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biden-hold-nose.jpg

Joe Biden Is Making It a Lot More Difficult to Hold Our Noses

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 19, 2019 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 19, 2019 |


biden-hold-nose.jpg

Donald Trump launched his 2020 campaign last night, and in case you missed it, just watch any rally from the last 3 years. Seriously. Any of them. It was the same old, same old. From the NYTimes:

Despite weeks of hype from the president and his campaign, the official kickoff rally for a re-election campaign that he has been running since the day he took office was, in the end, just another rally. Mr. Trump had no new campaign message to unveil. He had no new theory of the case to mount against any of his potential opponents.

He instead spent much of his time relitigating his outrage against Hillary Clinton’s email server, promising that he would build a wall that was “stronger, bigger, better and cheaper” and talking about the “Russia hoax.” When Mr. Trump seemed to sense that the crowd’s energy was sagging, he quickly started polling attendees about what campaign slogan he should use.

Hillary’s 2020 campaign is in some serious trouble!

And here’s a coda that will get under Trump’s skin:

But the crowd began to thin out before Mr. Trump was finished speaking, leaving patches of blue seats in the sea of red caps.

And I think that’s all we need to say about that right now, aside from the fact that there were a plethora of white power signs being flashed at the rally, and that a Trump rallygoer assaulted a reporter from the Orlando Sentinel because that’s the kind of supporters that Trump attracts.

None of this is new, however, and there’s hardly any point in rehashing it all. So, let’s turn our attention to the dude who is supposedly going to be our “savior” from Trump, Joe Biden. The former Vice President held a fundraiser last night, and I don’t know what he’s trying to do to win this race, but it’s not working. He’s looking back fondly on the old days, when white Democrats and virulent racists got along just fine because a segregationist Senator called him “son” instead of “boy,” which has to be the weirdest white-privilege humblebrag I’ve ever heard. From the Post:

“I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland,” Biden said at the fundraiser, where he was introduced by Eric Mindich, an investment manager and former Goldman Sachs partner.

The Democratic presidential candidate, who has led his competitors in early polls of the crowded nominating contest, briefly imitated the southern drawl of the Mississippi cotton planter, lawyer and lawmaker. “He never called me ‘boy,’ ” Biden said. “He always called me ‘son.’ “

Biden’s campaign didn’t immediately return a request for comment about why it would be notable that the Dixiecrat — who thought black Americans belonged to an “inferior race” and warned that integration would cause “mongrelization” — didn’t call Biden “boy,” a racial epithet deployed against black men.

Biden bragged that one of his strengths was his ability to “bring people together.” Is Biden saying that, if he’s President, he’ll reach across the aisle and work with white supremacists? WTF, Joe?

Over on Essence, Kristen West Savali has a great piece on Biden, and the application of this Martin Luther King, Jr. quote to white moderates:

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”

At least where it concerns civil rights matters, is it better to have a progressive House that blocks a racist President at every opportunity or a moderate President that encourages the House to work with a racist minority? I mean, hold your nose and all, but it’s getting more difficult not to smell the rotten fish through the nose plugs, you know? Is Joe Biden as bad as Trump? NO GOD NO ABSOLUTELY NOT! Does he represent change for the better in any meaningful way? I’m not so sure.

Well at least, like Warren and Sanders, Biden wants to level the playing field socioeconomically. It’s not like Biden is for the rich, unless those rich people are attending his fundraisers and giving him money. From Bloomberg:

“I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who’s made money,” Biden told about 100 well-dressed donors at the Carlyle Hotel on New York’s Upper East Side, where the hors d’oeuvres included lobster, chicken satay and crudites. “Truth of the matter is, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins. But the truth of the matter is, it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living would change. Nothing would fundamentally change.”

That’s exactly what I was hoping for in the next President. Vote for Joe! “Nothing would fundamentally change!” Barack Obama, 2008’s “hope and change” candidate, must be sitting at his home shaking his head.

Meanwhile, here’s some news that’s both great and horrible: In a new poll, once voters remove “electability” from the equation, Warren beats Biden 21 to 19 percent. That’s great, except for the fact that, in this situation, “electability” probably means “woman,” which is to say: According to way too many voters, if Warren were a man, she’d be winning right now.

Ugh.



Header Image Source: Getty