With a solid lead in the polls and grade-A name recognition, it’s time to assess what Joe Biden truly stands for.
In a picturesque world or Hollywood production, Biden’s campaign would be as smooth as butter. A well-liked former vice president from the administration of an even more well-liked president? There should be no bumps in the road, no obstacles to block his likely ascension to the Democratic nomination. Except there are: his past deeds, his current statements and his proposed policies.
Biden’s performance during Night Two of the first Democratic primary debate was surprisingly more dull than I had anticipated it to be. Halfway through his evasions, non-answers and perma-grin smugness, I came to the realization that Biden is nothing more than “Hillary Clinton 2.0”— generic, cliched platitudes over formative, groundbreaking policy.
His opening remarks reeked of Clinton’s entire 2016 campaign strategy, which essentially said nothing more to American voters than “Hey, I’m the only one here that can beat Trump, so just go ahead and cast your vote for me. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter because I’ll most likely get the nomination anyway.”
And a Biden nomination is a very strong possibility that we face in next year’s election. For all of the outcry against the quasi-authoritarian leadership from the current commander-in-chief, the bulk of the American public still appears easily fooled by an expensive suit and a porcelain smile.
Despite all of the “#Resistance” Twitter bios and the strong support for both Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen Elizabeth Warren, the prevailing sentiment among a large swath of Democratic voters is a return to “normality,” (i.e., a return to the neoliberal politics of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton) which is what Biden is hoping to cash in on.
Fortunately, it appears that he may soon become the architect of his own downfall.
The reports began with a whisper, then grew into megaphone-projected yells: during his tenure as a freshman senator in the 1970s, the former vice president voted against school busing and had strong ties to several known racist and pro-segregation politicians.
Years ago, it had already been revealed that Biden had a close-knit relationship with notorious segregationist politician Strom Thurmond, so close in fact that when Thurmond passed away in 2003, Biden not only attended the funeral, but also delivered a eulogy.
Then, during the beginning of June, it was revealed that Biden had yet another tight bond with other pro-segregation relics from America’s political past in the form of Sens. James Eastland (D-MS) and Herman Talmadge (D-GA), with the latter being referred to by Biden as “one of the meanest guys I ever knew.”
As if his unsettling chumminess with the pair wasn’t enough, Biden’s response to the news getting out simply added fuel to the flames.
Once the press began inquiring about his shady past, rather than simply apologizing or at least coming up with some sort of bumbling explanation, he took an ironically Trump-like route, which was to double-down, scoff at any questions and apologize for nothing.
During a speech he gave to a number of donors at a fundraising event, he spoke fondly of Eastland, saying “I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland. He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son,'”
A week before the first Democratic primary debate, he even went so far as to claim that Sen. Corey Booker, one of Biden’s rivals for the Democratic nomination and one of the most vocal critics of Biden’s segregationist ties, should apologize for his criticism, saying “Apologize for what? Cory should apologize. He knows better. There’s not a racist bone in my body. I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career. Period.”
Biden has since then apologized for his comments, much to Booker’s frustration.
Despite his recent “apology,” one of Biden’s earlier comments in regards to his dealings with segregationists confirmed for me what many people opposed to Biden were already suspicious of: that a Biden presidency would lead to no actual, legitimate, fundamental change, but a change in the vein of optics and flaccid legislation. A change in the replacement of orange skin and Twitter tantrums for Veneers and an “Aw, shucks” superficial charm akin to Bill Clinton.
An additional comment from the former vice president, though in response to his segregationist ties, is what I assert that a Biden presidency would ultimately entail, with his comment being:
“The point I’m making is you don’t have to agree. You don’t have to like the people in terms of their views, but you just simply make the case and you beat them. You beat them without changing the system.”
Those last four words “…without changing the system,” is all one needs to assess when pondering about where the former vice president plans on taking the country, which is to say nowhere.
If you need more proof, just look at a comment Biden made to a group of rich donors at yet another fundraiser he held, in which he made it clear that under his leadership “No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change,” in regards to taxes or their wealth.
The fact of the matter is that Biden’s support seems to be coming from three sources: wealthy Americans concerned with the negative effect that a Sanders or Warren presidency may have on their pocketbooks, feeble-minded Democratic voters who vote purely based on popularity and other superficial reasons and the “Blue Wave,” “#NotMyPresident” liberal cadre who simply want Trump out of office and have put no actual thought into which candidate would be best to usher in a new, brighter future for American politics.
Ultimately, I have not put much thought into whether or not Biden is a closet racist, nor do I really care, seeing as how whether or not a politician holds bigoted views seems to not matter at all in American politics.
One thing that I do know, however, is that a Biden presidency would equate to a step backward, a stifling of the growing voice among Americans who are sick of tax cuts for the wealthy, Wall Street bailouts, migrant men, women and children being held captive in modern-day concentration camps, the embolding of white supremacists, student loan debt and the price of a hospital bill being the only thing standing between life and death.
Racist or not, as far as I can tell, the only color Biden truly cares about is green.
Quinton Bradley
Intern