“Polarized” does not begin to describe the state of the country at this time. Alarmingly, 36% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats feel that violence is at least a little justified in advancing party goals. The current election has been described on both sides as an existential one, a decision that could preserve America or destroy it. Much of the political discourse has been dominated by emotional arguments and a preoccupation with rhetoric with little regard to policies or facts, or when facts are discussed, there is either a selective disregard for inconvenient truths or an impressive display of mental acrobatics. While the candidates’ rhetoric and even policy proposals may differ significantly, a comparison of records between the Obama/Biden administration and the Trump/Pence administration, with added consideration of Biden’s and Harris’s personal records, reveals more similarities than one might think.
Pandemic
The 2009 H1N1 pandemic had 60.8 million cases and 12,469 deaths in the US over the course of a year, compared with approximately 9.2 million cases and 234,000 deaths due to COVID-19 to date. Although there was no universal masking guideline or shutting down of the economy during H1N1, one could argue that these measures were not justified due to the low mortality rate, so it is difficult to glean much from this comparison. It is important to note that unlike H1N1, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact globally in spite of aggressive measures taken by other countries. In order to combat a pandemic, it is essential to have public trust and a unified public action in order to prevent spread, which is extremely difficult to achieve in a polarized society that has lost faith in authority figures, a problem which is decades in the making. The United States has the added disadvantage of being the only major developed country to not have universal healthcare, which in addition to the large wealth disparities causes the disease to run rampant among poorer populations.
Healthcare
The Affordable Care Act reduced the percentage of uninsured Americans from around 15% to around 8-9%. Upon taking office, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the individual mandate, add work requirements to Medicaid, eliminate bribes to insurance companies to stay in the ACA exchange, expand “skinny plans,” and reduce federal funding for advertising the ACA exchange. Some of these can be considered reforms in a sense (by trying not to punish the poor or give kickbacks to insurance companies), but they continue to work within the same dysfunctional system catering to for-profit insurance companies, and as such have backfired. The uninsured population has seen a slight rise under Trump, increasing from 8.8% in 2018 to 9.2% in 2019.
Economy
The stock market is often used as a measure of the health of the economy, but in reality it is more a measure of how the wealthy in America are doing. Unemployment is a somewhat better measure, but employment does not mean much when workers are not earning a living wage. Total wealth has been steadily transferred upward, particularly since the mid 2000s. Obama bailed out the banking industry in response to the financial crisis, placed most of the burden on borrowers, and failed to prosecute banking executives who were responsible for crisis, leading to roughly 9 million foreclosures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people are facing a great deal of financial uncertainty, as can be expected from a pandemic and resulting in prudent shutdowns of businesses. The situation demanded drastic measures such as a universal basic income or other direct pandemic relief, and Trump failed to provide this relief. A more widespread impotence was seen when the Senate and the (Democrat-led) House of Representatives could only come to an agreement on the CARES act, which effectively gave $4 trillion to the banks but a single $1200 payment to regular people, one of the largest upward transfers of wealth in recent history. Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was an overall income tax cut, although due to shifts in thresholds, some individuals saw a tax hike. Most notably, it drastically cut estate taxes, doubling the minimum estate value to qualify.
Climate Change
In 2015, as he was about to leave office, Obama signed the Paris Climate agreement, which set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2025, and Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2017. During his term, however, Obama opened the Arctic to drilling twice and oversaw the building of multiple pipelines including the controversial Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). He finally revoked access to DAPL under activist pressure, while in the same month approving two other pipelines. Trump gutted environmental regulations, making it more difficult to stop pipelines. Interestingly, many pipeline projects have failed due not only to rushed approvals and overall administrative incompetence, but also due to the main advantage of a Trump presidency: the reaction to Trump. States stepped up to the plate and imposed their own decarbonization tactics that undermined the economic viability of pipelines. Trump has, however, successfully gutted protections in the Alaskan rainforest. A chart of actual greenhouse gas emissions in the US shows a very modest decrease from the start of Obama’s term and stagnation under Trump.
Immigration
Obama deported about 400,000 people per year, while Trump has yet to deport more than 260,000 people in one year. Obama did indeed build the cages, separate children from their families, and keep children in the cages. The criticism of Trump is that he is doing it more systematically through a “zero tolerance” policy, as evidenced by an increasing amount of family units apprehended at the border.
Policing/Criminal Justice
Biden sponsored the 1994 crime bill, which disproportionately impacted black communities, attempted to increase sentences and prison time, and provided about $9 billion to states to fund prisons. As a prosecutor, Kamala Harris sponsored a law which fined the parents of truant children, fought against DNA testing which could have vindicated a death row inmate who claimed he was framed, and failed to turn over exculpatory evidence, keeping the vindicated defendant in prison to complete a 70-year-sentence over a technicality. Under Obama, overmilitarized police used tear gas against peaceful protesters at Standing Rock, and nearly 8,000 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested. Under Trump, overmilitarized police used tear gas against peaceful George Floyd protests around the country. On a more positive note, Obama granted commutations to 1,715 nonviolent drug offenders. Trump passed the First Step Act, which reduced prison sentences for thousands by reducing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine sentences, easing mandatory minimums, and allowing opportunities to earn credits while incarcerated that can be used toward an earlier release.
Trade
Obama renegotiated NAFTA as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It allowed foreign companies to sue the U.S., placed jobs across multiple industries at risk, allowed banks to sue to challenge financial stability measures, decreased wages for a vast majority of workers, and weakened environmental and safety standards through excessive privatization while claiming to strengthen them. The deal ultimately failed. Trump replaced NAFTA with the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, which was endorsed by the AFL-CIO and included tariffs on products from facilities that denied worker collective-bargaining rights. It also eliminated anti-worker NAFTA provisions such as outsourcing incentives and extended patent protections that allow for excessive pharmaceutical drug pricing.
Foreign Policy
Under Obama, the United States went from being engaged in airstrikes or military raids in 2 countries (Iraq and Afghanistan) to 7, adding Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. One of these countries, Libya, was transformed from a thriving democracy into a failed state with open slave markets. Trump certainly did not keep his promise of ending foreign wars, but at the same time, he did not massively escalate the way Obama did, at least in terms of number of conflicts. He started a military campaign in Niger, and the U.S. is no longer actively engaged in Pakistan, keeping the list at 7. No country has yet been turned into a failed state. Obama, to his credit, implemented the Iran Nuclear Deal which was fair and effective in preventing Iran from seeking nuclear weapons. Trump withdrew from the deal and assassinated the top Iranian general Soleimani, who was a key ally in fighting ISIS. Biden’s criticisms that Trump cozies up to “dictators” such as Putin and Kim Jong Un imply that he would be even more hawkish against Russia and North Korea, in spite of ever-increasing, unnecessarily hostile sanctions on Russia and threatening displays of force with B-52 bomber planes over North Korea. Trump’s efforts to engage in diplomacy with North Korea received overwhelmingly negative press, with outlets feeding into fear and paranoia and pointing out that North Koreans’ satisfaction with the talks must mean bad news for the U.S. . Both candidates appear to be vying for who would be “tougher” on China.
Americans are in many ways presented with a false choice and an ethical dilemma in this election, weighing the lives of one vulnerable population against another. Both presidential candidates protect the status quo, unwilling to rock the boat too much while the majority of the country is clamoring for drastic change, and evidence shows that both are capable of disastrous policies in their own (or, in some situations, much the same) way. Prominent politicians, media personalities, and celebrities have been engaging in voter shaming and moral judgment to recruit votes for their team. Yet for an average well-intentioned voter attempting to minimize harm, there can be legitimate reasons to vote for Biden, vote third party, abstain from voting, or even, yes, vote for Trump.
Written by Ramya. Artwork by Dhanya.
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