Joe Biden is running a presidential campaign predicated on the assumption that there is a middle ground between two extreme sides on every issue. Truth is, the mood of the electorate is binary on a lot of things and are they really wrong? It’s not like you can save just half the planet.
Bidenism: Let’s Do 1/2 of a Lot of Good Things
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
11 Comments. Leave new
Which half ?…
Henri
At the following link is a good summary of the career of Joe “where are going with that foot in your mouth” Biden … IF you have the intestinal fortitude to read it.
Link
Thanks for the link, falco ; I read Rebecca Traister’s article with great interest. She has a great deal to say about Joseph Robinette, but I found what she didn’t mention with a word even more interesting and, indeed, frightening. Nothing in the article about Mr Biden’s role in the development and execution of US foreign policy, not a word about his attitude toward the forever wars which constituted the mainstay of that policy during the period in which Mr Biden was active in politics at the national level….
To my mind, the important thing here is not so much what Mr Biden said and did with regard to these matters, but rather that Ms Traister doesn’t seem to feel these concerns relevant – and even more, that her lack of interest is probably representative for commentators, included the vast majority on what in the United States is called «the Left». Alas, for the nearly 96 % of humanity that doesn’t happen to live in the United States of America, it is just these issues which, because of the demonstrated inclination of the US government to employ its considerable military and economic power in ways deleterious to our lives and livelihoods, interest us most. But of course, we don’t enjoy the franchise in your elections….
Henri
Hi Henri,
I understand your point. I’m in contact with several Europeans and continuously try to convince them that their self-proclaimed “greatest ally” is really their biggest enemy.
For the most part, they seem no more able, or willing, to SEE the US perpetual (military & economic) war machine than are the VAST majority of Americans. Is there a significant segment of the Swedish population as knowledgeable and concerned as yourself?
Do you have sources (translated into English is OK) who see and write about the problem? Andre Vltcheck (sic) is great but, to be honest, now I rarely feel the need to actively seek out current corroboration of the painful reality.
For me, it is irrlevant who is nominated for US president because only those who can be trusted to aggressively continue the mass-murder-for-money process are ever seriously considered.
One does not “enjoy the franchise” in the US, but rather one does a ritual dance for our superiors (who “enhance” electoral outcomes by election fraud, as needed) to use as part of the globally projected “we’re exceptional” hypocritical fantasy.
I posted the Traitser article merely because it is in stark contrast to the mainstream propagnda on ole’ Joe “where … mouth.”
I don’t know much about her except that I assume she’s more interested in women’s issues that US foreign policy.
«I posted the Traitser article merely because it is in stark contrast to the mainstream propagnda on ole’ Joe “where … mouth.”» To my mind, falco, the Traitser article was an excellent choice, precisely because it seems typical of the main type of criticism which, according to what I read, is being directed at Mr Biden by the so-called «Left» in the United States. That criticism is, of course, entirely justified on its own terms, but totally ignores what I regard as the most dangerous of the policies supported by Mr Biden (and by nearly all his competitors for the Democratic Party’s nomination), both for residents of the United States and for us foreigners….
Henri
Biden: The right wing Democrat for right wing Democrats who think the antidote to the Trump toxins is a homeopathic Trump-lite candidate.
I can only hope that the two parties choke the life out of each other before their fanatical adherents do.
Hi Henri,
For my orientation, to what “Left” publications do you refer?
«For my orientation, to what “Left” publications do you refer?» Now you’re setting me up for a fall, falco, but I demure, on the grounds that what I read online is a matter between me and the NSA…. 😉
But let me give you an example of what I’m talking about : Tangerine Bolen published an opinion piece dated 26 April 2019 and entitled Joe Biden Unmasked in Truthdig, in which she takes Mr Biden to task as a representative of the patriarchy, but nowhere mentions his contribution to the US forever wars. This is not to accuse Truthdig of being unaware of this issue – in the very same number, Reed Richardson from FAIR published a piece entitled Why Won’t the Mainstream Media Acknowledge Our Forever Wars? (truthdig (dot) com/articles/why-wont-the-mainstream-media-acknowledge-our-forever-wars/), but there Mr Biden’s contribution is not mentioned. On the other hand, a couple of weeks earlier, Stephen Zunes published an article in the Progressive, which took up just Mr Biden’s role in facilitating one particularly egregious US war of aggression abroad (progressive (dot) org/dispatches/the-other-reason-biden-shouldnt-run-Zunes-190402/), so the picture is not all black and white, but I submit that when it comes to Mr Biden and the other candidates for the Democratic nomination, it is Professor Zunes’ piece that is atypical….
Henri
Hi Henri,
Thanks.
I’m pleased to see that such articles as those of Reed and Zunes exist at all!!!
Since them dirty hippies were quashed, the question of US militarism and perpetual war has NEVER been an issue in presidential campaigns, except the unspoken presumption that it would continue … with greater funding.
The recent Russia-gate ordeal was essentially the reaction of the warmongering class (w/ the HRC/HAK ruling duumvirate) to a candidate, however manifestly untrustworthy, having the unmitigated nerve to suggest an end to the two largest and most recent US policy and military fiascoes.
Militarism permeates the US. Its taxpayers fund the business of global death to the tune of $Trillion/year … and this is an industry that has not been shipped overseas. The taxpayers seem not to mind and and HRC specifically targeted bi-coastal voters in the hi-tech industries that receive the major part of the aforementioned obscene DoD (among others) expenditures.
You’ll only hear that which needs to be told about Biden from those safely relegated to the extreme margins of allowed discourse.
Tangerine?!?
«The taxpayers seem not to mind and and HRC specifically targeted bi-coastal voters in the hi-tech inductries that receive the major part of the aforementioned obscene DoD (among others) expenditures.»
In this connexion, falco, you might find this article relevant….
Henri
So, basically, Joe Biden is offering a “Sophie’s Choice” kind of governance?