Robert Redford usually does not endorse for President and he has made a rare endorsement today, for Biden. I think, given what we know about Redford, it isn’t unusual that Redford would pick Biden over Trump. But, the comments Redford made in his endorsement op-ed on CNN are poignant, cutting, and they get to the point of the crux of what is at stake this year rarely expressed in such clarity, so I thought I link to the comments here.
Redford first reminisces about FDR, his empathy and strong moral compass.
It was a voice of authority and, at the same time, empathy. Americans were facing a common enemy -- fascism -- and FDR gave us the sense that we were all in it together. Even kids like me had a role to play: participating in paper drives, collecting scrap metal, doing whatever we could do.
That's what it was like to have a president with a strong moral compass. It guided him, gave him direction, and helped him point the nation toward a better future.
Redford holds that a nation in crisis needs a leader like FDR, one who seeks to unite a nation that is in crisis, one who has a clear direction and vision for a better tomorrow.
Then he draws a sharp contrast to Trump:
But one thing is clear: Instead of a moral compass in the Oval Office, there's a moral vacuum.
Instead of a president who says we're all in it together, we have a president who's in it for himself.
Instead of words that uplift and unite, we hear words that inflame and divide.
When someone retweets (and then deletes) a video of a supporter shouting "
white power" or calls journalists "enemies of the state," when he turns a lifesaving mask against contagion into a weapon in a culture war, when he orders the police and the military to
tear gas peaceful protestors so he can wave a Bible at the cameras,
he sacrifices -- again and again -- any claim to moral authority.
Another four years of this would degrade our country beyond repair.
Trump is devoid of a moral compass, he seeks to “inflame and divide”. Trump has sacrificed “any claim to moral authority”. Having created a moral vacuum Trump is “just in it for himself” and engages in culture wars for personal gain.
Redford wasn’t finished:
The toll it's taking is almost biblical: fires and floods, a literal plague upon the land, an eruption of hatred that's being summoned and harnessed, by a leader with no conscience or shame.
Four more years would accelerate our slide toward autocracy. It would be taken as free license to punish more so-called "traitors" and wage more petty vendettas -- with the full weight of the Justice Department behind them.
Four more years would mean open season on our environmental laws. The assault has been ongoing -- it started with abandoning the historic agreement that the world made in Paris to
combat climate change, and continued, just last month, with using the pandemic as cover to let industries pollute as they see fit.
Four more years would bring untold damage to our planet -- our home.
Choosing Trump would send us straight into autocracy, Redford opines. Trump would punish those who disagree with him and engage in constant petty vendettas against his critics, and his rubber stamp DOJ would assist him. Trump, Redford states, has “no conscience or shame”. Redford also explains that 4 more years would do untold damage to the environment as climate-change denier Trump throws away any environmental regulations, many that had been in place for decades and were accepted and some even instituted by all Republican Presidents before Trump came along. He wants to destroy, without a second thought, our home.
www.nydailynews.com/…
Redford then gets into how we are no longer a world leader under Trump, how we have become the “Divided States of America”, and that even though Trump has not by himself created those division he has “found every fault line in America and wrenched them wide open.” He surmises that without a moral compass in the White House we are dangerously adrift.
Then he states:
But this November, we can choose another direction.
This November, unity and empathy are on the ballot. Experience and intelligence are on the ballot.
Joe Biden is on the ballot, and I'm confident he will bring these qualities back to the White House.
Redford puts Biden synonymous with “unity and empathy”, and also with “experience and intelligence.”
And I believe Biden was made for this moment. Biden leads with his heart. I don't mean that in a soft and sentimental way. I'm talking about a fierce compassion -- the kind that fuels him, that drives him to fight against racial and economic injustice, that won't let him rest while people are struggling.
Redford feels that Biden is the right person to take on the difficult tasks we are facing as we are fighting for a way to better racial and economic disparities, as we are trying to figure out what to do about the Coronavirus pandemic. He claims that Biden is empathetic in a way that won’t let him rest and work hard to right these wrongs. With this Redford draws parallels between Biden and FDR.
As FDR showed, empathy and ethics are not signs of weakness. They're signs of strength.
I think Americans are
coming back to that view. Despite Trump -- despite his daily efforts to divide us -- I see much of the
country beginning to reunite again, the way it did when I was a kid.
Redford draws strong parallels between Biden and FDR, who, faced with massive crisis’ on multiple fronts show empathy and a moral compass that unites, not divides, that can lead, not flounder in the face of trouble.
These acts of compassion and kindness make our country stronger. This November, we have a chance to make it stronger still -- by choosing a president who is consistent with our values, and whose moral compass points toward justice.
I usually don’t blog about celebrity endorsements. However, I found Redford’s comments very on point, both in the dire warning they send if Trump gets another terms and the inspiring message, and uplifting, from what we can expect if we choose Joe Biden for President. The comments were strongly on point, so much so that I thought I would share them with the community here.