Joe Biden, Senator from Citibank (oops, DELAWARE), to Run for President

David French?

overton window just big enough now for mass defenestration

I mean, if "less willing to vote for a congenital idiot and the party he represents" = "left of Obama", I'm on board

I kind of don't care where people end up wrt Obama's place on the political spectrum seeing as he isn't on the ballot

All the Power Broker/Robert Moses talk upthread made this mandatory. You're welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW0Dyxp3GjI

This I think is the most interesting thing about the Biden candidacy. The empty-suit metaphor has been used about lots of politicians and presidential candidates, but I can't think of another one where it was sort of the selling point, the best thing that can be said. Nobody talks or even seems to care about what Biden might actually think about anything. The assumption is just that since he's an empty vessel, there will be opportunities to fill him with other people's interests and priorities.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra)

and it is this, ultimately, that so emblematizes the horrors of capitalist democracy - that a man like biden is not just portrayed but genuinely _believed_ by those who endorse him to be a man whose life is of zero significance, whose past behavior is to be ignored. this, i think might motivate where the lbj comparisons come from - lbj, who was an exceptional man, did things as president that surprised people, that defied their preconceptions. this is the best hope - nay, the _only_ hope - biden supporters have: "maybe he will surprise us!"

tbh I say that about every president

xxp: thank you for that, unperson.

per late capitalism the donor class will only allow for surprises in one direction. 👉

And they'll scream 'yas kween' when Harris launches her green prisons initiative.

There's political education work that has to consistently be done explaining how 'just vote' and 'lesser evil' compromises are what got us to Trump in the first place. Things can still get worse.

— William C. (@williamcson) August 13, 2020

As far as Kamala takes go, I think this one is pretty good:

There is a conversation to be had about Kamala’s role as AG and how that positions her as a candidate, but that’s a conversation for the Black community to have. The white community needs to have a different conversation: a conversation about how you set the goal posts unreachably high and then when we finally score a goal, you have the audacity to question the rules that put us in scoring position in the first place. This country doesn’t have a Black female prosecutor problem; we have a white supremacy problem. And criticizing Senator Harris and charging her with crimes against Black people is an act of willful hubris and cognitive dissonance when it comes from white folks.

it's very bad actually

Why so?

also seems to presume that her role as AG didn't affect non-black people? maybe it affected the members of the largest visible minority in California, which is hispanic people? maybe they're allowed an opinion?

or what about trans women (black or otherwise)?

Sort of missing the point there.

It also makes the utterly bizarre leap that people who are critical of Harris for being a cop are in any way "setting the goal posts" of achievement such as "being a prosecutor." Got my doubts that the 1312 crew is fond of any prosecutors.

Sort of missing the point there.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, August 13, 2020 10:55 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

the point is liberal identity politics nonsense in denfense of the status quo

Careful.

"identity politics nonsense"

Sometimes literally cannot tell the Marxists from the MAGAs.

im not a marxist

liberal identity politics is broadly the weaponizing of structures of oppression and bastardized cribbing from academia in order to advance an agenda that has nothing to do with countering any oppression

Uh-huh.

so it's a morally and intellectually bankrupt exercise that no-one should take part in.

like at least be shakey and write fan fiction in your head about why she's good

The real point is, that she didn’t do anything white prosecutors across the country haven’t done

Do you think "Kamala is a cop" people think any white prosecutors should be President or Vice President?

Got it. Race and gender are irrelevant to The Discourse. Noted.

approaching peak white-dude in here

im latino

And yet you are still approaching peak white-dude

The only practical function of denigrating identity politics is a) to pretend white people don't benefit from it, and b) that's it

Do you think "Kamala is a cop" people think any white prosecutors should be President or Vice President?

I’m sure they don’t. And the poster I linked was not (if you read what she wrote) arguing for the merits of prosecutors. She was making an entirely different point — but one that has been declared meaningless, because identity politics is nonsense.

Do you think "Kamala is a cop" people think any white prosecutors should be President or Vice President?

I’m sure they don’t. And the poster I linked was not (if you read what she wrote) arguing for the merits of prosecutors. She was making an entirely different point — but one that has been declared meaningless, because identity politics is nonsense.

"liberal identity politics" is nonsense.

what are liberal identity politics?

"you can't criticize Kamala Harris if you're white because she's black".

which is not exactly the combahee river collective statement

I also think the wailing and gnashing on teeth about the VP pick from Joe Biden as if Kamala Harris diminishes the Joe Fucking Biden ticket or something is beyond dumb

Huh?

That gnashing did disturb my sleep -- I thought it was cats fucking.

at night all cats are gay.

"you can't criticize Kamala Harris if you're white because she's black".

Also not the point.

And criticizing Senator Harris and charging her with crimes against Black people is an act of willful hubris and cognitive dissonance when it comes from white folks.

?

I mean, it also makes the leap that criticism of Harris's record is about "crimes against Black people" rather than with the acts of a prosecutor and AG against everyone under their power?

The only practical function of denigrating identity politics is a) to pretend white people don't benefit from it, and b) that's it

― shout-out to his family (DJP), Thursday, August 13, 2020 11:12 AM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

not all identity politics is the same tho

good discussion itt today / strength to you kate / hi harbl

there's no genuine counterweight to the most virulent anti-Biden stuff. There is no pro-Biden contingent on ILX. Afaik no one who regularly posts on this board even LIKES Joe Biden.

I like him, I think he is a good man if not a good candidate, and I think people will see the difference between him and Trump

― Dan S, Tuesday, August 11, 2020 9:34 AM (three days ago)

what gives me hope is the rise and rise of popular protest movements. black lives matter particularly, but also the women's marches, extinction rebellion, the water protectors of standing rock, etc etc. yes joe biden is a shell of a man and only progressive if you squint hard, and maybe not even then, but popular protest stands a chance of filling this empty vessel with a sense of purpose. maybe the way popular protest steered lbj towards policies he didn't campaign on

biden - by my lights - seems like somebody who could be bent to a particular purpose if enough pressure is applied.

This is actually one of the most immediately dispiriting things about the Biden / Harris ticket - his response to Black Lives Matter, calls for defunding & demilitarising the cops, and protests against police brutality was to promise increased police funding, and to call for us to be shot in the legs. His response to police continuing to brutalise people openly on camera every day, in a way they avoided previously, was to appoint a noted Top Cop with a m/l worrying record. His response to a global pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 residents and is decimating employment is to insist that employer-provided healthcare is the best, and indeed only, way of dealing with it. His response to economic devastation, a looming Greater Depression, and naked massive kleptocracy was to name a VP who earlier chose not to prosecute Steven Mnuchin, and then took campaign donations from him.

Those are the moves he's making in this moment, the reactions to protest that he's showing. The way the primary appeared to be manipulated by Dem powerbrokers, and was confirmed by Bill Clinton re Clyburn last week, suggests an open message that the upper levels explicitly will not listen to the people, and will insist on telling them what's good for them.


I am not advocating despair, and the most effective political influence can always be exerted at a local level. (The police chief resigned yesterday!!!) But Biden looks far more like an empty vessel that will be filled by handlers and donors than one that can be filled by protest.

i mean i guess i don't think the take tipsy linked is very good either xp

xp #notallidentitypolitics

This is actually one of the most immediately dispiriting things about the Biden / Harris ticket - his response to Black Lives Matter, calls for defunding & demilitarising the cops, and protests against police brutality was to promise increased police funding, and to call for us to be shot in the legs. His response to police continuing to brutalise people openly on camera every day, in a way they avoided previously, was to appoint a noted Top Cop with a m/l worrying record. His response to a global pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 residents and is decimating employment is to insist that employer-provided healthcare is the best, and indeed only, way of dealing with it. His response to economic devastation, a looming Greater Depression, and naked massive kleptocracy was to name a VP who earlier chose not to prosecute Steven Mnuchin, and then took campaign donations from him.

good post, sic. this is good criticism, the kind that can be responded to, rests on some sort of assertion, and has a point.

leftists who eschew or rabidly criticize “idpol” stuff can seem suspicious to me (not you per se, jim).

but by that same token, liberals (and I’m talking about the ones who are actually Good on most things) who can’t see that idpol stuff can and *has* been used by capital interests and Democratic leadership to undermine any kind of class-based politics/policy, seem naive. for me this was best encapsulated by Hillary’s ”If we broke up the big banks tomorrow….would that end racism?”. I mean the absolute fucking *gall* of her, but some ppl ate that shit up.

I know the people funding her campaign did.

xposts

Well, on the post I linked I think her points speak pretty directly to some of the predictable sniping I've seen in the last few days, and I understand her frustration with it. Obama was subject to much the same, and really almost anyone in their positions would be.

But also I think pretty much any attacks on "identity politics" are suspect. Does it get used as window dressing? Of course it does. But the window dressing itself matters. It's not sufficient, but it's also not insignificant.