The Joy of Politics by Amy Klobuchar

Author:Amy Klobuchar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Get Off Our Lawn!

Given the nation’s history of discrimination, it wasn’t a surprise to anyone that when Joe Biden announced his candidacy for President over a year before George Floyd’s death, he led with a call for racial justice. He criticized then-President Trump’s reaction to what had happened during a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, when a white supremacist, James Alex Fields Jr., deliberately ran his car into a group of innocent protesters, killing one and injuring thirty-five. While the horrific cold-blooded murder of civil rights activist Heather Heyer in Charlottesville at the 2017 Unite the Right rally predated the Floyd murder, Trump’s reaction—that there were “two sides” to the story—outraged many Americans and became a rallying cry for Joe Biden and a number of us running for president.

Our country’s struggle with racism long predated Donald Trump. But to come full circle to the political reckoning of 2020—the defeat of Donald Trump—it is important to remember that throughout his presidency, Trump poured fuel on the fire of brewing white supremacism with his racist comments and actions, which included: inciting an insurrection on January 6th, 2021; declaring that there were “two sides” to the murder in Charlottesville; racist comments that offended Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics (“Who do you like more? The country or Hispanics?”), and all immigrants (describing immigrants from Haiti and African nations as coming from “shithole” countries); repeatedly invoking the now-indicted Proud Boys in seemingly complimentary ways during speeches; and having peaceful protesters forcibly removed and tear-gassed in front of the White House so he could get a photo op holding a Bible in front of Washington, D.C.’s historic St. John’s Episcopal Church during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests.

As the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C. stated after the President’s Bible photo: “I was not given even a courtesy call that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop, holding a Bible, one that declares that God is love and when everything [Trump] has said and done is to inflame violence.”

Set against the backdrop of nationwide racial protests and in the middle of a public health crisis, the 2020 presidential general election campaign will go down as one of the most virulent and polarizing presidential contests in our nation’s history. Of course, there is an obvious reason: Donald Trump was one of the candidates. And in the opposite corner of the ring? Joe Biden, a true believer that government can be a tool of good, and a man who has made comity and civility one of the hallmarks of his long career. And Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate—Kamala Harris—set to make history as both the first Black and first Asian American woman ever to be nominated for the post. Her opponent? Mike Pence, a staunch conservative.

In addition to all that, the pandemic created an incredibly limiting—and strange—political environment. Biden’s campaign staff tried their best to follow the COVID rules, including novel, if weird, car rallies where

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