use, and caravans of “migrants” (an apparent change from “immigrants” or “illegals”), because they either have the wrong policies or no policies at all on truly important issues such as the economy, climate change, healthcare, gun violence, etc. President Biden and the Democrats, in addition to running on their strong record of economic recovery and growth, have made “freedom” a centerpiece of their 2024 campaign thus far, which includes freedom from Republican government intrusion into women’s health decisions (i.e., abortion), freedom to vote, preserving our democracy and elections against Republican dictatorship, etc.

Vice President Kamala Harris sounds the Democratic Party 2024 election theme

Vice President Kamala Harris pushing the 2024 Democratic theme

By now, most people have processed the results of the November 7 off-year elections, and they agree that the Democratic Party did very well. This includes, for example, the largely red state of Kentucky, where Democratic Governor Andy Beshear won reelection in a strong performance. Moreover, in Virginia, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin lost big time when Democrats not only held onto their state Senate majority, they also flipped the state House of Delegates to Democratic control.

Not coincidentally, abortion was on the minds of Virginia voters, as Gov. Youngkin had proposed to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. Democrats ran and won on protecting abortion rights in opposition to the Governor. Likewise, the abortion rights issue was even more directly on the ballot in Ohio, where voters approved a state constitutional amendment protecting access to abortion and other forms of reproductive healthcare.

These results follow previous special elections, such as in Kansas in August 2022, where voters rejected a proposed Republican amendment that said there was no right to abortion in the state. Thus, it’s apparent that, after the Republican-majority U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of last year, thereby taking away the constitutional right to abortion and leaving the issue to the states, the Democratic Party pro-choice position keeps prevailing in special elections, and promises to be a strong issue for the Democrats in the 2024 elections.

At the same time, as we have noted, the Democrats — from President Joe Biden to members of Congress and others — have turned the Republicans’ anti-abortion positions and rulings into a broader theme of “freedom.” And now, Vice President Kamala Harris has joined this “freedom” caucus. As this C-SPAN video shows, on Wednesday morning after the November 7 elections, VP Harris stepped out of the White House, walked up to the microphones, and had this to say:

Last night, I think the American people made clear that they are prepared to stand for freedom, and for the individual freedoms and the promise of freedom in America …. I think that if you look at from the midterms to last night, from California to Kansas, Ohio to Virginia, the voters said, “look, the government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.”

Democrats using the “freedom” theme is music to our ears, as we have been advocating this since 2013. The added benefit is that Democrats are taking “freedom” back from the Republicans, who have tried for so long to own the idea. It’s a great theme for Democrats to run on for 2024.

Photo by The Democratic Party, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/FjJ9mL

President Joe Biden makes “freedom” his reelection theme

President Joe Biden, running for reelection

President Joe Biden announced his reelection campaign for 2024 in a video yesterday, that was remarkable for its theme of freedom. As we have written about repeatedly, “freedom” is a word and an idea that Republicans have tried to claim for themselves. Since it is such a bedrock American concept, we have been saying since 2013 that it would be a great idea if Democrats took “freedom” back from the Republicans. We were very heartened last year when President Biden and a number of Democrats did exactly that, running or supporting Democratic 2022 midterm election campaigns by stating that “freedom is on the ballot,” and mentioning “freedom from gun violence,” “freedom of health care choices” (including, of course, abortion) and “freedom to vote” as three specific examples.

Likewise, President Biden’s new ad (which includes Vice President Kamala Harris) starts off with “freedom” as the very first word, and continues, largely in Biden’s own voice, to talk about “personal freedom” being “fundamental to who we are as Americans.” The ad goes on to explain that “MAGA Republicans” are threatening our freedoms, by attempting to cut our Social Security, “dictating what health care decisions women can make (again, an obvious reference to abortion), banning books, and telling people who they can love, all while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote.” The ad asks voters to support President Biden so that he can “finish the job” of protecting these fundamental freedoms.

The ad is very effective, not only in flipping the script on the Republicans over “freedom,” but also grabbing the theme of patriotism, and attacking Republican hypocrisy over their claims of being for “smaller government” as they try to invade Americans’ doctor offices, bedrooms and bathrooms, in Florida and elsewhere.

All in all, President Biden’s campaign announcement ad is a welcome opening salvo in what promises to be a major battle of ideologies between the pro-freedom Democrats and the pro-fascism Republicans for 2024.

Photo by Maryland GovPics, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/Jpa2HA

Democrats’ midterm election “Freedom” theme takes hold

Democrats in array this time

When one thinks of a political party marching in lockstep, using the same campaign phrase, the Democratic Party usually does not come to mind. However, that’s just what’s happening as the 2022 midterm elections approach. As we indicated in July, the Democrats, starting with President Joe Biden, began saying that “Freedom is on the ballot” in the upcoming elections:

In what could not be a coincidence, President Biden was joined at the same time with the same language by Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell:

Those two concurrent tweets were enough to identify a theme here, but now President Biden and Rep. Swalwell have been joined by more Democrats expressing the “Freedom” message for the midterms:

With midterm elections coming up fast, do Democrats finally have a theme?

“Freedom” is just potatoes to Republicans

The 2022 midterm elections are just 124 days away, and the results will likely make or break Joe Biden‘s presidency and the Democratic Party’s agenda. All seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as approximately one-third of U.S. Senate seats, are up for grabs. If the Republicans gain a majority in either house of Congress, at minimum, the Biden/Democratic agenda will be stymied as they won’t be able to pass any meaningful legislation. Additionally, either house under Republican control will bog the government down in senseless hearings involving laptops and other shiny object distractions, in order for the GOP to try to score political points. Moreover, many state and local offices are up for election, which could determine how crucial matters ranging from abortion to elections themselves are handled. Suffice it to say that, if any Democrats claim “this is one of the most important elections of your lifetime,” they are not exaggerating.

Republicans, predictably, are bashing President Biden and Democrats over inflation and gasoline prices as their 2022 election theme. Fair enough, as the party out of power generally attacks on any economic front that it can, even though in this case, Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine, as well as leftover COVID-based supply chain problems, both of which can be laid at the feet of Donald Trump, are largely to blame. Indeed, inflation is a problem worldwide, and the United States is on the lower side of gasoline prices around the world.

Therefore, it would be really helpful if the Democratic Party would express a unifying and galvanizing theme for the upcoming elections, to counter the Republicans and drive all-important voter turnout. This has worked in the past, e.g., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi‘s healthcare message for the 2018 midterms, which led to a Democratic takeover of the U.S. House, catapulting Pelosi to House Speaker.

As it turns out, President Biden and Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California, among others, seem to be leading the way with a theme that can succeed for the Democrats in this year’s elections. That theme can be seen in recent tweets from Biden and Rep. Swalwell:

Steve Wozniak: Corporations regulate us

Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak

Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak wasn’t known in his youth as a public speaker. He was always the shy one, letting his gregarious partner Steve Jobs do the talking, with amazing results. However, in his first TEDx talk in Brussels in 2012 (a year after Jobs died), Wozniak let go some passionate free thinking about corporations that is very relevant today, and which should perk up the ears of all progressives. More than once in his speech, Wozniak said that corporations “regulate” us.

What “freedom” means to a liberal

Republicans and conservatives (but I repeat myself) have tried to own the word “freedom.” But we know what “freedom” means to them: freedom from having a job or the right to organize, freedom from having health insurance, freedom for corporations to run amok in America. Liberals have a different view of “freedom.” On July 4th, here is some of what freedom means to a liberal:

Taking “freedom” back

The hottest Republican buzzword today is “freedom.” It shows up in NRA talking points, names of groups like FreedomWorks, names of bills like South Carolina’s Firearms Freedom Act, which would exempt guns manufactured and used in South Carolina from federal gun safety laws, and elsewhere. That’s because, like motherhood and apple pie, everyone favors “freedom.” Moreover, the word is designed to root into voters’ subconscious to make the talking points, organizations and bills more appealing. It’s brainwashing. If you doubt that, check out how the right-wing National Taxpayers Union counted the number of times the word “freedom” appeared in the Democrats’ 2009 health care bill. But Democrats are the true defenders of freedom, if only they would go on offense and say so. Here’s how: