Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., stand on stage before a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by NBC News, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami. Photo by Rebecca Blackwell via the Associated Press.
The 2024 election is going to be watched very closely due to the occurrence of the 2020 election. The Republican Party is still proceeding to let everyone and anyone who will listen know that it was a rigged election. It has become a broken record, to say the least, and many people are wanting to change the song. Now that it is December 2023, we are seeing more and more of the candidates that will be running next November. Herein, I will be focusing my opinions on the big two that will be rerunning.
I, for one, am not a straight-party voter. I will vote for the candidate that I believe will do the best for this country and its citizens. When the Republican Party occupied the White House, I do not believe this was the case. Donald Trump was only interested in dividing this country and doing what he could to look out for himself.
During this time, we saw a marked increase in police brutality against African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans. Not only were police officers getting in on the action, but hatred was seeping into the streets of America as well as in social media sources; there was nowhere to escape the hate, with television, especially ripe. You had your pick of networks if you chose to listen to people propagate their own agendas and bloviate because they only care about their own opinions.
In the summer of 2022, record numbers of people took to the streets to protest the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And on social media, people were doxing the Supreme Court justices and making it clear that we citizens will not stand for a government organization to have control over our bodies. We have a voice and should use it.
This country is on the tipping point. We can no longer sit idly by and listen to what people tell us, but truly educate ourselves and make the change. We can no longer allow corrupt politicians and justices to dictate the decisions we need to make for ourselves.
For too long, the representatives and senators who are too old and have lost touch with their constituents have been allowed to get rich by staying too long in their seats. We need term limits and age limits for not just the legislative branch but the executive and judicial branches of our government so innovative ideas from other generations have a say.
Also, we need to hold everyone accountable, no matter what party they are affiliated with. Given what has happened with former President Donald Trump and other government officials, I truly hope that we are moving in the right direction.
And, while I am not defending President Biden, I am not saying he is a perfect president. The 2024 election once again is picking between the lesser of two evils, just as it was during the 2020 election and many elections prior.
With the debates from both parties heavy on the minds of many American citizens, like myself, who will be watching to see how the candidates do during the topics I watched the third Republican debate after it had aired, and I have to say that they spent more time taking personal digs at each other than talking about what their standing is on the decided topics of the debate, with former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley calling entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy “scum” during the primary debate in Miami when he made a comment about Haley’s daughter. Now, the debate overall was what I expected it to be, with very little politics actually talked about, and when they did talk politics, they spoke about things that you would expect from the Republican Party. The topic of abortion rights did not surprise me, as the party is known for their “pro-life” stance.
There are no Democratic primary debates scheduled at this point in time, though it remains unclear who President Biden would even be debating against. The general election debates also have not been scheduled yet, but we can assume they will be around the same time of year that the 2020 election debates started.
The original Republican, President Lincoln, once said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” This has never been truer. We need to stay vigilant, or this will happen to all of us. They say history is bound to repeat itself, and I fear we are going backwards in regards to the rights of every American citizen. Women, children, POC, LGBTQ+, and many more are at risk of losing the very rights they fought their blood, sweat, and tears to get.
