Tweedledumber's latest way of saying, "Vote for me, I'm him!" (Is he writing his own script?)
MCM > > https://jacobinmag.com/2020/05/joe-biden-donald-trump-border-wall-guantanamo > Joe Biden Wants to Be the Anti-Trump — So Why Does He Support Building > Trump’s Signature Border Wall? > *By* *Branko Marcetic <https://jacobinmag.com/author/branko-marcetic>* > > *Professional Democrats used to paint Donald Trump’s border wall as the > symbol of everything that was grotesque about him. But now that Joe Biden > has come out in favor of it, they’ve offered barely a whisper of protest. * > > The US-Mexican border wall is seen on February 10, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. > Joe Raedle / Getty > > Since Joe Biden started running for president, it’s been easy to dismiss > his frequent calls > <https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/04/why-joe-bidens-message-is-no-longer-focused-on-the-soul-of-the-nation/> > to “restore the soul of the nation” as mostly cosmetic moral gesturing > meant to get him off the hook for a lack of vision or bold policy > commitments. And now it’s even easier. > > Asked point-blank > <https://twitter.com/BoKnowsNews/status/1261074479767117826> recently > what would happen to Donald Trump’s border wall, given it has hundreds of > millions of dollars’ worth of construction contracts set for 2021, Biden > refused to say he would end its construction, saying merely he was “not > going to be spending a lot of money on the wall.” In other words, Biden > affirmed that with him in the White House, the United States will continue > to pour money and manpower into the controversial project. > > What’s remarkable about this is not just that the moronic wall is arguably > Trump’s signature policy idea (albeit one he cribbed from the pre-Trump > GOP, and that Biden himself once advocated for, in typically rabid > <https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/joe-biden-2006-vote-border-fence> > style). It’s that the wall is itself a literal physical symbol of the > bigotry Biden has spent this entire campaign claiming his simple victory > would exorcize from the American psyche, a symbol widely mocked > <https://fortune.com/2016/03/21/john-oliver-trump-wall-mexico/> and > condemned <https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-mexico-wall-of-shame> by > liberals as a racist > <https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/students-held-trump-cutout-chanted-build-wall-article-1.2547486> > boondoggle. > > The paltry promise of Biden’s campaign was that, sure, you might die of > preventable illness and continue suffocating from debt, but the racism and > ugliness of the last four years under Trump would be erased from your > memory. Things would at least *feel* normal, at least on a purely > symbolic level. Biden was articulating the unstated mission statement of > the modern Democratic Party: you’ll keep getting knocked to the ground by > miserable material conditions, but we’ll let you fall on a pillow of > pleasant, progressive words and imagery. > > Now, Biden can’t even promise to follow through on this feel-good > symbolism. > > You won’t be surprised to learn this isn’t the first plank of Trump’s > policy agenda Biden has boldly pledged to leave untouched. Asked at the end > of March if he would even temporarily lift Trump’s quasi-genocidal > <https://theintercept.com/2020/03/17/coronavirus-iran-sanctions/> > sanctions against Iran, Biden took no position > <https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/30/sanders-demands-end-iran-sanctions-save-lives-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-biden-says>, > then put out a statement > <http://inthesetimes.com/article/22454/joe-biden-iran-sanctions-engel-menendez-coronavirus-covid> > some days later that also took no position. He has likewise said > <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/biden-leave-embassy-jerusalem-elected-200429223004283.html> > the US embassy “should not have been moved” to Jerusalem by Trump — widely > criticized as an inflammatory move that would hinder what’s left of the > prospects for a two-state solution — but now that it’s there, he “would not > move the embassy back.” He plans to lift the corporate tax rate to 28 > percent — seven points lower than it was before Trump’s plutocratic tax > bill passed. > > But none of these come close to the symbolic weight of Trump’s border > wall, one of the major reasons for the repugnance and outrage Trump has > drawn from the liberal left since announcing his run in 2015, as well as > fodder for the schoolyard taunts of racists the world over > <https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/11-09-2017/winstons-children-meet-the-tempestuous-youth-wing-of-nz-first/>. > Perhaps Biden will pledge the opposite later in this campaign, as he has > already on so many issues — yet keen-eyed readers will note that even the > immigration > plan <https://joebiden.com/immigration/> on Biden’s website, up since > last year, carefully avoids promising to dismantle the wall or even defund > it even as it mocks Trump for the idea, pledging only to end the state of > national emergency Trump has been using to funnel Pentagon money to the > project. > The Real Incrementalism > > This is how the political system has worked in the United States for > decades, and what happens when an ideologically committed, well-organized > Right is set up in opposition to an ineffectual and squishy liberal order > whose only priority is maintaining its own existence. The Right, which has > an actual ideological agenda it’s committed to seeing through, sets the > agenda and pushes things in an ever more extreme direction; liberals then > roll some of this back while cheerfully accepting key parts of the new > agenda. Rinse, repeat. > > This betrayal is then ritually swallowed by loyal Democratic voters, > having been trained for decades by the party and its media affiliates to > believe nothing better is possible in the United States, supposedly because > the Democratic Party is outmatched, or because the American public is > simply too right-wing to want anything different. Instead of being furious > with the party, they grimly accept the new right-wing consensus, reasoning > that since the Republican Party is far more monstrous, this defeat is, in > fact, a victory. *This* is the real incrementalism in American politics, > and decades of it has, among other things, helped turn the country into a > failed state > <https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/underlying-conditions/610261/> > . > > This is exactly what happened with Barack Obama and the “war on terror.” > George W. Bush’s lawless anti-terror policies were once condemned by > Democrats in the same disgusted terms they reserved for Trump’s wall, > particularly Guantanamo Bay, a torture camp that soon became a physical > moral stain on the country. Then Obama came along and simply accepted all > of Bush’s anti-terror excess, adding > <https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush> > his own grisly contributions > <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/14/obama-secret-kill-list-disposition-matrix> > to the project, and miraculously changing Democratic voters’ minds > <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-finds-broad-support-for-obamas-counterterrorism-policies/2012/02/07/gIQAFrSEyQ_story.html> > about the thing they’d spent eight years melting down about. This is why > something like ICE, birthed from the September 11 attacks and now barely > out of its teens, is today considered too sacrosanct to dismantle, despite > its many abuses. > > Nothing happened to Guantanamo Bay, by the way. Keeping it open may have > been > <https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-35645137/barack-obama-keeping-guantanamo-open-is-contrary-to-our-values> > “contrary to our values,” but Obama found it too difficult to close and > decided his political capital could be better spent elsewhere > <https://theintercept.com/2016/06/02/obama-wanted-to-cut-social-security-then-bernie-sanders-happened/>. > The detention center celebrated a happy eighteenth anniversary this year. > When was the last time you heard or thought about it? > > Obama at least promised to close Guantanamo Bay during his campaign; Biden > now appears afraid to even pretend to want to stop construction of Trump’s > wall. And if he ever does try as president, the effort is certain to meet > exactly the kind of ferocious right-wing opposition that the Guantanamo > closure, the “Ground Zero Mosque > <https://nypost.com/2014/04/30/developer-ditches-ground-zero-mosque-to-create-museum-for-islam/>,” > or even the coronavirus lockdown have faced, the exact kind of right-wing > fury that’s tended to make Biden’s knees buckle throughout his career. The > chances of seeing a political goal come to fruition aren’t great when the > politician in charge can’t muster the courage to get through the > lip-service stage of the process. > > Not that it will matter. As we’ve been informed, there is literally > nothing Biden could do anymore, even cooking and eating children > <https://thehill.com/homenews/media/499057-nation-columnist-criticized-for-writing-shed-vote-for-biden-if-he-boiled>, > that will prevent loyal Democrats from supporting him. Should he win, the > wall will soon become just another unfortunate anomaly, a curiosity that > professional liberals will squint at and privately chuckle at how angry it > once made them feel; that is, until the next election year. > > There’s a lot of talk > <https://www.vox.com/2020/5/26/21257648/joe-biden-climate-economy-tax-plans> > about the transformative agenda Biden will supposedly pursue if he wins. > But even if he were inclined to do so, it’s hard to see how he could with > no grassroots movement behind him, a coterie of neoliberal advisers and > donors driving his campaign, and lacking the congressional supermajority > that the far more charismatic and lucid Obama couldn’t even make use of. > > Perhaps it’s now better to ask the same question that has applied to every > Democratic president of the last forty years: Which outrageous parts of the > hard-right Republican agenda will he make permanent this time around? > > > > -- If you appreciate News From Underground, please consider making a donation — either a one-time gift or a monthly subscription: http://markcrispinmiller.com/support/ Thank you for your support. 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