Editorial: A vote to ‘Restore the soul of America’

Posted 10/22/20

 Many people, including both presidential candidates, have described the coming election as historic. President Trump and former Vice President Biden have reached this conclusion for different …

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Editorial: A vote to ‘Restore the soul of America’

Posted

 Many people, including both presidential candidates, have described the coming election as historic. President Trump and former Vice President Biden have reached this conclusion for different reasons, and they are both correct.

Certainly, the outcome of this election will determine which of the candidates’ highly divergent domestic and foreign policies America will pursue for the next four years. But this is true of every recent presidential election, and the nature of today’s issues is no more existential than they have been in the past. 

What makes next month’s election fundamentally historic is that our vote will express much more than our policy preferences – this election is about how we want America’s next president to go about conducting the nation’s business.

And with only a small fraction of the electorate remaining undecided weeks before the vote, America knows much about how each candidate will go about leading the country for the next four years. 

President Trump promises more of the same – to “Make America Great Again, Again” as he recently put it. He will continue to stoke the deep anger of his supporters against the elites, the experts, the environmentalists, and Americans who are ‘different’ by dint of their skin color, national origin, and sexual orientation.

He will build fear by continuing to lie baldly and promote absurd and disproven conspiracy theories. He will continue to bless the rich with his largesse. His “America First” policies in the international arena will be extended, further alienating our friends and allies while he continues to praise the despots who hate and vilify America and our values.  And he will continue to be the country’s Narcissist-in-Chief.

Joe Biden feels the shaky ground America finds itself on today. He sees that the divisiveness permeating our government, our society, and our relationships with our foreign allies is weakening America’s cohesiveness, resolve and capabilities. Respected for his ability to work with Democrats and Republicans alike in the past, Biden promises to “restore the soul of America.” He will do this not by demonizing those with opposing political views, but instead by restoring confidence through his commitment to the fundamental values of the American people.

These have led him to propose better ways of fighting the Coronavirus epidemic, to invest in a cleaner economy that will help forestall the devastations of climate change, to promote innovation in American manufacturing that will create jobs, and to work toward universal healthcare.

If policy considerations were America’s paramount concern in this election, our endorsement might be different. But they are not. We know Joe Biden’s compassion. His steady hand and deep experience are what America desperately needs today, and we endorse him as the next president of the United States.

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MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.