NO Biden - Some of the Reasons Why NOT Biden
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
28 April 19
We are in the battle for the soul of this nation.. But if we give Donald
Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally
alter the character of this nation, who we are, and I cannot stand by and
watch that happen.
- Joe Biden's campaign announcement video (3:30), April 25, 2019
Biden's candidacy announcement video is an elaborate exercise in false
consciousness, opening with a misleading invocation of the Declaration of
Independence. He never mentions the Constitution. The video segues into a
shameless bit of soulless exploitation, manipulation, and misrepresentation
of the racial events in Charlottesville in 2017. The portentous music,
together with Biden's funereal tone, work hard to create the sense that
there was meaning and substance where there was neither. Biden can only fake
gravitas. He goes on and on about "American values" and "who we are" without
naming a specific value or saying who he thinks we are. This is political
pandering in the form of a Rorschach blot. This is crude demagoguery that
boils down to an appeal to elect a familiar under-achiever just because he's
NOT Trump.
Last time anyone looked, ALL the candidates were NOT Trump. And a good many
of them actually stand for both articulated values and thought-out policies
to put them into practice.
Most of Biden's career has been spent standing by and letting things happen,
things that attest to the historic character of "who we are," but are
anywhere from not admirable to despicable. Biden's announcement video
suggests that Biden would promote racial healing. He never has before, why
would anyone believe he could now?
Trump calls Biden "Sleepy Joe." That's actually a compliment in the context
of his record. "Sloppy Joe" would be more apt. Trump grabs women by the
pussy, Biden grabs women by the shoulders. There's a difference, but they're
both grabbers. Maybe the most realistic thing to call him is "Creepy Joe."
In reality, Biden has been horrendously awake and active on the wrong side
of too many issues. Here are some of them, unranked.
Biden actively supported the Iraq War, helping President Bush lie the
country into war.
Biden actively supports the Afghanistan War and always has. He supports
drone strikes and CIA-trained death squads without any apparent concern for
civilians maimed and killed.
Biden is silent on Saudi Arabia's criminal war on Yemen, green-lighted by
President Obama.
Biden has advocated a non-specific "military solution" for Syria, but not
recently.
Biden's son Hunter had lucrative interests in Ukraine that were under
investigation by Ukraine's top prosecutor. Biden has boasted of leaning on
Ukraine president Poroshenko, who fired the prosecutor.
Biden backed the aggressive and deceitful eastern expansion of NATO, knowing
it would likely lead to unnecessary confrontation with Russia.
Biden has long supported tax cuts for the rich.
Biden supports cutting Medicare and Social Security.
Biden voted for the banking "reforms" that loosened banking regulation and
opened the way to the 2008 crash.
Biden actively supported credit card companies and other lenders in their
efforts to gouge the public with usurious interest rates and other debt
enforcement mechanisms.
Biden has supported the War on Drugs through all its failed permutations. He
opposes any legalization of marijuana.
Biden opposed busing to integrate schools, without offering any alternative
to promote integration. He joined with racist senators Jesse Helms and Strom
Thurmond to craft regressive "bipartisan" legislation. He falsely claimed to
have once been a civil rights activist.
Biden has been a relentless demagogue on crime issues. He has been
comfortable with their underlying racist bias, contributing to the massive,
unjust incarceration that enriches private corporations. Biden pushed for
harsh minimum sentencing, not justice. He supported civil asset forfeiture.
He voted for racist sentencing for possession of crack cocaine (harsh for
blacks) and powder cocaine (light for whites).
Biden has backed numerous new death penalty laws.
Biden has claimed, falsely, that he has the most progressive record of any
candidate.
Biden is not a firm supporter of a woman's right to choose.
Biden has yet to offer anything positive and humane with regard to
immigration. Biden has backed draconian deportation law and police state
tactics of border enforcement.
Biden has backed US policies that have made Central America unlivable,
including support for the military coup in Honduras.
Biden voted for NAFTA.
Biden was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee during Supreme Court
nominee Clarence Thomas's hearings. Biden treated Anita Hill abysmally.
Worse, Biden refused to call corroborating witness who would have supported
Hill's account of Thomas's awfulness. Biden is singularly responsible for
one of the least qualified justices in our history. And recently, creepy
Biden called Hill to say he regretted what she went through. But he didn't
apologize and has yet to accept personal responsibility for his own actions.
He has yet to attempt anything to atone for them.
Biden is a corporate money candidate. His first campaign fundraiser was a
lobbyist-rich event at the home of a Comcast executive, signaling Biden's
opposition to net neutrality.
If Biden has any new - never mind progressive - views on health care,
criminal justice, education, climate change, war, or any other important
issue, he has yet to articulate any of them.
Does Biden stand for anything concrete that you care about?
Biden is like Trump-Lite. Biden may be no more than Trump polite. Biden is a
substantively empty vessel with a shiny self-reflecting surface.
Biden pitches himself as a "return to normalcy." A close reading of his
record would define "normalcy" as endless war, endless racial divide,
endless injustice, endless enriching the rich, endless grabbing heads and
pressing noses as if that were some token of sincerity and authenticity.
Running as the NOT-Trump is a reasonable approach for most candidates, but
for Biden, it's ridiculous. Biden has no identifiable attribute that will
move the country forward toward a better, more honest, more civilized
condition.
Biden was once, perhaps, "who we are" in a negative sense of the phrase. Now
he's who we were, and that's how it should remain, for the sake of the soul
of the nation.
Email This Page
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV,
print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont
judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation
for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination
from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
e-max.it: your social media marketing partner