By Matthew Villanueva, Features Editor
As the 2020 election rapidly approaches, many voters remain undecided on which old white man to be the commander-in-chief for the subsequent four years. But while filing your civic duty, everyone should also recognize the elected elder will be hauling in an extensive cabinet along with him— who may actually impact your lives more than the man sitting behind the Resolute Desk on Jan. 20, 2021.
For the current president, his cabinet turnover has been over 91% in the past three years, compared to President Barack Obama’s 71% and President George W. Bush’s 63% over two respective terms. While the president’s rhetoric has encapsulated the media, many of the actions donned onto the administration have been his cabinet’s doing.
A few years ago, I wrote an article about the threats Secretary of Education Betsy Devos has posed onto an already defunded American public education system. While I still remain an adamant critic of Devos’s cabinet conduct relating to children with disabilities, racist disciplinary stance, public education and lack of educational experience, other cabinet members have had varying experiences under the 45th president.
Attorney General William Barr, the second AD appointed under the Trump administration after Jeff Sessions, has been seen by many as abusing his position as the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer. His Catholic upbringings have led him to a gross misreading of the founding father’s intentions, Barr stated, “the greatest threat to free government, the Founders believed, was not governmental tyranny but the abandonment of Judeo-Christian moral restraints in favor of the unbridled pursuit of personal appetites.” This statement is not only fictitious, but goes against American’s first amendment right to freedom of religion.
Barr’s actions have also repealed the thought that nobody is above the law— except maybe the people in the executive branch. Last May he asserted that senior officials have complete immunity from Congressional subpoenas. And in a separate speech he also claims the executive branch has “all Federal law enforcement power and hence prosecutorial discretion. That includes, supervisory authority over [all] cases.” The AG’s contention of absolute power to the executive branch bellies the checks and balances provided by the founding fathers that he holds so dearly.
While Vice President Biden has not confirmed any cabinet nominations aside from Senator Kamala Harris as his running-mate, there have been numerous rumors of multiple Grand-Old Party (GOP) politicians being shortlisted for cabinet positions including former Ohio governor John Kasich, Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker, former senator Jeff Flake, former congressman Charlie Dent and Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi and former CEO of eBay. The democratic nominee’s tactic will likely not have several GOP spokespeople in his potential cabinet, but it does assert his notion for a more partisan system after four years of a diametrically opposed excuse for a democracy.
Behind each of the candidate’s mistakes while in office, there is a cabinet full of people who decide how to puppet the man elected. If you’re not a cisgender straight white male, so many people fought for your right to vote. So yes, your vote does matter—no matter where you live. The right to vote is one of the largest privileges we have living in the free world, so why not use it?
Information for voting and upcoming elections can be found at vote.org or Ballotpedia.org.
villanjv18@bonaventure.edu
