This past week, my brother asked me if I was voting. I was surprised by this because my brother and I have never talked about anything personal, let alone our political beliefs. My mom, brother and I are all anti-Trump, except we would’ve never dared say that to my father who was a die-hard Trump supporter. The man had “Hispanics for Trump” signs throughout our house. He attended a rally and swore on his life Donald Trump pointed right to him when he yelled his name during his first campaign trip to Hershey. Regardless of how different my whole family’s beliefs are (none of us have the same opinions), I still was surprised when my brother asked me if I was voting with Biden. This is my first time voting in a presidential election. According to isidewith.com, I am aligned 90% with Howie Hawkins, the candidate for the Green party. I am a registered Democrat and I wouldn’t vote for the green party. Following Howie, I am 88% aligned with Joe Biden. This is expected. The thing is, when the candidates initially were all over the place, I was a strong supporter of Elizabeth Warren, and I still am. Joe Biden is okay, and we stan his relationship with Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, but I never saw myself truly supporting him. Regardless, Biden is who I am voting for.
There are a couple of reasons that I support Elizabeth Warren. She had ten major plans and I want to share the three I love the most.
I loved her plan to cancel student loan debt. Obviously as a college student, that is really important to me. Seeing as I am already over $10,000 dollars this would be pretty great. She wanted to tackle this by making universities tuition free, address racial disparity, cancel for-profit schools and predatory lending places. These targeted approaches would’ve used existing laws in place as well as creating new ones. In terms of canceling debt, she planned to cancel up to $50,000 dollars in debt for 95% of borrowers. If I would’ve qualified, that would’ve erased my entire debt. This was one of the largest issues I liked the sound of. Many democratic candidates hold similar views on college debt, but I liked that she had a very targeted approach and a plan.
Secondly, she wanted to end Washington corruption. To do this, she had several plans ready to be implemented. One of them was getting big money corporations and lobbyists out of politics. Reducing corporate influence on government is very important because it makes government closer to being the pure state it was meant to be. One of her plans included restoring an impartial and ethical judiciary. This plan did not apply to only the Supreme court but all lower courts as well. One way to do this was by making sure justices had to be away from anything with a conflict of interest. Her plan would require Supreme Court justices to provide a written statement for why they needed a recusal, or their reason for needed to step away. Additionally, she would make it impossible for the judges to decide if they are in conflict of interest. An outside party would decide if a judge has a conflict of interest. Finally with the judicial system, she wanted to strengthen the code of ethics for all judges. I think this is one of the most important aspects especially today where the justice system is not really fair.
Lastly, my favorite plan was to fix our broken healthcare. As someone who went without insurance and healthcare for several years, this is so important to me. Free and affordable healthcare is so important even if it is government healthcare. I am on government healthcare, and it isn’t the best, but I am so grateful that I have it. I can get my medications for free. I get to see my doctor without a copay. I can go to therapy, a chiropractor, and any specialist I want. I got two free pairs of glasses this year. Even if government insurance isn’t great, it is better than nothing. Unfortunately, it’s really not easy even to get government healthcare. I was denied several times even from CHIP. With her healthcare she planned to tackle an array of problems from maternal mortality to the opioid crisis. In the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, she even began plans to prevent pandemics as well as to stop the spread of coronavirus. I think he plans were very specific for healthcare.
So, when my brother asked me if I was voting for Biden, I said yes. He is not my ideal candidate, but I do believe in most of his plans. When he told me he wasn’t voting, I went off about how he should vote for Biden even if he doesn’t like him. A vote for Biden is a vote against Trump. I don’t want to vote for Biden, but a vote for him is a vote in the direction of a better, safe, and most importantly, a more humane United States.
Please Vote.
HXCO, Cecilia
