by B. R. GOWANI
Joe Biden is a man of many qualities – including:
Hawkish: Biden favored US wars against Iraq and Kosovo, endorsed enlargement of NATO by taking in east European countries, favors continuing enmity with Russia, …
Controlling-women: Biden supported legislation that stopped federal funding for abortions within US, and prohibited use of US aid to other countries in use for abortion related causes. In 1974, he said:
“I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body.”
Biden has since modified his public views on abortion but personally he goes with the Catholic faith’s position and opposes abortion.
One-party guy: The United States has a two party system with minor differences and most of the time Republican and Democratic parties act in tandem because big corporations bribe them, knowing which ever party comes to power will carry out the corporate agenda. Biden’s view about the other party:
“I don’t think we should look on Republicans as our enemies.”
Biden was very friendly with rabid racists like Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, …
James O Eastland was another racist buddy of Biden whom Biden defended:
“He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.'”
Why would a white supremacist like Eastland called the caucasian Biden a “boy” because that epithet was used by slave masters and white supremacists for black men. However, Eastland, if alive in 2009, would have called vice president Biden’s President Barack Obama a “boy.”
Mostly, the two parties differ on small things. On major issues most members of both parties act together as Andrew Cockburn points out in a Harper’s magazine piece on Biden.
“… It was bipartisan accord, after all, that brought us the permanent war economy, the war on drugs, the mass incarceration of black people, 1990s welfare “reform,” Wall Street deregulation and the consequent $16 trillion in bank bailouts, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, and other atrocities too numerous to mention. If the system is indeed broken, it is because interested parties are doing their best to break it.“
Occasionally, there are Congress members who raise issues related to common people. The US is experiencing such phase at the moment with some new members of Congress talking about corporate money in politics, inequality, low wages, etc.
Racist policies: Biden was proud that he and another racist Thurmond helped pass a law which was openly racist. Law mandated that crack cocaine users with a piece “no bigger than a quarter” must be sentenced to a 5-year sentence. Blacks use crack cocaine and whites prefer powder cocaine. This is but one example of Biden’s racist policies.
Sometimes when times are rough, Biden is quick to backtrack. At a Senate hearing in 2008, he said:
“I am part of the problem that I have been trying to solve since then, because I think the disparity [between crack and powder cocaine sentences] is way out of line.”
Bankers/credit card company guy
More than 50% of all US public companies have their headquarters in Delaware, Biden’s state. Delaware is a tax haven like Cayman Islands.
“‘In fact, Delaware is so synonymous with anonymous companies and ghost corporations that it was named in Transparency International’s Unmask the Corrupt campaign as one of the most symbolic cases of corruption.'”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a presidential candidate, pointed out Biden’s close relations with the banking industry and credit card companies.
“Of course, not all of Senator Biden’s legislative agenda is reflected in the Annual Report. Missing, for example, is a picture of Senator Biden standing shoulder to shoulder with the CEOs of the credit industry, cosponsoring legislation to increase restrictions on consumer and small business bankruptcy. His energetic work on behalf of the credit card companies has earned him the affection of the banking industry and protected him from any well-funded challengers for his Senate seat. This important part of Senator Biden’s legislative work also appears to be missing from his Web site and publicity releases.”
Biden with the wealthy
Biden’s biggest quality is playing a buffer for the wealthy class from the rest.
He acknowledges the danger disparity poses to the ruling elites:
“When you have income inequality as large as we have in the United States today, it brews and ferments political discord and basic revolution.”
Instead of recognizing neoliberal policies are responsible for creating such disparity in incomes and proposing changes to correct them, Biden criticizes Donald Trump without naming him.
“It allows demagogues to step in” “[and accuse people’s economic condition on] the other.”
It is interesting to note that Obama/Biden policies also contributed towards the increase in inequality of the populace. Biden just doesn’t get it.
“I get in trouble with my party when I say wealthy Americans are just as patriotic as poor folks. I found no distinction, I really haven’t, but this [income] gap is yawning.”
Biden calls himself “Middle Class Joe” but initiated his 2020 election campaign seeking donation from wealthy executives from Comcast and others. He declared:
“You’re not the other.” “I need you very badly.”
“We can disagree in the margins. But the truth of the matter is, it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living would change. Nothing would fundamentally change.”
Last year Biden defended the billionaires in these words:
“… I don’t think 500 billionaires are the reason why we’re in trouble.”
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com