Sure, the United States is very divided right now — on abortion, immigration, criminal justice, affordable college, taxation policy, unions, good wages, worker protections, voter protection, police accountability, corporate accountability, manageable food prices, affordable housing and more.
But all of these issues really boil down to one question:
Are we to be a nation with one set of laws for all, or a nation with double and triple standards?
Here’s what I mean.
Should access to abortion, IVF and reproductive care depend on your ZIP code? Thanks to Trump, right now it does, and he’s doubled down on that disparity. J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, has signaled that the Trump team is open to a federal prohibition on women fleeing to a different state for an abortion — sort of a cross between the Fugitive Slave Laws and The Handmaid’s Tale. At the very least, Trump has stated that he sees states doing whatever they want — including monitoring pregnant women to keep them from crossing state lines for an abortion — as “a beautiful thing.”
And when it comes to police brutality and voting, Trump envisions an America where Trump-supporting Whites are treated very differently than college students, You didn’t think Trump’s proposed “one rough hour — and I mean real rough” — was aimed at the Proud Boys who attacked the U.S. Capitol and harass peaceful protestors, did you? For years, Trump has directed police at his rallies to rough up peaceful protestors, a very different standard than the one by which he judged the 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, where one protestor was run over by a White supremacist.
Trump also advocates two standards when it comes to access to the ballot box. He doesn’t have a problem with states cutting voting locations in Black and Brown precincts while having plentiful voting stations in Trump strongholds or the other voter-suppression measures Republican legislatures across the country have introduced. With a Harris presidency, Congress could ensure that everyone has the same chance to cast a ballot: one standard.
Needless to say, Trump doesn’t support federal financial aid to ensure that the best and the brightest, rather than the richest and best connected, go to college. Republicans, who didn’t have a problem with canceling $3.1 billion in debt for businesses, can’t stop deriding canceling student-loan debt. One level of opportunity for rich students, another for middle-class and poor ones. One standard on debt cancellation for businesses, another for students.
When it comes to taxes, Republicans are always saying that everyone should pay at least something, but that’s a standard for the bottom 95%. Said U.S. Senator Rick Scott in 2022 about his so-called Rescue America Plan, “All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. Currently, over half of Americans pay no income tax.” According to the Tax Policy Center, “achieving Scott’s goal could increase federal income taxes by more than $100 billion in 2022 alone. More than 80 percent of the tax increase would be paid by households making about $54,000 or less, and 97 percent would be paid by those making less than about $100,000.”
On the other hand, 55 of the country’s biggest corporations don’t pay taxes. Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, estimated that the government was losing a whopping $180 billion every year! Shouldn’t these behemoths have some skin in the game? Why a different standard for them? That money could pay for the cost of universal preschool ($35 billion) and paid family leave ($20 billion), with $125 billion left over to reduce the deficit. Every year.
But it’s in criminal justice that Trump and his supporters demand a three-tiered system. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the shameful Trump v. United States (2024), created one level for Donald Trump alone. Like a medieval king, for the most part, he is completely above the law. The other two tiers are for his followers and those who aren’t. The Trump Administration had no interest in investigating police brutality or corruption. That’s what Derek Chauvin understood as he smirked while slowly killing George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. As long as his victim wasn’t White, wealthy or well-connected, Chauvin believed he could do as he please, cameras be damned. In Mississippi, $70 million in federal welfare funds went not to any of the 1 out of 5 poor Mississippians, but to football great Brett Favre, a pro wrestler, and Favre’s daughter’s school, according to Mississippi’s Republican auditor. The only person who has been threatened with jail so far is the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who exposed the scandal. No repercussions for the haves, but plenty for those who have the temerity to stand up to corruption.
“No laws for me, but plenty for thee” – that’s Trump’s divided America. That is why there is only one question on the ballot this year:
Will we support the Rule of Law for all, or not?
You will choose on November 5th. Choose wisely.
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