Over half of you voted for Donald Trump, a man guilty of 34 felonies, declared bankruptcy with his six business ventures, convicted of rape, guilty of fraud, unfaithful to his wives, and a narcissistic racist fascist.
He cannot finish a comprehnsive thought without insulting, belittling somebody or whole groups of people like Mexicans and Puerto Ricans.
And, he regularly seeks the advice of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, who wants to weaken NATO and destroy western democracies by sowing distrust in democratic institutions by spreading misinformation and interfering in free elections.
You'd rather have a man who has already failed as President in his first term in office. What he had going for him, apparently, was that he was white and a male.
I'm exasperated. I have no words to express my deep disappointment in the gullibility of the voting majority.
More on the Presidential election later. I need to take a breath and meditate.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a developing story. Check back later for updates. For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.
Following former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley's launch of her 2024 presidential campaign last February, progressives cautioned that while the Republican has spent years cultivating a so-called "moderate" public persona, her policy positions make it abundantly clear that as president, she would promote a right-wing agenda similar to the Trump administration, in which she served for nearly two years.
Haley, who also served as South Carolina's governor before joining the administration of former President Donald Trump in 2017, has advanced right-wing policies both domestically and abroad, and since leaving public office four years ago, has used her platform to promote "extreme hardline positions on foreign policy," wrote Daniel Larison at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
The Republican has strived to center her response to the 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston by a white supremacist as evidence of her moderation, including in her campaign launch video footage of the speech she gave weeks after the massacre when signing a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the state capitol.
Progressive strategist Sawyer Hackett noted, however, that moments earlier in the video she denied that the deep history of institutional racism has contributed to persistent inequality in the United States.
"Make no mistake: Nikki Haley is no moderate," said Christina Harvey, executive director of progressive advocacy group Stand Up America. "From her support of Trump's policy of putting children in cages and the regressive reproductive health policies she pushed as governor of South Carolina to her opposition to federal voting rights legislation and her unwavering support of Donald Trump—even after he incited the January 6 insurrection—Nikki Haley has shown her true colors."
During her six years as governor of South Carolina, Haley signed anti-reproductive rights bills including one that banned abortion care after 19 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
With anti-abortion rights Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expected to also announce a run for the GOP presidential nomination, NARAL Pro-Choice America president Mini Timmaraju said the primary is already becoming "a race to the bottom."
"Whether it's serving in Donald Trump's Cabinet or signing an extreme abortion ban into law, Nikki Haley's record is chock full of red flags," said Timmaraju. "Haley's views on abortion are just as extreme as others gunning for the Republican nomination, and we look forward to working alongside our members to defeat the Republican nominee, whoever it may be."
Haley's campaign launch ad also included a claim that President Joe Biden is promoting a "socialist" agenda, which Poor People's Campaign co-chair Rev. Dr. William Barber II interpreted as an attack on those who "believe in living wages, voting rights, and healthcare for all."
During Haley's two years as U.N. ambassador under the Trump administration, she was a strong proponent of the president's so-called "zero tolerance" policy under which thousands of migrant children were separated from their parents and guardians, Trump's push to pull out of the U.N. Human Rights Council, and the administration's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.Though she briefly criticized Trump for inciting the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an effort to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results, Haley soon after defended the former president and called on Democratic lawmakers to "give the man a break" as they impeached Trump for a second time.
"When we needed leaders to stand up for our democracy and our freedoms, Haley fell in line with Donald Trump, again and again," said Harvey. "That's exactly the opposite of what our country needs. Unfortunately, it doesn't make her unique. Whether the Republican nominee is Nikki Haley, Donald Trump, or someone else, there will likely be a MAGA Republican with a track record of undermining our democracy on the GOP ticket come November 2024."
At the Quincy Institute, Larison wrote that Haley's effort to cast herself as a moderating voice in the Republican Party while also defending the former president has left her "with no obvious base of support" and has likely rendered her a long-shot candidate.
"There is so little daylight between Haley's own positions and those of Trump that it will be difficult for her to criticize anything he did as president," Larison wrote. "Haley's foreign policy record is bound up with Trump's to such an extent that she will struggle to distinguish herself from him."
Barber called on voters to focus on "the main message: None of the Republicans planning on running disagree with Trump on policy."
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @eduardodiok on Threads.net, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.
Contrary to reports from conservative media, the President and Vice President get along fine.
OPINION
President Biden ended any guessing games surrounding a second term. He announced Tuesday that he will run for President in 2024 and he will retain Kamala Harris as his running mate.
Since the moment Biden chose Harris for his Vice President, she has been under constant attack by conservative news outlets orchestrated by the Republican Party and its supporters. The onslaught of criticism -- ranging from the sound of her laugh to her inability to carve out her own identity -- eventually seeped into some Democratic doubters who saw her as a drag on the ticket.
Much of the criticism could be traced to outright racism and sexism, demanding more from the country's first woman Vice President, first Vice President of Asian and Black descent than they would expect from any White male predecessor.
Really? The role of Vice President is not to carve out her own identity but to support the President and his policies. The President's policies, not her's.
Can you think of any "accomplishments" by Vice President Pence?
Even Joe, Biden, as President Obama's Vice President, failed to inspire Democratic supporters with his lackluster track record at the White House as Obama's closest advisor despite his "good-ol'-Joe" image.
The upcoming GenZ voters, who have shown to be more prone to voting and influential than previous generations, were just toddlers when Dick Cheney was Vice President under former President George W. Bush. And, could you even name Gerald Ford's Vice President? (I'll save you the trouble: From 1974 to 1976, it was Nelson Rockefeller. In his unsuccessful bid to be elected President in 1976, Ford's running mate was Sen. Bob Dole.)
BIDEN CAMPAIGN
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will team up again in 2024.
Some Harris skeptics have questioned whether Biden should have chosen her to be his running mate again, citing low ratings and asking whether she has done enough to define herself in her historic role as the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American to be vice president.
Biden's and Harris' popularity ratings remain low, according to FiveThirtyEight polling averages, but Harris' 40% approval is even lower than Biden's 42%.
Whoever the Republican nominee will be, (It is very likely we will see Donald Trump in that role.) you can be sure that Harris will continue to be in Republican crosshairs during the entire campaign.
Biden will be 82 in 2024, so the GOP propaganda machine will try to ramp up the fear factor by emphasizing that Harris would become President if Biden was somehow impaired by illness or dementia. Much like the conservative media and Republicans turned Rep. Nancy Pelosi into a bogeyman, they will likely paint Harris as incompetent with red-meat attacks that will stir up misogynists, conspiracy theorists, the NRA, Christian Nationalists and white supremacists.
Media outlets need to guard against being sucked into the anti-Harris vortex that will assuredly come out of Fox News, New York Post, Breitbart News and other conservative news outlets by amplifying the negative assertions by playing catch-up.
To be fair, Harris was hampered by being assigned the no-win task of the border issue and to undo the pass a voting-rights bill caused by the conservative Supreme Court gutting portions the Voting Rights Act.
On the other hand, Harris has exceeded expectations on abortion rights and attacking racism. She has shined. when she's in campaign mode with the ability to communicate the administration's accomplishments to nonpoliticians in infrastructure and economy.
Harris is also has strong appeal with those constituencies that Biden needs in order to win in 2024, including Blacks, AANHPI communities, women and young voters.
To emphasize Biden's support for Harris, the Vice President was featured prominently in the three-minute video launching their 2024 campaign showing her alongside the President greeting voters allowing her to bask in the Presidential power that comes with the position of the most powerful person in the world.
In order to give the campaign a rolling start, Harris' first visit after the campaign announcement was to Howard University, her alma mate,r for an invent co-hosted by Planned Parenthood and NRAL Pro-Choice America so she was assured of a freindly reception. She took the stage to a standing ovation and left the podium to chants of "Four More Years."
“We are living, I do believe, in a moment in time where so many of our hard-won freedoms are under attack,” Harris said. “And this is a moment for us to stand and fight."
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