Democrats often urge disgruntled progressives to support Biden on the ground that he’s the “lesser evil,” compared with Trump. But it’s Biden, not Trump, who has helped Israel to kill more than 31,000 Palestinians in occupied Gaza.
Theoretical vs. Actual Bigger Evils
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."
4 Comments. Leave new
I’m really setting myself up here, but a question for the Bidenites.
Trump was the actual big-boy president for four years. He was the decider guy who told us to read his lips and ran on hope and change and felt our pain. (Funny how all the slogans from both sides just melt into each other.) What did he actually do that other presidents haven’t? The main thing seems to be he’s a terrible racist, a bully, a rapist, he cozies up to dictators. He’s tactless and incoherent?
Aren’t these all, pretty much, criticisms/crimes that can be laid at other presidents’ feet as well? (And I didn’t even mention Gitmo.)
I look at Trump’s history. According to the totally impartial left-wing media (who never ever not even a little bit push their own narrative and ideology), the first Trump presidency should have resulted in the entire country in collapse and the planet itself a radioactive pile of slag. The right-winger media (same total neutrality) predicted that Trump would MAGA the country into a glorious second golden age. But the reports from ground level? It’s still kinda lousy: no UHC, stagnant wages, soaring college tuition, etc., etc.
So have at me Bidenites. What did Trump do that, compared to his predecessors, simply was beyond the pale? For my money? He isn’t really that much worse or better than the creatures who’ve been running the show for my entire life.
What Trump did was appoint young, right-wing, fundamentalist Christians to the Supreme Court, where they overturned Roe v. Wade. But, of course, the only reason it was still an issue was that Obama neglected to codify Roe, purportedly because it’s such a big fundraising issue for Democrats. So blaming Trump for that is kind of like starting the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations last Oct. 6th.
But what I was going say is that, in most US elections, “neither of the duopoly candidates” is the cleear winner because a substantial plurality of potential voters don’t vote. Thus, in 2016, “neither” got 40%, while Trump and Clinton each got 30%, 2020 was the rare exception, with Biden outpolling “abstain,” which still beat Trump by several million votes, so he actually came in third.
Trump’s tax cuts favored the rich at the expense of the middle and lower classes. He directly thwarted efforts to beat climate change. Those and abortion don’t make him “beyond the pale” but they are the reasons that I will be voting for the other guy.
Keep the crazy left de-activated
Vote Biden