Bad as some of the stuff Biden’s been saying is, I don’t he still gets near the level of badness that’s “basically a Republican”, but mileage varies.
Still, with all of his flaws, Biden would be immeasurably better a president than Trump, if only because Biden presidency would mean the executive branch is in Democratic hands, which in turn would mean actually trying to put competent people in charge of the government instead of know-nothing lickspittles trying to destroy whatever agency they’re inflicted upon.
Biden isn’t a Trump Republican, but he’s definitely right of center on a broad range of issues and would easily slot into the territory left behind by Republicans in the 1970s.
Would he be a better president than Trump? Sure, basically by default. The problem is that “better than Trump” should not be the bar we set for the Democratic candidate. We are facing a climate disaster of unprecedented scale, a health care system that probably came apart at the seams about 30 years ago and has been throwing people into the meat grinder in increasing numbers ever since, a financial sector that’s completely out of control, and economic disparity not seen in literally almost a century at this point. “Back to normal” is not going to help solve any of those problems, and will in fact only serve to prolong them, making the election of another Republican backslider in another 4 years all the more likely.
Oh, and speaking of being unhelpful, “union guy” Joe Biden crossed two picket lines to meet with big-money donors yesterday without saying a word about the issues the unions were protesting over. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t take an Uber to get there.
Edit: And speaking of climate disaster…
Who wants to make a bet Donnie is going to talk about this one alot?
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/10/politics/kfile-biden-drugs-fence-2006/index.html
“Folks, I voted for a fence, I voted, unlike most Democrats – and some of you won’t like it – I voted for 700 miles of fence,” Biden told the group. “But, let me tell you, we can build a fence 40 stories high – unless you change the dynamic in Mexico and – and you will not like this, and – punish American employers who knowingly violate the law when, in fact, they hire illegals. Unless you do those two things, all the rest is window dressing.”
“Now, I know I’m not supposed to say it that bluntly, but they’re the facts, they’re the facts. And so everything else we do is in between here. Everything else we do is at the margins. And the reason why I add that parenthetically, why I believe the fence is needed does not have anything to do with immigration as much as drugs,” Biden continued. “And let me tell you something folks, people are driving across that border with tons, tons, hear me, tons of everything from byproducts for methamphetamine to cocaine to heroin and it’s all coming up through corrupt Mexico.”
Ugh, he’s not Republican Lite. He’s Trump Lite.
I’m so sick of establishment Dems trying to out-Republican Republicans.
I suspect Donald won’t talk about the wall too much on the election trail. It would mostly remind people he didn’t do it that successfully.
I’m sure he’ll talk about not getting impeached, though.
Flaty, there’s a long a difficult explanation needed to be able to differentiate Joe Biden from modern Republicans. He’s literally running on the Howard Schultz ticket.
I was just thinking he’s like Trump, except perhaps getting enough fiber in his diet.
Right of whose center? 40% of the US population think that Trump is doing a bang-up job. If Biden gets the nomination the GOP is going to label him a “socialist”, and have a fair chance of getting that to stick.
(Of course, this raises the question: if that’s the case then why not run a genuine socialist?)
(yes, this is an opinion piece about the 2020 election)
And everyone continues to ignore the actual people who are neither…
To be fair, there’s a whole lot of gray area in that dumb binary choice between “do you support the president or not”. His approval rating might be at 40-ish, but a ton of those people might just support one policy, the GOP in general, or just hate Hillary (still). They need a viable alternative to move on.
Yeah, I agree, I just raised the statistic as a reminder not to make assumptions where “the center” is. I live in what by some measures is the most left-leaning state in the country, I would say that Biden is probably poliitically dead center in my state…and, if I am mistaken, it is probably in the direction of his actually being left of our center.
Damn, he’s really good at dealing with the haters
He’ll talk about everything. In long, rambling, incoherent monologues.
Pete - not sure that this is helpful. It’s not the people being discriminated against who are enforcing that discrimination.
Same as it ever was, we don’t exist.
He’s unfit to be president on the basis of this statement alone.
Moooommmm, Uncle Joe’s gotten into the Thunderbird again.
