OPINION: Endorsement for the 2020 Presidential Election
Those of you who know me or have followed my activities post-Agency employment will note that I am apolitical, not associated with any party and will vote for the candidates that best represents what I expect from the position. During my government years, the Hatch Act served to muzzle me effectively.
In 2016, one will remember my admonishment to VOTE. I viewed the choice between Clinton and Trump to be a choice between two poor candidates.
Retrospective review of 2016 prognostication
In mid-2016 I wrote a piece which spoke to the topic of hacking politics and election meddling by foreign powers, it wasn’t new to those who went toe-to-toe with the USSR during the Cold War and watched their actions across the developing world and here in the United States to shape opinion.
In October 2016, I had posited that the depth of knowledge which the Russian had on Clinton over the years would make her their preferred choice and that the efforts to support Trump’s candidacy was simply a gambit, as it was sure to cause the U.S. electorate to shy away from Trump and vote Clinton in.
I miscalculated what I was seeing, as I wasn’t seeing the entire picture, which became known to us over the years 2017-2020 about Russia’s intentions etc. – that’s the beauty of hindsight.
Indeed, days after the election I wrote how the Kremlin’s Clinton gambit failed and how they were scrambling and working feverishly to ingratiate themselves into the good graces of one Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States.
When the dust settled Trump’s success in garnering the Electoral College vote was made possible by his receiving approximately 70,000 more votes across a number of swing states. We also found, nationwide how roughly 43 percent of registered voters (100 million) didn’t fill out their ballot.
Why 2020 is different and why you must vote
Here we are again in August, this time four years later. Over the course of the past four years I’ve written hundreds of articles on the espionage threat to our country as I reviewed case after case of our countries intellectual property being purloined by others – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea most often. And yes, I’ve even written a few pieces about election interference, active measures, misinformation and disinformation.
Most recently I wrote a three-part series on the 20-plus year Russian GRU source who was a former Green Beret and then became an instructor on cybersecurity policy within the U.S. intelligence and defense communities, all the while reporting to the GRU. Yes, the same GRU who we now know was behind the election meddling of 2016.
To be clear.
In my opinion, based upon years of working the HUMINT side of the intelligence equation, members of the Trump entourage were in cahoots with the Russians in 2016. They attempted to hide this. In 2020, they aren’t even trying. Putin’s adroit handling of the relationship with Trump has evolved to Trump in an never ending desire to please Putin with a bromance like adulation. That, to me is sufficient to dictate, we’ve had enough.
COVID deaths in the United States are racing towards 200,000 – that is roughly the equivalent of wiping the population of Spokane, Washington off the face of the earth. This didn’t have to be. We, the United States, fail miserably in our response to COVID. And yes, it would have been tough for any President, but the number of times this President has downplayed the seriousness of the situation and pushed forward irresponsible medical solutions has effectively isolated the United States from the rest of the world.
We do NOT have our COVID act together. Our public health officials and epidemiologists and scientists are telling us one thing and our politicians, starting at the White House are telling us something else. For no other reason than to save the lives of our fellow citizens, we must collectively say, we’ve had enough.
We need rapid testing. We need honest and forthright visibility into the numbers and spread. And yes in August 2020, we need PPE to be distributed and we need a national medical response so that we are not burning out our medical professionals.
Then we have the racism and misogyny which exudes from the President’s being. From Charlottesville to Minneapolis to Kenosha where is the man’s empathy? Instead of attempting to take actions to heal the nation, he backs the oil tanker full of aviation fuel up and fuels the fires. No solutions or even ideas toward solutions have exuded from his lips. He opts to hide himself in the White House bunker and build 13 foot tall walls around the people’s house, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He is Dante, he inflames.
The President has no interest in working to bring equality, diversity, economic security or opportunity to our nation’s poor or disadvantaged. With 40-plus million unemployed, he vows to veto relief. He, with his senatorial sycophantic lickspitals in tow are not about the people, they are about greed and power.
He pledges law and order yet fails to understand the need to support reform of the militarized police, who were used as a dumping ground for military hardware. Reform which many in law enforcement are addressing from within, successfully.
And he cares not a nit about his own base, as evidence by the recent rallies in Tulsa, Mt Rushmore, Fort Henry and last night at the White House. COVID spreads and people will become ill, and some will die (Herman Cain for example).
When a man surrounds himself with grifters and criminals, then we should listen to the voice of our parents in the back of our heads – “You are known by the company you keep.” Is there a person who can honestly say they haven’t had enough?
VOTE
Again, I implore you to vote.
For the first time in my life, I am publicly endorsing a Presidential candidate.
Please vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
What I know is this.
Even if you don’t vote Biden-Harris, you will still be represented by Biden-Harris, as they will be the President and Vice President to all the people.
Should you vote for Trump and he is re-elected, unless you are in the one percent of this nation, or he needs you to advance his personal agenda, he will not be representing you. Nor will he be representing me, as he has said many times – if you don’t vote for him you aren’t his kind of American.
Thank you for your time. I love this fair land and look forward to our republic once more standing tall, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. It is time to heal America.
Christopher Burgess
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