I have a friend of 25 years who immigrated from Mexico and became an American citizen. She had voted for Trump in the past two elections. I recently asked her who she was voting for in November. Her reply was, “The woman.” I asked her if she knew the “woman’s name and she couldn’t tell me. Her’s was a “gender or anybody but Trump” answer.
Few things are more important than knowing what political candidates and seated politicians have in mind for your future. I continued the conversation with questions about, “the woman’s (Harris’)” economic and border issues. My friend had no idea as to Kamala Harris’ plan for her future. Having immigrated to the US legally, my friend has always been in favor of stringent border policy and against what has happened during the Biden-Harris Administration. She simply had not made the connection to Vice President Harris and she could not name Tim Walz as her running mate.
This is tragic and I fear an all too prevalent lack of knowledge among voters who vote for one issue – the easy way and be done with it. Your vote is for your future and the future of our country and it makes a difference. Let us be informed.
To inform the public, El Rito Media is going to publish a series of articles featuring the candidates and their positions. It will be a balanced and non-partisan, featuring relevant public information, within our limited space. While containing editorial comments, this series will not endorse any candidate. The series will attempt to present the balance of media coverage given to the candidates.
Donald J. Trump
Who is Donald Trump? Donald John Trump is described by Wikipedia as an American politician, media personality and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States. He earned a bachelor of science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1971, he became the president of his father’s real estate company, changed the company name to the Trump Organization and reoriented the business to building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos and golf courses. From 2004 to 2015, he hosted and co-produced a reality TV series, The Apprentice.
In the 1990s, his businesses suffered economically, resulting in six of his businesses to go bankrupt.
Trump won the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton, despite the accusation that Russia had interfered in the election. A special counsel headed by Robert Muller found no evidence to that effect, but did find the Clinton campaign paid for “the Russian Dossier” which contained many false and misleading accusations against Trump.
He was a political outsider and the first president to have never served in the military or held a government office. He was elected president in 2016. While winning the electoral college with 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 227 and loosing the popular vote by 2.9 million, the left began a movement to amend the Constitution to eliminate the electoral college. Trump won thirty states to Clinton’s 20 and his coattails won a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress.
During the campaign and his presidency his political positions have been described as populist, protectionist, isolationist and nationalist. These positions of “America First” sparked many protests on issues including a travel ban on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries and the construction of a border wall with Mexico. Both his official actions and personal comments have helped label him as a racist and misogynistic. On January 21, 2017, the day after he took the oath of office, organizers conducted women’s marches in Washington, DC and other major US cities with an estimated 2.6 million women marching in protest to his presidency.
As president, he reversed over 100 environmental policies and regulations ordered by previous administrations and withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Iran Nuclear Deal.
When Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, he signed it, which cut taxes and eliminated the individual health insurance mandate penalty, originally in the Affordable Care Act.
He appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, which were all approved as justices to the Supreme Court, which infuriated the left opposition.
After observing what he felt were irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, he began the “Stop the Steal” campaign, to block Congress from certifying the vote. Some followers breached the Capitol building on January 6, the day of congressional certification. Vice President Pence refused to participate in Trump’s request and accepted the elector’s votes, which certified his defeat by Joe Biden.
It is no secret Trump’s opposition has worked overtime to wrap him personally and his presidency in legal problems. Two impeachments resulted in no convictions and were mainly symbolic of political opposition. After leaving office, his opposition has continued legal attacks of civil and criminal in nature, making him the first US president to be convicted of a crime. Those convictions are currently under appeal. The US Attorney General has continued to pursue him for mishandling classified documents, a similar issue President Joe Biden was investigated for while he was a senator through his vice presidency. A special counsel refused to bring charges against President Biden. The Trump case was dismissed by the US District Court judge, but that decision has been appealed by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Smith has also introduced a new indictment of the former president for three charges of interfering with official government business on the January 6 certification of the presidential vote.
Kamala Harris
Who is Kamala Harris? POLITICO reports; She is of Black and East-Indian parents, the first black woman elected as California’s attorney general, the first Indian American senator and the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president.
In 1990, she passed the bar exam on her second try and became an assistant district attorney in Alameda County, California. In 1994, she began dating Willie Brown, who was thirty-years older and then speaker of California’s State Assembly. Willie Brown appointed her to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the Medical Assistance Commission, which collectively paid her $80,000 a year, on top of her prosecutor’s salary.
In 2003, she was elected district attorney in San Francisco as a progressive candidate and convictions jumped from 52% to 67%. In 2004, she declined to pursue the death penalty for the murderer of San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza, which turned Senator Dianne Feinstein and the police union against her.
In 2010, she was elected California’s attorney general, on a platform opposing the death penalty. However, as attorney general, she declined to back two ballot initiatives banning the death penalty, which raised accusations of her political opportunism and inconsistency.
In 2013, President Obama referred to her as the “best looking attorney general in the country” and offered to appoint her as a justice to the Supreme Court, which she declined. Obama later apologized, being accused of making a sexist remark.
In 2016, she won the U.S. Senate race in California, where she served until being elected Vice President.
As a candidate in the presidential primary of 2019, she voiced her support for the abolition of private healthcare, a stance she later retracted, saying she misheard the question. Due to internal turmoil within her campaign staff and low poll numbers, she withdrew from the presidential primary, without earning a delegate. Her primary election staff accused her of misleading them regarding campaign finances and abrupt layoffs.
After Joe Biden promised a female running mate as his vice president, Harris was rumored to be on that short list. Shortly thereafter, her Wikipedia page was edited 408 times, mostly scrubbing the controversial issues which had followed her career. One such issue was her failure to file fraud charges against OneWestBank for misconduct when foreclosing homes and fraud charges against its CEO, Stephen Mnuchin, who is now Treasury Secretary.
As vice president, Harris’ management style has become controversial, citing turmoil within her White House staff, causing a 90% turnover in personnel.
In the coming weeks, we will report on her record senator, vice president and her presidential platform.