Election 2020: Why I Backed Biden

I have been asked by several individuals as of late to explain why I supported Joe Biden for the presidency, but focusing on a policy perspective. Joe Biden has long been a favorite of mine in American politics dating back to when I first saw him speak on TV at the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Specifically, I respect and admire his diligent work in the Senate, his ability to forge bipartisan relationships across the aisle, Biden's willingness to change his mind over time as facts and situations change, and his sensible positions on delicate matters that impact America's role in the world. 

In a nutshell, I view Biden as the exact opposite of the incumbent president on all of these measures and as a potential antidote for the ideological extremism and polarization of the past two decades. 

These are the main reasons I planned to support Joe Biden for the presidency going back to 2014 when positioning for the 2016 election cycle began. As we know, the death of Beau Biden and the party's coalescing around Hillary Clinton prevented Biden from running in 2016. Beginning early in the Trump administration it was my view that there was only one person who could defeat Donald Trump and restore some semblance of sanity and normalcy to Washington and American politics in general: Joe Biden.

Because I believe in Joe Biden, I ran to represent my congressional district as a Biden Delegate to the Democratic National Convention and was successfully elected along with my running mate Ryan Brown to represent Mississippi's Third District for Biden. Although I didn't get to go to Milwaukee as a delegate, I still was able to fulfill a lifelong dream of being a convention delegate while doing so for one of the most honorable, decent people in modern American politics.

As I have openly acknowledged, my unwavering support for Biden was based on his long record of honorable public service, his moderate temperament, and his institutionalist bona fides. During the campaign I rarely talked much about why I supported Biden from a policy standpoint, but those issues should have been clear to those who know me. The primary issues that influence my votes in federal elections for positions like President of the United States, United States Senator, and U.S. House of Representatives are ones that influence America's position in the world and her security and safety. 

It was easy for me to back Biden because the issues that motivate me the most in federal races are those of  national security, diplomacy, trade, and defense policy. Basically, Joe Biden and I are in alignment on most all of these issue areas while Donald Trump is the polar opposite of where I am on just everything falling within these policy umbrellas. 

A short piece posted in Axios today succinctly outlined exactly why I supported Biden and would not have supported Donald Trump under any circumstances: Joe Biden understands the delicate and nuanced nature of how trade agreements and multinational deals can and will shape the future of America and our global position. Likewise, I sensed that Biden was considerably stronger on these issues than any of the other candidates who sought the Democratic nomination this year. 

According to the Axios piece, "For the first time in living memory, the hegemon at the center of a major global free trade agreement is not the U.S.," adding that "China has stepped into Uncle Sam's shoes, and now anchors the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, an area covering 2.2 billion people and 1/3 of all the economic activity on the planet." This is certainly unacceptable. 

The reason for this neglect of America's long-term interests is clear to me: American politicians on both the nationalist right and protectionist left fringes have absurdly abandoned the promotion of the nation's role as the global leader in trade, commerce, and diplomacy. One key piece of evidence is the Trump administration's rejection of the Trans Pacific Partnership, which would have allowed the United States to compete in the regions outlined in the Axios article. Before pinning all of the blame for this on Trump and his party's isolationist nationalism, it is important to recall that leftists like Bernie Sanders praised Trump and sided with him on the matter.

Bloomberg also made note of this yesterday, noting that "America needs a way to quickly assert its place in the Pacific Rim’s economic future. And the TPP, which was negotiated by the Obama administration, offers a largely off-the-shelf way to do so, the argument goes." This of course, is in response to China and 14 other nations signing the world's largest trade deal without America's interests being represented in the Pacific Rim. 

Without getting too wonky about it, Biden won my support from the jump because of my admiration for his career, his pragmatic approach, the man's institutionalist approach, and my alignment with him on the policy matters that are the most significant to me (which I also happen to see as the most significant to the country itself). 

Biden is a pragmatic, reasonable politician who never abandoned the TPP or the trade agreements of the 1990s and early 2000s, will allow the U.S. to reassert itself in global affairs, and will reengage with the world in a way that prevents the absurd surrender of American influence and prosperity due to rigid, ideological constraints. I am proud to have supported him and been a Biden Delegate in my congressional district.