拒绝特朗普，美国第二大报38年来首发社论站队

charleswu

不仅很多权威媒体在历史上首次支持一位候选人，就连远离大选政治话题的科学和医疗专业刊物，如《科学美国人》、《自然》和《新英格兰医学》等，也公开发社论表态支持拜登。

2020美国大选，非同寻常。

周二，《今日美国》也破例，社论编辑委员会成立38年来首次发社论支持民主党候选人拜登。作为一家办给普罗大众阅读、发行量排全美第二的日报，《今日美国》不像精英《纽约时报》那样常年为大选站队，其成立38年来，从未支持过任何一位总统候选人。

因此，这份重要媒体的政治背书，对于那些中间派选民的投票取向，会更有影响力。

《今日美国》社论：

投票拜登，拒绝特朗普

四年前，编辑委员会打破传统，自1982年《今日美国》成立以来首次在总统竞选中偏袒一方。编辑委员会年龄和观念差异很大，评论与新闻报道分开，我们是按照最大共识运作。我们呼吁读者不要投票给特朗普，因为他缺乏“美国总统所需要的气质、知识、稳重和诚实”。然而，我们没有完全支持民主党提名人希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)。今年，编辑委员会一致支持拜登的当选，他为这个摇摇欲坠的国家提供了一个平静和坚实的港口。

最近的民意调查显示，超过9成的美国选民已经在拜登和特朗普之间做出了选择，此时此刻，没有什么能改变他们的想法。这篇社论是写给那些还不确定该投票给哪位候选人，或者是否该投票的人的。这也适用于那些最终选择了特朗普，但可能在最后一刻产生疑虑的人。

也许上次你支持特朗普，是因为你希望他能改变华盛顿的局面，或者重新挽回蓝领工作。也许你喜欢他的民粹主义，反精英主义的信息。也许你不能忍受支持像希拉里这样两极分化的民主党人。也许你为一个小党派的候选人投票，或者只是呆在家里。

现在，距离选举日还有两周，我们建议你考虑一下，共和党人里根在1980年竞选总统时，问选民的一个问题: 美国现在比四年前更好了吗？

受疾病、经济困境、种族清算和气候变化引发的自然灾害困扰，这个国家已经危险地偏离了轨道。我们采访了密歇根州、俄亥俄州和威斯康星州的数十人，这些州都是帮助特朗普在2016年入主白宫的关键州。许多人拒绝置评，理由是对大选普遍感到厌恶，或者害怕公开发表意见。尽管一些人表示，他们个人的境况更好，但大多数愿意在镜头前发言的人，都对国家的发展方向表示了痛苦和沮丧。

危机管理能力

当特朗普在2016年当选，成为美国首位没有任何政府或军队经验的总统时，我们希望他能像他在2016年竞选期间承诺的那样，“更有纪律性” ，“让你们这些人感到无聊”。毕竟，当你是飞机上的一名乘客时，你会支持飞行员，即使他以前从未进入过驾驶舱。

无论你是飞行员还是总裁，工作中最重要的部分就是危机管理。但是，当特朗普面对一个紧急事件---- 一个多世纪以来最大的公共健康威胁---- 2019冠状病毒疾病时，他并没有力挽狂澜，将飞机安全降落在哈德逊河上。他对冠状病毒大流行的混乱反应，使全美国死亡人数膨胀，相当于1000多架波音737客机的坠毁。

占世界人口4%的美国，有20%的冠状病毒死亡报告。如果像特朗普三月份宣称的那样，美国正在与2019冠状病毒疾病开战，并且“我是战时总统” ，那么看不到的敌人正在取得胜利，现在甚至已经渗透进了白宫。

毫无疑问，如拜登担任总统，他更有能力地处理这场危机。他肯定不会成为冠状病毒误导信息的超级传播者。今年1月，作为前副总统，拜登在《今日美国》一篇评论文章中警告称，在中国出现的这种新型病毒“在形势好转之前，还有煎熬的苦日子” ，而且特朗普“可能是领导我们国家应对全球健康挑战的最差人选”。在竞选期间，拜登以身作则，遵循公共卫生健康建议佩戴口罩，相比之下，特朗普不仅淡化疫情威胁，还蔑视的戴口罩的防疫指引。拜登政府将遵循科学，引导公众形成对新研发疫苗的信任。

品格和核心价值观

众所周知，编辑委员会不仅在处理冠状病毒的方法上不同意特朗普，而且在从医疗保健和气候变化到移民和贸易等重大议题上意见不一。然而，政策分歧并不是我们首次为总统候选人背书的原因。不同的观点，甚至那些我们完全不同意的观点，也是美国政治的主要内容，习以为常。

如果这是两个有能力的主要政党提名人之间的选择，而他们恰好主张对立，我们不会选择站队。不同的选民有不同的担忧。但这不是一次正常的选举，也不是正常的时期。今年，性格、能力和信誉都将列入投票表决名单。考虑到特朗普拒绝保证，如果他输了就和平移交权力，美国民主的未来也面临失败。

近40年来，编辑委员会一直坚持某些核心价值观: 真相、问责制、公共话语中的文明、反对种族主义、对国家问题寻找共识，以及对第一修正案权利的坚定支持。这些不是党派问题，或者至少不应该是。

唐纳德 · 特朗普践踏了这些原则中的每一条，发表了2万多条虚假或误导性的声明，逃避对自己行为的责任，对他的批评者进行连珠炮似的谩骂，散布种族恐惧，更像是红色州的领导人，而不是美国的领导人，并且无情地攻击新闻自由。

从拜登近半个世纪的政治生涯来看，他在尊重这些价值观方面会做得更好。拜登最近在宾夕法尼亚州葛底斯堡发表演讲时说: “我们需要在这个国家重振两党合作的精神，能够彼此合作的精神。”

工人阶级的根源

对于特朗普无限的自恋和长期的混乱，拜登是一剂有价值的解毒剂。扛过令人心碎的家庭悲痛之后——他的第一任妻子和一岁的女儿死于车祸，他的儿子博死于脑癌，拜登散发出正派和同情心。问问你自己: 你能想象拜登诋毁军人是失败者吗？讨好国外的独裁者？为了一个政治对手的丑闻而勒索一个外国领导人？

当然，所有的政客都有缺点，拜登也不例外。他下个月就78岁了，就像新英格兰11月的落叶一样，已经过了高峰期。

对于一个被誉为外交政策专家的人来说，拜登在海湾战争(他反对1991年将萨达姆•侯赛因的军队驱逐出科威特的努力)和伊拉克战争(他支持2003年美国入侵伊拉克，后来演变成一场溃败)上都犯了错误。1991年，当拜登还是参议院司法委员会主席的时候，他处理 Anita Hill 针对最高法院提名人 Clarence Thomas 的性骚扰诉讼案的方式并不成熟。他可能犯一些令人畏惧的错误，他可能语无伦次。

尽管如此，拜登是一位工人阶级出身的政治老手，他理解美国梦。他知道权力的分量以及如何使用它们。在医疗保健、种族正义和环境等问题上，他有着跨党派合作的历史。他懂得，也有人格魅力去修复美国在世界上已经支离破碎的声誉。

美国面临一个非同寻常的时刻

也许你听说过共和党人和评论员试图把拜登描绘成极左激进分子的傀儡。但是，如果他能够在民主党初选的白热化时期，就能抵制“全民医保”(Medicare for All)和“绿色新政”(Green New Deal)等过于激进的进步主义理念，那么很难想象，他一旦入主白宫就会接受这些理念。

拜登完全有能力修复特朗普对联邦政府的破坏，从外交部门到特朗普试图政治化的科学机构。作为奥巴马政府的副总统，拜登在上一次经济复苏中扮演了核心角色，并且有能力应对下一次经济复苏。

甚至在疫情爆发之前，特朗普在创造就业机会、股市和经济增长方面的表现也不比奥巴马-拜登政府好多少。(还记得他承诺在八年内还清国家债务吗？现在是27万亿美元，比四年前增加了7万亿美元)。拜登知道，经济复苏的过程，首先需要国家对冠状病毒疾病危机做出全面的反应，这场危机已经改变了美国人的生活，并使大部分经济部门步履蹒跚。

我们国家历史上的这一非凡时刻，需要我们作出非凡的回应。凭借他的计划、他的团队选择、他的经验和他的人性，拜登可以帮助带领美国走出困境，走向未来。你的投票可以帮助实现这一目标。

这种背书支持，会否影响你在《今日美国》的新闻报道中有关总统竞选的内容？不会。如果拜登当选总统，这是否会导致编辑委员会手下留情？同样不会。

我们可能再也不会支持一位总统候选人了，事实上，我们希望再也不用这样做了。

charleswu

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/opinion/todaysdebate/2020/10/20/elect-joe-biden-reject-donald-trump-editorials-debates/5919435002/



[color=var(--label-text-color,var(--theme-color,#009bff))  !important]USA TODAY EDITORIAL BOARD:Elect Joe Biden. Reject Donald Trump.Our View: In 2016, we broke tradition in urging you not to vote for Trump. Now we're making our first presidential endorsement. We hope it's our last.[color=var(--font-color,#222)  !important]The Editorial Board, USA TODAY
Updated 6:17 a.m. EDT Oct. 20, 2020

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[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Four years ago, the [color=var(--font-color,#222)]Editorial Board— an [color=var(--font-color,#222)]ideologically and demographically diverse group of journalists that is separate from the news staff and operates by consensus — [color=var(--font-color,#222)]broke with tradition and [color=var(--font-color,#222)]took sides in the presidential race for the first time since USA TODAY was founded in 1982. We urged readers not to vote for Donald Trump, calling the Republican nominee unfit for office because he lacked the “temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents.” We stopped short, however, of an outright endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. This year, the Editorial Board unanimously supports the election of Joe Biden, who offers a shaken nation a harbor of calm and competence.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Recent polls show that [color=var(--font-color,#222)]more than 90% of voters have decided between Biden and Trump, and nothing at this point will change their minds. This editorial is for those of you who are still uncertain about which candidate to vote for, or whether to vote at all. It’s also for those who settled on Trump but might be having last-minute doubts.

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[color=var(--font-color,#000)]The case for Joe Biden. The case against Donald Trump. Share Our View.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Maybe you backed Trump the last time around because you hoped he’d shake things up in Washington or bring back blue-collar jobs. Maybe you liked his populist, anti-elitist message. Maybe you couldn’t stomach the idea of supporting a Democrat as polarizing as Clinton. Maybe you cast a ballot for a minor party candidate, or just stayed home.

Opposing View by Vice President Pence: Reelect President Trump to renew America’s promise

[color=var(--theme-color-text,#fff)]Read

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Now, two weeks until Election Day, we suggest you consider a variation of the question Republican Ronald Reagan asked voters when he ran for president in 1980: Is America better off now than it was four years ago?

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Beset by disease, economic suffering, a racial reckoning and natural disasters fueled by a changing climate, the nation is dangerously off course. We spoke to dozens of people in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, battleground states that helped propel Trump into the White House in 2016. Many declined to comment, citing a general disgust with the election or fear of speaking out publicly. While some said they were personally better off, most of those willing to talk on camera expressed anguish and dismay about the nation's direction:

Anita Giltner of Holland, Michigan

[color=var(--font-color,#000)]I am definitely not better off today than I was four years ago. I think America in general is much worse off today now that Donald Trump has unhooked us from so many of our traditions and our safeguards. … He is trying to tear down the Affordable Care Act, which is criminal.

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Daniel Viar, of Rochester Hills, Michigan, who didn’t vote in 2016

[color=var(--font-color,#000)]The way (Trump) has handled (COVID-19) so far has just been gross mismanagement. … Trump has repealed a bunch of environmental restrictions, which is really important to me because my age group and my demographic are the ones that are going to inherit the Earth.

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Lucinda Young of Toledo, Ohio

[color=var(--font-color,#000)]It's getting worse. … There’s not a lot of food around, there’s not a lot of money around, people are getting evicted. … I just wish the United States could pull together. … Why do we got to fight against each other? It’s too much.

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Mecca Vaughn of Milwaukee

[color=var(--font-color,#000)]You have a president who is … mocking people, attacking people on Twitter. … We’re dealing with diversity and racism right now in our country, and we need a new leader who stands up and faces these challenges, like Joe Biden. ... I think it’s time for a change.

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[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Yes, Lucinda, it is too much. Yes, Mecca, it is time for a change.

Crisis management

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]When Trump was elected as the nation’s first president without previous experience in government or the military, we hoped that he would become, as he promised during the 2016 campaign, “more disciplined” and “[color=var(--font-color,#222)]so presidential that you people will be so bored.” After all, when you are a passenger on an airplane, you root for the pilot, even one who has never been in a cockpit before.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Whether you are a pilot or the president, the most important part of your job is crisis management. But when confronted with an emergency — COVID-19, the biggest public health threat in more than a century — Trump didn’t land the plane safely on the Hudson River. His shambolic response to the coronavirus pandemic has inflated a national death toll that is equivalent to the crashes of more than 1,000 Boeing-737 jetliners.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]The United States, with 4% of the world’s population, has [color=var(--font-color,#222)]20% of its reported coronavirus deaths. If America is at war against COVID-19 and "I’m a wartime president," [color=var(--font-color,#222)]as Trump declared in March, the invisible enemy is winning and now has even penetrated the White House grounds.

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COVID-19 pandemic in President Trump's words
Since the coronavirus pandemic started, the United States has recorded more than 8.2 million cases of COVID-19 and over 220,000 deaths.
[color=var(--secondary-font-color,hsla(0,0%,100%,0.6))]MIKE THOMPSON, USA TODAY

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]There is little doubt that Biden would have handled the crisis more capably. He surely would not have become a superspreader of coronavirus misinformation. Back in January, in a column for USA TODAY, the former vice president warned that the novel virus emerging in China “will get worse before it gets better,” and that Trump is “the worst possible person to [color=var(--font-color,#222)]lead our country through a global health challenge.” During the campaign, Biden has modeled mask wearing and other public health recommendations that Trump has flouted while downplaying the threat. A Biden administration would follow the science and build trust in emerging vaccines.

Character and core values

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]It's no secret that the Editorial Board disagrees with Trump not just on his approach to the coronavirus but also on fundamental issues, from [color=var(--font-color,#222)]health care and [color=var(--font-color,#222)]climate change to [color=var(--font-color,#222)]immigration and [color=var(--font-color,#222)]trade. Policy differences, however, are not the reason behind our first-ever presidential endorsement. Diverse views, even ones we think are wrongheaded, are a staple of American politics and something to celebrate.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]If this were a choice between two capable major party nominees who happened to have opposing ideas, we wouldn’t choose sides. Different voters have different concerns. But this is not a normal election, and these are not normal times. This year, character, competence and credibility are on the ballot. Given Trump’s refusal to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power if he loses, so, too, is the future of America's democracy.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]For nearly four decades, the Editorial Board has stood for certain core values: truth, accountability, civility in public discourse, opposition to racism, common-ground solutions to the nation’s problems, and steadfast support for First Amendment rights. These aren’t partisan issues, or at least they shouldn’t be.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Donald Trump has trampled each of these principles, making [color=var(--font-color,#222)]more than 20,000 false or misleading statements, ducking responsibility for his actions, spewing streams of invective at his critics, trafficking in racial fearmongering, governing more as the leader of the red states than of the United States, and relentlessly attacking the free press.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Everything about Biden’s nearly half-century political career suggests he would do a far better job of respecting these values. “We need to revive the spirit of bipartisanship in this country, the spirit of being able to work with one another,” the Democratic nominee said in a recent speech [color=var(--font-color,#222)]in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Working-class roots

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Biden is a worthy antidote to Trump’s unbounded narcissism and chronic chaos. Having surmounted [color=var(--font-color,#222)]heartbreaking personal loss  — his first wife and year-old daughter died in a car crash, and his son Beau died of brain cancer — Biden exudes decency and empathy. Ask yourself: Can you imagine Joe Biden denigrating servicemembers as losers? Cozying up to autocrats abroad? Shaking down a foreign leader for dirt on a political opponent?

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]All politicians, of course, have flaws, and Biden is no exception. He [color=var(--font-color,#222)]turns 78 next month and, like the November foliage in New England, is somewhat past peak.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]For someone billed as a foreign policy expert, he managed to be wrong about both the Persian Gulf War (he [color=var(--font-color,#222)]opposed the 1991 effort to expel Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait) [color=var(--font-color,#222)]and the Iraq War (he supported the 2003 U.S. invasion, which turned into a debacle). His [color=var(--font-color,#222)]handling of Anita Hill’s sexual harassment claim against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in 1991, when Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has not aged well. He is capable of cringeworthy gaffes, and his sentences can wander off into uncharted territory.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Nevertheless, Biden is an experienced hand with working-class roots who understands the American dream. He knows the levers of power and how to wield them. He has a history of working across the aisle on such issues as health care, racial justice and the environment. He has the knowledge and the personality to begin repairing America’s tattered reputation around the world.

An extraordinary moment

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Maybe you’ve heard Republican operatives and commentators trying to paint Biden as a puppet of far-left radicals. But if he was able to resist such unaffordable progressive ideas as "Medicare for All" and the "Green New Deal" during the heat of the Democratic primaries, it is hard to envision him embracing them once he is in the White House.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Biden is well positioned to repair the wreckage Trump has made of the federal government, from the foreign service to the science agencies Trump has tried to politicize. As vice president in the Obama administration, Biden played a [color=var(--font-color,#222)]central role in the last economic recovery and is equipped to handle another one.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Even before the pandemic struck, Trump [color=var(--font-color,#222)]did no better than the Obama-Biden administration on job creation, the stock market and economic growth. (Remember his [color=var(--font-color,#222)]promise to pay off the national debt in eight years? It's [color=var(--font-color,#222)]now $27 trillion, up more than $7 trillion from four years ago.) Biden knows that the recovery process will require, first and foremost, a comprehensive national response to the COVID-19 crisis that has upended Americans’ lives and left large sectors of the economy reeling.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]This extraordinary moment in the history of our nation requires an extraordinary response. With his plans, his personnel picks, his experience and his humanity, Joe Biden can help lead the United States out of this morass and into the future. Your vote can help make that happen.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]Will this endorsement have any effect on what you read about the presidential campaign in USA TODAY’s news reports? No. Will it cause the Editorial Board to pull its punches if Biden were to become president? Also no.

[color=var(--font-color,#222)]We may never endorse a presidential nominee again. In fact, we hope we'll never have to.

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USA TODAY Editorial Board on Biden endorsement: 'Trump has trampled on ... values'
For the first time in USA TODAY's history, the Editorial Board is endorsing a presidential candidate. Several board members explain why