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GOOD LUCK JOE BIDEN


BILL LEE

November 12, 2018

 

Half the country has been demonized as awful for four

Years.… And now it’s let’s heal.’ ‘Unity!’ Good luck.

- Megan Kelly (Former Fox News host)i 

 

As we all know Joe Biden has been confirmed as winning the Presidential Election of the USA by pretty well all the reputable news services in the country. With the exception of a few of the usual suspect on the international scene he has been duly congratulated for the victory. Though there are still votes to be counted, it was surprising close, but only the Great Denier and some of his most abased acolytes maintain that it is not over.

 

Healing Anyone? But with Whom?

And he accomplished the win, it seems, in great part, by solemnly, and often, promising to have as the first priority of his administration action focused on the healing of the divisions of the nation, “bringing together” the citizens and politicos of whatever stripe and to restore civility and mutual respect in government. Biden is being totally consistent in his message that he will be acting as the healer and chief of USA. I believe that he is every bit as nice a guy as advertised and quite sincere in this pledge. Indeed, he has a reputation for being able to work with those “across the aisle”. But he and the Dems need to take a good hard look at the array of people, groups and interestsii that he is hoping to join him in his mission of reconciliation. It is, frankly, a coalition of a veritable fetid cess pool inhabited by right wing, and the far-right wing ideologue class warriors, white supremacists/racists, misogynists, second amendment zealot, hedge fund managers, climate change deniers fundamentalist Christians, toxic individuals that supported Trump and the miserable boot licking GOP. That is what Biden and the Dems have to wade into to start this so-called “healing process”. There doesn’t seem to be many (any?) in that crowd that espouse the principle of sitting down and reasoning together. Trump’s notoriously biased Attorney General has indicated that the DOJ will happily investigate any “substantial” complaints of “irregularities” (which are not criminal issues by the way) though so far there has been not one valid suggestion that there have been any. Trump has fired a slew of Defense staff and installed acquiescent minions and the U.S. Budget office is holding up the money necessary to allow Biden’s transition team get started on the briefings they need to know exactly what they are getting into. We can only await in expectation of further mean spirited and dishonest jiggery-pokery and ‘trumpfeckerry’. 

 

Program Anyone?

A second problem is that the Dems don’t appear to have any political or economic program that would address the root cause of the rot, the commodification and exploitation of workers and of nature that are first principles of capitalism. It is not promising that they have made a public virtue during the campaign of not ‘cow-towing” to the so-called left wing of the party. Nevertheless, I certainly wish the former Veep well in somehow pulling his mission off. Even if he has no real opportunity, or inclination, to tackle all the underlying issues of the malaise in which his country wallows (he no doubt will tackle the Covid-19 mess Trump has left, plans to rejoin the Paris Peace Accord, reactivate and may take a run at the serious issue of white supremacy/racism), it is somehow a relief and calming to see a genuinely nice person who considers his words in the Presidency rather than the present occupant, an impulsive, vulgarian cheap grifter who would happily sell the entire citizenry down the river if he thought it would gain him more money and power. It is also good that he has the whip smart and powerful (and perhaps somewhat more left-leaning?) Kamala Harris as the Vice President as opposed to the bland toadying fundamentalist, what’s his name, who presently is sucking up to the snake oil salesman. 

 

But Reality?

But we have to keep in mind that something like 49% of the voting US public chose the mendacious, narcissistic sociopath who represented the unhappy and furious insegrevious individuals and groups that comprise the “Trumparion” coalition mentioned above. And let us not forget that abject Trump boot licker Lindsay Graham and the rest of that GOP collection, cheerleaders and abetters. Their leader, Mitch McConnel, Master of the Revels, is gleefully clear that he is going to continue to make life an obstruction hell for Biden and the Dems. making the Senate the graveyard of any and all progressive legislation. 

 

Perhaps, not for the first time, I can be accused of being an old glass half empty cynic, but I just don’t see the room for compromise here. In fact, I am concerned that any “healing program” that emerges from the engagement with that crowd of whining, enraged, malcontents and obstructers would emit pretty much the same foul odour, or worse, than the one that elected Trump in the first place. Good luck Joe. You’re going to need it. 

____________________

i Quoted in, ‘Tracking virus may be easier than healing the U.S. by Edward Keenan. Toronto Star. November 10, 2020 (p.A8) 

ii On the subject of the nature of the Trump faithful, see, Lee, B. (20 20) “Trump and His Base Who's Really in Charge”. Critical Perspectives. October 2

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