Joe Biden Is Running Again
And Likely Biden Will Be Running Away from His Record
Joe Biden is running for reelection, or so the major networks say, the formal announcement coming as soon as this Tuesday.
It’s been on my mind as I read Chris Hedges’s latest column in which he reminds us of Biden’s string of broken promises:
Democracies are slain with false promises and hollow platitudes. Biden told us as a candidate he would raise the minimum wage to $15 and hand out $2,000 stimulus checks. He told us his American Jobs Plan would create “millions of good jobs.” He told us he would strengthen collective bargaining and ensure universal pre-kindergarten, universal paid family and medical leave, and free community college. He promised a publicly funded option for healthcare. He promised not to drill on federal lands and to promote a “green energy revolution and environmental justice.” None of that happened.
Biden’s main appeal is simply that he’s not Donald Trump (or Ron DeSantis). He represents normalcy, if “normalcy” means dysfunction, division, and increasing levels of dystopia. He represents neither hope nor change but more of the same, and as Chris Hedges notes in his article, America can’t stand much more of that.
What’s interesting to me is the idea floated by Democrats in 2020 that Biden was willing to promise to be a one-term president, given concerns aired back then of his physical and mental decline, if such a promise would secure him the support needed to defeat Trump. That promise not to run for reelection, floated but never fixed in stone, is all but forgotten today as the DNC continues to sell the idea that Biden is perfectly healthy and superbly capable of serving as president until he’s 86 years of age.
But age is just a number nowadays, right?
A few days ago, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his candidacy as a Democrat. The immediate response by The New York Times was to smear him as being anti-science because he questioned the efficacy of vaccines while pointing out their risks. Basically, the NYT was angry at RFK Jr. for daring to deviate from party lines, which makes him even more intriguing to me.
Kennedy has spoken out powerfully against the permanent war state in America and the wanton wastefulness of empire, so he has my vote. Of course, the mainstream media will do its best to ignore him as well as Marianne Williamson, and when they can’t be ignored, they'll smear them so that shuffling Joe Biden can continue in office as a figurehead, shoved along by his handlers, likely with ever decreasing dignity.
Most readers of Bracing Views, I think, are looking for true hope and change, and we know it’s not coming from the two major parties. Still, I hope readers will give candidates like RFK Jr. and Marianne Williamson a long look. It sure beats swallowing a little bit and voting for Joe again.
I am with you, Bill. I have already signed up to subscribe to newsletters from both Kennedy and Williamson. They represent very interesting possible alternatives to the Biden/Blinken/Nuland/Austin "Cold War" dinosaurs. Of course, both Kennedy and Williamson have been smeared and denigrated by the NYT and Washington Post, both of which just parrot the dinosaurs. They are shameless, rabid supporters of the "Cold War" dinosaur ideology, which is based on American Exceptionalism and US Global Hegemony. Both of these are the two key components of the disease that infects the US body politic. As you have noted, in the latest column by Chris Hedges has described in great detail all the symptoms of this disease. Unless and until the disease is excised from the body politic, the rot and corruption will continue to fester and spread.
To repeat my comments on another thread, RFK Jr.'s rabid, unfounded anti-vaxx stance, in the face of overwhelming proof that vaccines are safe, makes me doubt his suitability as a candidate. Add to that some decidedly anti-green actions/policies when he worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and RFK Jr. appears as prone to going back on his word as Biden.
Marianne Williamson, as far as I know, is a person of high integrity. I'd just question her lack of experience with making national policy, along with her knowledgeability of and capacity to deal with foreign policy.
I do agree, though, that adding more candidates to the mix is a good thing, and yes, it's a certainty the DNC and the MSM will smear Biden's rivals for the nomination.