President Biden?

December 2024 Forums General discussion President Biden?

Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 322 total)
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  • #198812
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Came across this Democratic Party political strategy – “counter-scheduling” as raised by commentator Thomas Frank

    https://www.democraticunderground.com/12511735346

    https://www.salon.com/2016/03/14/bill_clintons_odious_presidency_thomas_frank_on_the_real_history_of_the_90s/

    Bill’s chief political adviser, Hillary Clinton, instructed White House officials how it was going to be done. As Carl Bernstein describes the scene, Hillary announced that the public must be made to understand that Bill was taking them on a “journey” and that he had a “vision” for what the administration was doing, a “story” that distinguished good from evil. The way to dramatize this story, the first lady continued (in Bernstein’s telling), was to pick a fight with supporters.

    #198813
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    And, of course,  the elephant in the room is the sexual assault upon Tara Reade  allegation against Biden being neglected by the media when compared to the Trump and Kavanagh sex reports.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/04/new-york-times-editor-admits-biden-sexual-assault-daniel-greenfield/

    #198814
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Donald Trump is a sexual predator and more than 54% of the women voted for him

    #198815
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Medicare For All

    Trump “Out-Democrats” Biden

    #198872
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    All that money and resources spent on the stupid Mexican wall could have been used to finance hospitals, medical equipment, doctors, and nurses. We can see the futility of bourgeoise nationalism and falling into its trap

    #198965
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    All the so-called leftists, socialists, and progressives from the Democratic Party without any exception are supporting a criminal right-winger like Joe Biden.

    Ocasio Ortez who is a member of the Democratic Socialist of America  said that she was willing to campaign for him, they do not have any dignity and integrity

    #198967
    DJP
    Participant

    To be honest, in this situation if I were a US citizen, in the absence of a real socialist movement and party, I would be voting against Trump. It’s not a normal situation and I think it requires some mental gymnastics to think otherwise.

    #198988
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Well, I did my homework a long time ago, I do not vote in any place for any capitalist leader. There is not any leader, or politician able to alter the economic base of any society, on the contrary, it would be the opposite way

    #198989
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Dementia Joe or Demented Don?

    In what way, DJP, is this not a normal situation?

    Do mean the pandemic?

    Or the nature of Trump’s presidency?

    #198990
    DJP
    Participant

    Alan, both.

    #198991
    DJP
    Participant

    There is not any leader, or politician able to alter the economic base of any society

    I agree, but there are other things that it is possible to be made worse and are important.

    #198992
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    There is only one single political party in the whole world that I would gladly give my vote, and that would be the Socialist Party of Great Britain or any companion party of the World Socialist Movement.

    I have been in this movement for many years and I have never elected any capitalist criminal, demagogue,  or warmonger if others peoples want to elect their own oppressor and butchers that is fine with me, I do not have blood in mine hands.

    They say  that the only killer is not the one that pulls the trigger, it is also the accomplice who supports the killer

    #198993
    DJP
    Participant

    Simplistic moralizing doesn’t do anything either…

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by DJP.
    #198995
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Then I disagree, DJP

    In every electoral cycle it is always a debate about the lesser evil. 2020 American election is no different.

    It is difficult to challenge that premise without coming across as some sort of pro-Trump. But in key areas Trump is better than Biden.

    Trump shares Sanders protectionist criticism of the NAFTA-type trade deals and in particular with China. (He only proved, however, that in the art of making a deal he wasn’t as good as he thought he was)

    In military affairs Trump has been less hawkish than Obama and Biden were. I doubt in foreign affairs he diverges from conventional American military and diplomatic strategy. (except in regards to Israel and Palestine)

    On crime Bill Clinton passed laws that put more minorities behind bars.

    On immigration, Obama deported record numbers of undocumented.

    Tax breaks – do we forget Obama’s QE policies that permitted corporations to engage in share buy-backs

    Trump failed to keep his promise to “drain the swamp”, Biden has no intention of doing so, being a Washington/Wall St insider. Take a look at who is speculated to be in Biden’s cabinet.

    Is Trump a right-wing populist? No doubt but that appealed to a strong section of disenchanted working class voters in the “rust states” who in 2016 Clinton didn’t even bother visiting in her campaign.

    The fake news is often fake news. The “liberal” media is as much biased against Trump and pro-Biden as Fox News is pro-Trump. I’ve never seen an interview with Biden which hasn’t been soft-ball questioning. They are self-censoring criticism of Biden.

    Compare the media treatment of the allegations against the assaults by Brett Kavanaugh and the current one against Biden. The #metoo movement is conspicuous in shifting the goal posts when it comes to reporting Biden’s sexual assault.

    Russiagate and Ukrainian  impeachment, political posturing by the Democratic Party rather than any genuine constitutional crisis.

    Is Trump intellectually on par to Obama or Clintons? Obviously not.

    But it was Gerald Ford who was accused of not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time. And, of course, we had Ronald Reagan, the first of the TV Reality Show presidents.

    But it is the whole principle of voting for the lesser evil that has to be challenged, even if the likes of Chomsky and Bernie are in favour of it.

    I’ve been watching a lot of The Hill Rising recently

    https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising

    And they have expressed the flaws in the vote for the lesser evil rather well and why they decline to fall in line and vote for Biden. It is bad political bargaining to guarantee unconditional support as it means there is no need whatsoever for any horse-trading over compromises or concessions in policies.

    Our only power is the vote, whether to grant it or to with-hold it. The lesser evil argument is that we give it away for gratis, based upon image and presentation.

    They said Hillary was the lesser evil in 2016 – but she was already a proven evil and Trump could campaign that he was the lesser evil. (And it is idle speculation to say whether he was or not but I’m for one not at all convinced that Hillary would have been a better president.)

    The Green Party are accused of being spoilers but Sanders did have the option in 2016 and now in 2020 of being invited to stand as their candidate. With the prospect of such a third party splitting their vote, I think he could have extracted promises on GND and M4A from the Democrats. (Biden’s only concession has been reducing Medicare eligibility to 60 – Hillary went further in 2016 offered 50 yrs of age)

    As for the pandemic and Trump’s response. How dissimilar is it to “progressive” Sweden or Boris Johnson’s earlier response of herd immunity? As for opening up the economy, many countries are doing just that right now. It is a calculated risk they are willing to take.

    No politician or nation stands out as being particularly astute on their approach to it. All were slow to respond and all ill-prepared.

    It was Biden, btw, who for political advantage, pushed for the go ahead of physical voting in Democratic primaries when there was a high risk of contagion and many did catch it.

    Lesser evil is still as evil.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    #198997
    DJP
    Participant

    Lesser evil is still as evil.

    Not always true. And if it was, voting for the lesser evil wouldn’t make any difference anyhow, so nothing lost. It’s like Pascal’s wager.

    Really though, what I think is more important is what people do on the hundreds of other days when there is no election….

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