Unca Joe Biden has Gotta Go…
"I will always speak truth to power, and watching the crime bills of the '80s and the '90s all of the things that he (Biden) put into place, this is something that should be talked about," Booker told NBC News on Friday.
By JM Hamilton (7-26-2019)
Jackson Hole, Wyoming –
The sparks are beginning to fly. If it’s not Senator Kamala Harris tearing into Unca Joe… now, it’s Senator Cory Booker. Which Dem candidate will pile onto the brittle and frail Mr. Biden next?
Hopefully, the entire field.
And not a moment too soon. The sooner yesterday’s failure, Unca Joe (aka Hillary II), is removed from the race, or knocked off his frontrunner perch, the better it will be for the Democratic party and its future.
Unca Joe is the establishment’s safe play. Sure, we all know Unca Joe will pander to every Democratic special interest group; say semi-correct things on the environment; ring all the right ACA bells (despite its failure to contain medical costs); distract from his – decades long – GOP voting record; commit that he no longer supports the mass (for profit) incarceration state, he played a key role in installing; and attempt to ignore his campaign’s lead in corporate donations. But once he gets the nomination – if Joe gets the nomination – former VP Biden will pivot hard right in attempt to attract Trump’s: angry – white – male – base.
This in turn, Joe’s nomination, could result in yet another Trump victory.
If Unca Joe pivots right, upon receiving the Dem nomination (as he almost certainly will do), he’ll anger and upset progressives, black voters (who didn’t turn out for Hillary in 2016, but rather, stayed home), LGBTQ voters, the youth vote, and possibly, women voters … basically, every Dem constituency with energy. That is to say, a Biden nomination has the tremendous potential to alienate the party’s future, and result in low voter turnout.
See the recent Bloomberg article on Mr. Biden’s enthusiasm gap.
The elements of the Democratic party Unca Joe won’t turn off by pivoting right against Trump are: the Dem establishment; the limousine liberals; and the corporate plutocracy (who often give to the establishment wings of both parties, so as to best hedge their political bet & ensure the gravy train from government - & privatization - continues unchecked).
By the time the Democratic field of POTUS candidates gets done filling in the blanks, and educating the public, on Unca Joe’s right-wing voting record, Biden will be left with a core constituency, consisting of a dying demographic of white voters: the unenergetic - status quo – Dem establishment; and establishment Republicans who have fled their party, since Trump’s hostile takeover.
In brief, once we blast through the name recognition, Biden's core base is the past. A demographic, if we are honest w/ ourselves, with one foot in the grave. People, who are couple of years away from retirement, or are retired, who are deathly afraid of change. (Unfortunately, there are many young or younger voters, too, that are afraid of change; twenty and thirty-somethings, who have made careers in industries that are ripe for both change, disruption, and outright elimination. Hence, the reason why a UBI is so critical… so as to ease the transition for American workers away from industries that serve nobody but themselves. For example, Big Oil and fossil fuels, immediately come to mind.)
In short, Unca Joe – and the Dem establishment - is betting that America is so fed up w/ POTUS Trump... that w/ Biden, they’ll swallow hard & vote for Trump-Lite policies: four more years of economic failure, courtesy of the monopoly/PE economy (while the rich grow richer, at the 99%’ expense); four more years of failed ACA (while the healthcare industry grows wealthier, at consumer & taxpayer expense); and little discussed this campaign season, so far, four more years of endless war (while the MIC sells death and mayhem around the globe... business is booming). This is what Mr. Biden has to offer: four more years of failed neolib/neocon policies, a la Clinton/Obama.
That’s the Biden/Dem establishment/Pelosi gamble. None of them have learned a thing from Hillary’s 2016 loss & her radical centrism campaign, nor do they want to. The plutocracy that owns both establishment political parties doesn’t care who is in power, as long as the political duopoly remembers who runs the show: the donor class.
The flipside to the Dem establishment’s bet is that a new generation of Dems may become so turned off on the Democratic party that they form an alternative party, or as was done in Germany – when Angela Merkel’s left of center party failed (the CDU) – German voters turned hard Green. What’s that? Don’t think America’s youth, minorities, gays, and women won’t turn their backs on a Dem Party that doubles down on a failed - radical centrist - agenda? Think again. Maybe not this campaign cycle, but a very real probability in the future. Americans – particularly Dems – are hungry for real change.
Ditto today’s Republican party… where’ the Republican establishment today? They are all kowtowing to POTUS Trump, who remade the GOP in his bigoted, homophobic, misogynist, and racist image. That’s basically, POTUS Trump’s key feature… he sure hasn’t delivered for his base, economically (as wages remain stagnant, healthcare costs continue to soar, the cost of medicine remains outrageous, economic/social mobility - all but dead, student debt skyrockets, and America remains mired in endless warfare).
All Trump’s campaign promises? Out the window. Except he did stack SCOTUS with right-wing politicians to appease evangelicals; he did pass extraordinary tax cuts for the kleptocracy; and Orange Julius has doubled-down on the aforementioned bigotry & intolerance (pleasing the Nazis w/in the party to no end, and recommitting to Nixon's racist Southern strategy).
In short, Republican party voters didn’t have to migrate to a third party, because Trump remade the GOP for them. And now, Trump, the GOP, and his base are glued to each other: politically radioactive, and yet, possibly headed for another victory, if Unca Joe receives the nomination.
The Dem party, at times, appears to have a death wish: pander to the base to get elected; promise that the government will deliver for the people (instead of providing paradoxical socialism for robber barons); only to sell out to the donor class, again & again (see slick Willie Clinton, Obama, Hillary, and now, Biden). Repeat. The Dem Party establishment appears incapable - or unwilling - to remake itself for the benefit of the American people (as proposed by Gabbard, Sanders, & Warren).
Nominate Job Biden, and the Dem establishment may finally achieve their death wish, and drag down America with it, into four more years of fascism and worse.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2019
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