“A house divided...” Citizens take sides as Trump, Biden clash in polarizing election of ‘historic’ significance

As the current term of Trump/Pence draws to a close, they face the opposition of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris against their bid for reelection. With November 3 just days away, early voting has reached record numbers, but the final result remains to be seen. There are countless issues voters are concerned about, and they hope their preferred candidates will serve America’s best interests. 

“The people who are supporting President Trump are people who are very concerned about immigration,” U.S. History teacher Patrick Bertram said. “They like that President Trump is keeping their taxes low and feel that a Joe Biden presidency would lead to a ‘radical socialist agenda.’ They’re afraid a Joe Biden presidency will turn the country into Venezuela or Cuba and not so much Germany or Great Britain.”

Biden supporters, on the other hand, are looking forward to a leader who can bring resolve to the issues of racial discrimination and will boldy confront the conflict head-on.

“I think a lot of Biden supporters look at democracy and the idea of limited government, and feel that the Trump administration is corrupt and President Trump is incompetent and unfit for the job,” Bertram said. “People who are voting for Biden feel that people of color are not treated appropriately and feel President Trump has courted white supremacists and has not done enough to say ‘hey, you need to back down.’ There are also Republicans who do not support President Trump because they feel he doesn’t have a foreign policy plan.”

With the rise of Black Lives Matter (BLM), it has become a pressing issue for Democrats to support racial justice movements.

“I would say that Joe Biden has worked closely with activists and brought together coalitions to sort of talk about the problem that our communities are facing, and Donald Trump has done nothing but pour gas on the fire - that is, the demands on racial justice reform,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Spokesperson Tommy Kubitschek said. “When Joe Biden came to Kenosha he brought down the temperature and understood that he needs all parties at the table to come together and find solutions to real problems that our neighbors are facing every day.” 

In recent months, President Trump has been vocal about his disdain of protests, and some Democrats believe it reflects a lack of judgement on the President’s part.  

“I think Donald Trump is distracting from the issue at hand because he doesn’t have a solution, and he thinks he benefits from inciting animosity and division while Joe Biden understands that people need to come together to solve these issues,” Kubitschek said.

 Others believe his actions are justified because of the riots, looting, and violence that have broken out. 

“Peaceful protests? You mean like Kenosha, or like Portland or Seattle?” Winnebago County Republican Party Chairman Ed Hudak said. “From my perspective, these are not peaceful. Certainly, people have the right to protest, and we want to protect that, but once you cross over and start destroying property, you lose that right.”

For some, the violence instead represents a failure of the Democratic Party.  

“Unfortunately, the Democrats who run these cities don’t hold these people accountable,” Hudak said. “The governor of Wisconsin and the Kenosha mayor had to be forced to accept federal troops and federal people to keep it line.”

If anything, Hudak believes that President Trump has supported minorities. 

“What has President Trump done? He has created an economy which has the lowest unemployment rate for blacks so they can go out and find jobs, and the lowest unemployment rate for Hispanics ever,” he said. “I don’t know much more about what people want - this Black Lives Matter stuff is just an arm of the Democratic Party - they’re just trying to raise issues that aren’t there. You want people to have jobs and equal opportunity? Certainly, Trump has shown that he supports that.”

With the BLM conversation becoming more prominent, students have begun to support one candidate based on personal opinions. 

“I believe that Trump has had a hand in starting the violence, for example when he sent federal agents, that made people angry,” senior and West Young Democrats member Olivia Stellpflug said. “He cleared the streets just so he could take a picture. I don’t think he had real values behind it and it was just posing. That is definitely an abuse of power I see.”

Other students believe that the candidates’ opinions may not be so polarized to one side.

“BLM is definitely a good movement,” senior Ty Rasmussen said. “I support Donald Trump, and I think it’s something that both he and Biden respect. Biden has said that looting isn’t protesting, which I definitely agree with and I think both candidates can agree on.” 

Abe election spread cartoon.jpg

Another prominent issue that has come up, of course, is the COVID-19 pandemic, and many believe that the election will have severe consequences on America’s response going forward. 

“As Joe Biden talked about in the October 22 debate, there are a lot of people sitting at home who don’t have a family member across from them because they are in the hospital or have been otherwise affected,” Kubitschek said. “Wisconsin alone has surpassed 1,700 deaths from COVID-19. Our states are being completely ravaged by this pandemic and people are seeing it in their everyday lives. It’s because the President failed to respond in an effective way, and we are watching that failure in real time. So, I think voters are really feeling that and the way it is affecting the economy right now, because the President failed to do anything about it.” 

Kubitschek feels that the impacts of the pandemic extend beyond the disease itself.

“Healthcare is one of the most pertinent issues that voters feel every day,” he said. “There are 2.4 million Wisconsinites with preexisting conditions who depend on the Affordable Care Act, and since Donald Trump got into office he has done nothing except attack the ACA at every turn. And voters see that, and understand how important that issue is to not only them, but their communities. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have a bold and comprehensive plan to not only address the pandemic, but to protect healthcare access and improve it and build back our economy stronger than it was before.”

This debate over the economy is a central issue to Republicans and Trump supporters.

“We have to open up the economy because we can’t continue in this fashion. We are being driven into a deep, deep recession with a lot of unemployment and there will be a lot of tragic consequences from not opening the country up,” Hudak said. “The Democrats definitely want to shut us down and they want to prevent our country from prospering. President Trump would open up our state to business and allow people to continue to work and pay taxes. Without taxes, how are we going to afford the services that we have?”  

Hudak is especially concerned about analyzing the populations which the coronavirus affects, as well as its impacts on schooling. 

“COVID-19 affects people in their 70’s and 80’s and these are the people that are being challenged, and I can see why we would do things for them,” he said. “Other than them, people aren’t even affected, and the statistics are very plain on this. Most younger people - like high school age - barely even notice it. They get something, and kick it off. I can’t believe the number of students sitting at home - they should be in school. It’s going to affect generations in the future. It’s absolute madness.”

With schools at the center of the debate regarding the country’s reopening, some students believe that Trump would rebuild the American economy. 

“Rebooting the economy with COVID is an important issue because it’s in a hole,” an anonymous student said. “Trump and Pence did good things in their first four years, and would be the best choice for the next four years. They built many jobs, and they are the better choice to bring us out of the economic slump we are in now.”

On the other hand, some believe Biden’s stricter stance on COVID precautions would better serve America. 

“I really don’t like Trump at all,” junior Anders Larson said. “I support Biden, but I think it’s more of a dislike for Trump than a like for Biden. I would say his response to the coronavirus was really bad, and he refuses to take responsibility. Biden would do better. A mask mandate is a possibility, and I think he’s probably going to be a lot more strict and shut a lot more stuff down. I think he’s definitely going to cancel Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization.” 

The issues covered here only scratch the surface of what Americans are concerned about; national security, foreign influence from Russia and China, abortion, climate change, immigration, and the integrity of the election itself, among others, are all issues that are heavily debated. With so many arguments going back and forth, there are many concerns that the media are only exacerbating the already polarized American political landscape.   

“Most people are probably more in the middle of the political spectrum, but with what we read on the Internet and our choices for programming, we tend to go to sides that are more extreme because it’s more interesting or more entertaining,” Bertram said. “But biased news coverage only plays a small part, because it’s the people who are choosing where they get their information from, and often people are choosing to look at biased information from areas that are more extreme. So, they are getting these views and forgetting about their friends, neighbors, and family members who might think slightly differently.”   

Regardless of political stance, every four years, voters face a choice in helping determine the course of their country for the foreseeable future. For some, the choice is easy, and for others, it could not be more confusing. The ability to vote is the most fundamental belief of American democracy, and eligible citizens must exercise the opportunity in a responsible manner.

“I believe in democracy,” Bertram said. “I believe that you need to have an informed vote and be aware of what’s going on. I believe in having a voice and using free speech in a responsible way. Without knowledge and understanding, democracy dies. It’s important to vote.”

By Akashraj Karthikeyan

Cartoon by Abe Weston

Oshkosh West Index Volume 117 Issue II

October 30th, 2020

A Pro-Trump Student Opinion

The Democratic party has shifted dramatically since President Barack Obama held office four years ago, with the rise of progressive lawmakers such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Kamala Harris. There are many new policies the Democratic party is pushing, such as the Green New Deal, which has “nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with the sense of entitlement of elite progressives,” (1) as an article from The Hill demonstrates. Not to mention the movement to abolish the criminal justice system and instead focus on social welfare programs, something the Democratic party has said for decades without actually doing anything about it. This attempt to appeal to minorities by being inclusive and welcoming seems to be a facade where they promise to help minority communities, but in reality, Democrats want to keep them vulnerable to get their vote. 

The Democratic party has promised, for decades, that a vote for them will improve the lives of the marginalized, leading to a future of social and economic equality. But some of the worst public safety conditions and urban amenities for Black people are in cities that have been controlled by Democrats for decades. Chicago ranked number one in Security.org’s “Number of Murders by Cities” and has had a Democratic mayor since 1931. (2) This claim that voting for the left will be a vote for the benefit of minorities is just a tactic. When I delve into the research, I seem to notice more and more that what Joe Biden and the Democratic party say doesn’t match up with what they’ve done.

Biden claims to represent the working class, yet supported a California Law: Assembly Bill 5 of 2019, that regulates “freelance workers as full-time employees, with the result being lost income and fewer job opportunities for California-based freelancers and independent contractors.” The timing of his endorsement of this bill is noteworthy, because only six days after, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), the bill’s sponsor, admitted that “she was wrong” to believe her bill would not cause freelancers to lose work. (3) Biden’s plan to roll this out nationally, if president, would be an exceedingly large burden to freelance workers, with, according to gigeconomydata.org, 16% of freelancers being minorities and 56% being only high school graduates. As the son of immigrant business owners, I know firsthand that Democrats’ hardline regulations against the working class will prevent marginalized communities from achieving the American dream.

The rhetoric of the Democratic Party is all about ‘inclusivity,’ a facade that cloaks policies that keep minorities where they are, stagnating their communities instead of bolstering economic prosperity. Simply, Democrats would rather keep vulnerable communities on food stamps and welfare than equip them with the tools to create a better life for themselves. Biden attempts to dazzle voters with empty promises of peace, hope, and prosperity. At the same time, he sweeps away his history of criminal justice (see 1994 crime bill) (5) or his opposition for desegregating school busing, under the rug. (6) The Democratic party seems to think that records and policy stances don’t matter, and it’s merely the suave words used on the campaign trail that should win an election. Their  hope is that most Americans are uneducated enough to take their words at face value and not read the fine print of their policy. No one seems to question the corrupt acts done by the Democratic party this election, such as Biden, according to The Hill, accepting $51.1 million from a SuperPAC, despite originally “refus[ing] to take money from such groups.” (7) Or the questionable “voter registration” push by Michael Bloomberg, who pledged $100 million to get ballots to Black felons, just in an attempt to give Biden a boost in the Sunshine state. Herein lies a very patronizing aspect of the Democratic party, that the working class does not matter, and their attempt to take the moral high ground seems to exclude rather than include. You, whether a young voter, an immigrant, or a minority, should educate yourself on the policies and not simply vote the way the Democrats tell you. After all, to any Black American who may think for themselves and not agree with what Joe says, “you ain’t Black.”

But when looking at President Donald Trump’s policies within his three years in politics, one may be shocked at these plans, as they are underreported. Last month, Trump unveiled a “platinum plan” for Black economic empowerment. According to NPR, this plan would “increase lending through community development financial institutions…[and] grants for microlending and organizations that can help Black entrepreneurs grow their businesses.” Trump also has a strong record in criminal justice reform, passing the First Step Act of 2018, which according to Congress.gov, provides programs “to help reduce the risk that prisoners will recidivate upon release from prison” and lowered prison sentences for certain nonviolent offenders (8). Amid the controversy over law enforcement, Trump passed an executive order increasing government grants for police departments that implement particular training and add a database that will track acts of police misconduct (9). These are just a few examples of his actions that will provide more safety and security for hardworking American families. Trump has a clear plan to better American lives, with, according to a Gallup Poll, 56% saying they are better off under President Trump than they were for years ago, despite a pandemic. But when I look at the Biden-Harris campaign, I struggle to find what they stand for, because to me, they will change their views and go against their word just to get power.  
By Zade Alzoubi 

A Pro-Biden Student Opinion

The 2020 Presidential Election may be one of the most important moments in all of American history. The outcome of this election could potentially determine the future of the United States as we weather a storm unlike any other in 21st-century politics. A widespread pandemic has the country on lockdown, the nation’s western front has been continuously lit ablaze, and the American people are more divided than they have been, perhaps since the Civil War. The current president leads a cult-like following that refuses to cooperate in preventing the transmission of this notorious coronavirus, denies the science of climate change that has been brought before him, and weaponizes his massive crowds in a manner that further divides the American people. President Donald J. Trump is a fuel to the fires that could destroy the United States. His negligence in accepting the faults of himself and his administration is almost laughable at times, as he utilizes his infomercials to display vast imagery of American riots and horrors, whilst boastfully depicting it as “Joe Biden’s America,” raising the question as to when it will be “Donald Trump’s America.” 

Taking photos from events of his presidency and skillfully weaving them to depict the narrative that Joe Biden caused these is cynically hilarious, and it is putrid that this method of fear-mongering is working to the degree that it is. It surprises me that many Republican-minded people have gotten so wrapped up in such a concept and have blatantly ignored the efforts and beliefs of Joe Biden entirely. If given the chance to speak without an insult hurled his way every couple of seconds, Republican voters may find that there’s a lot of traits that Joe Biden possesses that they would seem appealing. Joe Biden is a proud Christian man, yet the evangelicals continue to dispose of their Christian morality by providing support for the man that disperses crowds of peaceful protestors before marching to a church, unwelcomed, and holding their sacred text upside down. Joseph Biden’s son, Beau Biden, was a military veteran when he entered the realm of politics, and despite thorough, misinformed commercials that would say otherwise, Joe Biden is a very military-minded individual. He proudly represents himself as somebody who whole-heartedly supports American troops and veterans, and many of the policies he brings to the table fit that narrative, wanting to boost the budget of defense, contrary to what the Trump administration would want you to believe. Biden is slow to anger- a presidential personality of which there is great need in this country- and a rather unstubborn voice in American politics. Biden is aware that he is not an expert in coronavirus related subjects, and he recognizes that he is not a climate change specialist. Still, he frequently listens to those who are, and this willingness to listen and cooperate is what could save countless Americans, as well as international lives. 

Biden represents the return to civil politics so greatly needed in the U.S., a return to scholarly presidential debates rather than immature yelling matches that accomplish nothing but instilling a helpless feeling in countless Americans watching from their homes. His interests align with that of the American public, and he genuinely cares about the safety of American children in schools and adults in the workforce, as shown through his coronavirus plans and policies. He cares about the genuine welfare of the American public. Joe Biden is not a billionaire, exploiting tax loopholes and refusing to reveal tax returns. Biden wants to end offshore drilling as well as new oil and gas leases on American soil in an effort to combat climate change, an issue that Donald Trump has denied to even recognize, let alone attempt to reach any form of resolve. Biden wants to make firearms more difficult to obtain as a defense against gun violence in America, whilst still allowing firearms to be accessible for those who want to legally purchase them for recreational use. Joe Biden is not only an upstanding Democrat, but also an honorable presidential candidate with admirable morals and a headstrong attitude, ready to tackle important issues that appeal to the American masses. The decision on November 3 should be an easy one. An honest Democratic candidate who represents the welfare of the American people, or a Republican candidate who stands for the American billionaires and lacks decency, integrity, and accountability, and remains a social bigot and boastful fraud.

By Hunter Willis

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