A President like a Mayor
“I’m running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president.”
This is a line we’ve heard from Joe Biden time and again. It’s a good line, a direct contrast to how Donald Trump has governed, and if you know Joe and his deep love of country, you know it’s genuine.
This election is no longer about a Democrat versus a Republican. I’d argue it’s no longer about ideologies or policy proposals, as important as those things are right now. It’s bigger than that. This election is about decency. It’s about the soul of America, as Joe Biden has also often remarked.
I love politics. I may not love what it tends to devolve into, but I love the process and the competing visions offered by each party. However, as mayor, I wake up every day understanding that my allegiance is not to my party, but to the city I love. My job is to move the City of St. Petersburg and its people forward, whether those people voted for me or not. This doesn’t mean abandoning my core values or halting my advocacy for the candidates and causes I believe in. It just means that in order to be an effective mayor, my priority must always be my city. In Joe Biden’s case, our country.
Many of my friends or supporters on the left think Joe Biden is too much of a centrist. Many who support Donald Trump have been led to believe Joe Biden is a socialist. He is neither. He is, as he’s proclaimed, a proud Democrat who intends to build America back better for all people, regardless of party affiliation. His track record backs that up. Joe Biden recognizes what mayors across America have long said: “There’s no Democratic or Republican way to fill a pothole.”
There are a lot of potholes in America right now. A lot of problems.
In just four years, Donald Trump, he of the failed Trump Airlines, Trump Casinos, Trump steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump University, and so much else, has done his best to bankrupt America both financially and morally. Our national debt has increased 36 percent on his watch. That number will rise once the impact of his poor handling of COVID-19 is realized. And prior to the pandemic, a Forbes headline blared that “Trump’s Deficits Are Racing Past Obama’s”. They went on to say that “President Trump…was handed an economy that was growing. In 2017, his first year in office the deficit grew to $666 billion, was $984 billion last year and is projected to be over $1 trillion in 2020.”
Meanwhile, America has lost its moral authority on the world stage. The president’s erratic behavior, racism and xenophobia, demonizing of opponents and dismantling of institutions, has darkened the shining “city on a hill” that Ronald Reagan spoke of. It has left us in disarray.
As Election Day nears, I urge every American who hasn’t yet voted to think big, to think beyond party politics and beyond any one issue. Think about a president that surrounds himself with the best and brightest. Think about the possibility of America and a return to decency and normalcy. Think about a president with the experience and temperament to put us back together, to heal us, to fill our potholes. When I think of that kind of president, I think of Joe Biden. I hope you will, too.
