An Open Letter to a Biden Supporter
Dear friend, family member, acquaintance,
I am writing this letter to you to not start a fight or be rude. I am writing this letter to start a conversation about how and why you support Joe Biden.
Now before I ask a few questions, I want to be clear. I am not in politics. I have never been in politics and when it comes to understanding them, I am still ignorant in that realm
My first and most important question is why do you support Joe Biden? Simply put, what is it about Biden that you like? Is it that he’s a lifelong politician? Was it because he was Obama’s Vice President and you liked Obama? Or is it simply that he’s running against Donald Trump and you can’t stand him so you’ll vote for anyone but him?
Which policies do you align with of Biden’s that excite you to vote for him? I don’t need to know every policy he wants to implement or everything he stands for, I just want to learn more about what his candidacy means and how it aligns with your views.
From my research, many of his policies align with what Obama did while he was president and it appeared to help the country’s strength and unity. My concern is that nothing has changed. If he has been in politics for 40 years, how progressive can/will he be? America needs to move forward, not backward.
My next question for you is do you truly just support Biden because he is running against Trump? While the two candidates we have are not ideal, two 70+-year-old men, we have to live with what we have. We also need to take a look in the mirror and finally realize the two-party system does not work.
The 2016 election came down to two candidates, Trump and Clinton, which divided the nation on that alone. A woman has never been a U.S. president and many did not want her to be the first. That alone was enough for people to vote for Trump instead of Clinton. But will that happen again in 2020? Will you vote for Biden just because he isn’t Trump? While I do think Biden is the better candidate, I am voting for him because I think he can bring the change America needs. Several of his policies align with my beliefs and I think he would make a great president. But I want to make sure you aren’t voting for him without understanding why you are.
To wrap this up, my final question is do you engage in the hateful speech and rebuttals? Trump is constantly calling people names and putting others down to make himself look and feel better. But one thing I was always told is that two wrongs don’t make a right.
Are you on Twitter, Facebook, in public, using Trump’s rhetoric to stir the pot to push your beliefs on other people? Are you putting them down because they don’t support Biden like you?
Politics have always divided the country/world. That’s the unfortunate side of things. As a country that is already divided between Republican and Democrat, we do not need to continue that message. There is a possibility to talk with people and to share your ideals without putting people down. If there is one thing we can take away from the past 3.5 years, it’s that dividing the country did not work. We don’t need another four years of division.
I sincerely hope this can be a real discussion and I am here to listen. There may be a lack of knowledge on my end and I would like to know what that is.
I know this conversation may not be easy, but I’m up for having it. The last several years have divided us as a country and at the dinner table and there is no reason to hate one another.
Politics used to be the one thing that people never talked about and lately, we can’t escape it. Friendships have been lost. Family members have been ostracized. Over what? The fact that my political views don’t align exactly with what yours do? Just because you don’t like pepperoni pizza and I do, does that mean we should stop being friends?
The more you can help me understand where you are coming from, we can BOTH move forward to understand one another better to work on ourselves and share a positive message with others.
