Leftists Didn't Get Biden Wrong. They LIED About Him. https://t.co/WqQbRDOfmg
— Spandan @ Reclaim the Fight ?????? ???? (@reclaimthefight) April 15, 2021
The junior senator from Vermont has been quite cordial with President Biden, so I’ve done my best to avoid paying attention to some of his… most fervent supporters. But the mainstream media’s usual gang of idiots is busily platforming the concept that ‘true Progressives’ have beaten and terrorized poor senile Uncle Joe into meekly adopting their extremely correct ideas, which is toxic bullsh*t. Repub-supported / Repub-supporting bullsh*t!
With Joe Biden running a near-flawless presidency that is capable, progressive, and popular, his leftist and socialist detractors, who spent an entire year hounding him as a milquetoast moderate, have a new strategy: claim, as Donald Trump did for the spread of COVID, that “no one could have predicted” that Biden would turn out to be a progressive president, that his lean-in economic progressivism is a surprise, and that they made him do it.
I, too, have a new message: they’re full of it.
I am old enough to remember a February morning in 2020 when the socialist writer Anand Giridharadas appeared on television with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, with the topic of conversation focusing on just what was turning so many Democrats to a populist socialist candidate like Bernie Sanders. Sanders, who was swimming in campaign cash, was riding high at the time from performing well in Iowa (where he still lost), New Hampshire, and Nevada, and his supporters were crowing about how quickly – not whether – he would clinch the Democratic nomination for president and make the rest of us “bend the knee”.
A smug Giridharadas then declared that the “mass movement” Bernie Sanders was leading was so historic that it was messing up people’s ‘mental models’ as the ‘establishment’ – read Joe Biden and his allies – was in disarray in their desperate attempts to stop the renaissance man, Bernie Sanders…
Biden would, however, go on to win the presidency by proudly brandishing his anti-socialist credentials, earning an unprecedented 81.2 million votes while he was at it. The fundamentalist left’s deep antipathy towards Kamala Harris could not keep her from becoming the first Black, Asian, and woman Vice President, either.
Even after Biden won the presidency, they kept up the naysaying and hounding during the transition, pummeling the then-President-elect for failing to nominate leftist sycophants to prominent positions in his upcoming administration.
Despite it all, now that President Biden is implementing the policies he laid out during the campaign and brocialists tried to claim he did not really believe in, they find themselves between a rock and a hard place: do they keep whipping up outrage among an increasingly small, fringe group of political activists against a president who enjoys a 95% approval rating among Democrats, or do they try to become relevant and somewhat mainstream? When you get this much wrong in this short a period of time, attempting to rebrand yourself as a surprised moose isn’t exactly… well, a surprise…
Case in point: https://t.co/MyJPFffPIC pic.twitter.com/6EHEgJzIFB
— Tentin Quarantino (@agraybee) April 15, 2021
Never forget, while it has some excellent reporting, the Atlantic has always been a Libertarian outlet. Ergo, their bias will *always* be towards Republicans — but if the Cosplay Socialists want to bash Democrats, they’ll cheer on the Cosplay Socialists.
.@davidsirota told me the true test will come when Biden gets into conflict with corporate power: “There’s an open question of how much do you think you can change American society without actually confronting the relationship between labor and capital."https://t.co/rcnvV7NlBk
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) April 14, 2021
If every 'not every Dem* is satisfied with Biden' piece has to quote the same 2 people, is it possible that you don't really have an argument, just a couple of nut-picked malcontents? https://t.co/voJ8TfaPoc
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) April 15, 2021
"Joe Biden wants to cosplay as FDR," @briebriejoy told me, "but is not willing to actually create a structural intervention that made FDR a four-term president.”
It is a reminder that, as @ddayen notes here, crisis relief is easier than transformation.https://t.co/Qgs2v1ZX2J
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) April 14, 2021
Anand never saw Biden coming because he was too busy trying to validate lying idiots like Briahna Joy Gray. https://t.co/VO3MnHKNs4
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) April 15, 2021
Bernie's historical memory will benefit greatly from the fact that in 50 years there will be maybe 5 insufferable nerds who know who david sirota was https://t.co/NhmlEfqQD8
— Gapeway Pundit (@canderaid) April 17, 2021
Kent
All I know is that I’m very much enjoying the fact that I can get up tomorrow and go to work and know that the government is in capable hands and I don’t need to rely on twitter or blogs to learn about any new outrageous bullshit like just about every single day of the previous 4 years.
Amazing how relaxing that is.
Of course still enormous amount of work to be done. But at least I feel less exhausted
I think Biden is exactly the right person for this exact moment in time. That doesn’t happen very often in history. Just like Obama was the exactly right person to follow up Bush. If Biden had run and won in 2016 I think he would have had a successful presidency. But it would have been very different without the Trump exhaustion as the prelude.
schrodingers_cat
Agree with Spandan, he has Magic Grandpa and minions figured out, alright.
Jeffro
Honestly I think we need to take a moment out of each day and just celebrate that Joe Freakin’ Biden is President, along with – for the moment – House and Senate majorities.
And then we need to pray that they step on the gas and get this country somewhat close to back on an even keel, to include protecting voting rights, publicly investigating the 1/6 insurrection, and making the wealthy & corporations pay their fair share.
Go go GO folks! I get that the whole country is exhausted from Covid and the election and the aftermath but just step. on. it. Go for broke.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I’ve always wondered: what do Rose Twitter/brosocialist types who claim that there’s no real difference between the parties say when confronted with Republican voter suppression laws like the ones passed in Georgia?
Kent
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They have been around forever. And have always been egregious idiots. We heard the same thing with Bush and Gore.
Doc Sardonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Nothing
Jeffro
Btw you know the urgency is real when Ben (who?) Carson (what?) feels the need to have an op-ed in the Post about championing equality instead of equity. How is this clown not fading back into obscurity and wealth? (Also, who ghost-wrote this op-ed?)
Ben, I thought we talked about this on the plane ride we shared a couple years ago…when things are way, waaaayyy unequal, asking that everyone be treated the same just reinforces the inequality. It takes an equity approach to set things to rights. (sigh)…
Sister Golden Bear
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
???
Same as it ever was.
Jerzy Russian
“neoliberal hellscape that we’re living in right now”
Lord Jesus Christ in a crosswalk (see https://www.masslive.com/news/2010/05/lord_jesus_christ_suffers_mino.html). If we are in a hellscape right now, what were the years 2017 to 2021 like?
The Moar You Know
They always say the military is gearing up to fight the last war.
These idiots are still trying to figure out who is going to fight the Tsar for liberation of the fatherland.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
1) Who gives a flying fig?
2) See #1.
;)
Delk
We just had four years of an administration filled with self-centered incompetents we didn’t need four more.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jeffro:
I’m going to guess based on the title alone it’s a warmed over “Liberals are the real racists and this is reverse racism” or something
@Kent:
@Sister Golden Bear:
@Doc Sardonic:
Nothing, huh? I know it’s something I’ve never heard any of them talk about. Probably because that’s an actual real difference between both political parties
cain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
They would have said that their candidate would have rallied the people, blah blah blah, and he would have dealt with Georgia and still get in a swim session before dinner.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
Just curious if anybody’s ever asked them this. It’s a pretty good argument that Dems and Republicans are different in a significant way.
Personally, I think they’d try the “it’s overheated” arguments we’ve seen from similarly privileged moronic “journalists” on Twitter
mrmoshpotato
@Sister Golden Bear: Well ummmm…..emojied?, SGB!
Sister Golden Bear
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That’s what invariably happens when reality doesn’t conform to one’s ideology.
mrmoshpotato
This made me fucking cackle.
Would someone get Briahna her unicorn butler already!
cain
@NotMax:
This reminds me of the first computer program I ever wrote.
10 cls
20 print “hi!”
30 goto 20
Entered in every radio shack store I ever went to.
Cheryl Rofer
I wrote a few posts a month or so back working through Biden’s policy documents to show that he’s doing what he said he’d do. It’s too late to dig out the links.
Those documents, however, are very general. He has accepted some of Bernie’s specifics. But he’s definitely in charge. As I said on Twitter tonight, the Biden team has a plan, and they are working through it
ETA: Headed to bed now.
different-church-lady
At the very least the advantage of having Biden over Sanders is that the person in the Oval Office is no longer a human lightning rod.
mrmoshpotato
@Delk: But unicorn butlers!
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
cosplay socialists don’t see racism, it’s always about classes, so in their tankie world view, there really is no racism.
The Moar You Know
@Jerzy Russian: I started Trump’s Reign of Terror drinking margaritas in a Mexican restaurant and ended it in my living room on January 6 2021 with a box of N95 masks, several hundred rounds of various types of ammo and a months worth of food and bottled water. An experience that I’ll be very happy to never repeat again.
Doc Sardonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The Rose Twiddler/BernieBroskies have less notes than a 1 string guitar. If it isn’t forgive all the student loans, Medicare for everybody, or whatever well manicured, polished policy unicorn turd Bernie puts out tomorrow, they generally don’t give a shit about it….They just like hearing their own voices, and counting the retweets, kinda like the MAGAts but with sensible shoes and a non dairy latte.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Pay them no heed; whatever response might be forthcoming would be word salad prepared of wilted Greens. They’re the Oakland (in the Gertrude Stein sense) of politics.
Sister Golden Bear
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. In other words, lots of squid ink.
There is no racism, no sexism, no religious discrimination, no homophobia, no transphobia, only
Zuulclass struggle.mrmoshpotato
@cain:
Fuck the what? Vermont Jesus himself said his supporters would tell him what to do once he was in office, and his supporters would’ve made Moscow Mitch shit a brick of lettuce when they assembled enmasse outside Mitch’s office window. Booga booga buncha hipsters!
Kent
@different-church-lady:
And if Sanders is truly such a leader, perhaps he can lead Sinema and Manchin over to the light. If he can’t do that as a Senator, there is no reason to think he could have done it as President. And we would still now be at exactly the same place.
featheredsprite
AL, let it go. You won.
And if you want Dems to do well in 2022, it would be better not to wage war against others in the big tent.
burnspbesq
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Most likely, they change the subject. Or deny ever having said that.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
YMMV, but I would rather munch a toe jam on steel wool sandwich than wade through yet another Wilmercentric thread.
;)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Slightly OT, saw this press release like article from one of my local TV news stations:
Local GOP selling out events, riding wave of enthusiasm
Not one fucking word about the Jan 6th Insurrection. None of these fucks to my knowledge condemned it. Loychick and Cutrona, my state Rep, are the ones co-sponsoring a bill to rename Mosquito Lake State Park after TFG. Can’t rename the lake because that’s federally-owned or something. But the park would be named after him.
These jerks are all up Trump’s ass to advance their political careers and it doesn’t matter to them who they hurt or what they fuck up. I despise them. I’ve never liked the corrupt ConservaDems that populate most of local politics where I live, but I’ll take them any day over the crazies that populate the local GOP.
I’m worried about what November’s results and what this event’s turnout means for the area. It’s a mostly white area so it’s all driven by white grievance
Also, LOL at the “working person’s party” comment. Sorry, you guys cut huge corporations’ taxes back in 2017 and screwed over working people UNDER TRUMP. I also can’t fucking believe this guy used the term “nationalist”. Like, do you even hear yourself? Y’know who ELSE was a nationalist? Benito Mussolini. And Francisco Franco. They’re not people to be emulated
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@featheredsprite: in a sensible world, Anne Laurie would have a larger profile than clowns like Giridharadas, Sirota and Grey, but in the world we live in, your advice is somewhat…. misdirected
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Of course not. Why anger their own fascist trash base?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@featheredsprite:
We were all told we had to “bend the knee”. Remember that? And that Sanders’ campaign thought it was just fine to get a bare plurality in the primaries and that gave them a mandate
Honestly, at this point, Sanders’ own supporters give him a bad name. He at least has the sense to try to protect his legacy by cooperating with Senate Dems and the Admin
cain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Well you know – it’s probably a super spreader event – unvaccinated trump supporters gathering in by the hundreds. It will end well.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
Yup. Some of Sanders’ ideas were great. I like European social democracy. But Sanders himself, I feel, would be a terrible administrator which is a lot of what the presidency is. A big reason why I didn’t like Sanders in 16 or 20 was that I don’t think he has the temperament for the job or the accomplishments to qualify him for it.
He’s been in Congress for 40 years. What had he actually done in that time? I can’t think of anything
Anne Laurie
I am, by temperament and training, incapable of ‘letting go’. Best I can do is to save my bile for off-hours, among my spiritual kinfolk.
(Also, I don’t believe the True Progressives *are* gettable Democratic votes, though I understand your point about not scaring the normies by returning blow for blow.)
cain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Honestly, he was probably smarter than the people he hired. Which seems somewhat contradictory – but there you have it.
Also, fuck Sirota – seriously that guy is a whiny ass shit stain – I hope he finds himself locked in Greenwald’s basement tied to a bed and forced to watch old West Wing episodes.
ETA #40? hmm.. I can’t remember should I be excited by this? ? – let’s assume a celebratory position regardless. ???
different-church-lady
@cain:
Dude, Geneva Convention for god’s sake.
Mary G
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Bravo! Good comments tonight.
I have Anand and BrieBrie blocked on Twitter and the silence is golden. The rest of their ilk as well. I had a hard time scrolling past when six or seven of the people I follow were yelling at an unavailable tweet for a while, but I learned to do it.
cain
@different-church-lady:
Oh too much? I suppose we could bring some of Cole’s crows to keep him company.
I must admit anything in Greenwald’s basement is probably some kind of infraction to common decency – but if Sirota finds himself there I’m sure he deserves it.
different-church-lady
@cain:
I was talking about me and my nightmares.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Sister Golden Bear:
Kind of like Repukes. Hmm. ?
@Jay:
I’ve had the displeasure of interacting with tankies online. They’re bizarre people
@Doc Sardonic:
@NotMax:
@Sister Golden Bear:
I would prefer to ignore them, if only some of them hadn’t taken over the formal NV Dem Party apparatus
@burnspbesq:
A common theme I’m sensing is how much alike they and MAGAts are
@mrmoshpotato:
@cain:
Oh, I know. I still hate them all. November still stings
Poe Larity
Perhaps Trump and Sanders can start a populist nationalist party. I wonder what they’d look like in Hugo Boss attire.
Kent
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He’s done some good shit. But in areas that might surprise people not paying attention. Like in Veterans Affairs. But as a very traditional senator, lining up co-sponsors and stuff like that.
He hasn’t done shit in all the famous areas that he campaigned on.
Omnes Omnibus
@featheredsprite: Every once in a while, it doesn’t hurt to vent. Also, if the tankies really are on our side, do they really need their asses to be kissed? They should be fucking grown-ups and look at the same threats we do and then vote for the Democrats in 2022.
Doc Sardonic
@Anne Laurie: The inability to let go and also nurture, savor, and raise a grudge to a fine strapping specimen is something that is shared by any that have but a single molecule of Scotch or Irish hemoglobin. I’m right there with you, I will never, ever drop my disdain for these people. Unlike the good people of Rockridge, I do not have a laurel and hearty handshake for them, but an upraised middle finger and a hale and hearty Fuck You.
Kent
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Doesn’t mean jack shit. They will always be able to turn out a few hundred people in Trump Country for any sort of circle jerk. Winning elections is a different task entirely.
Not saying 2022 and 2024 won’t be barnburners. They will be most likely because we are a narrowly divided country. But not because some old while folks went to rallies in deep red Trump Country and got their willies stroked.
artem1s
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
they will tell you that states that have closed primaries are far more hellish than the GA voter suppression laws. Wait until the Dems kill caucuses. The gnashing of teeth will be endless and epic. They are still whinging about the evil registration laws in NY that cost Bernie the nomination in 2016.
They had a complete meltdown last March because the neoliberal Dems colluded with Wall Street to steal the nomination from St. Bernie once again. They actually sued the state when Mike DeWine delayed the 2016 primary due to the first COVID shut down. Only a neoliberal shill would delay the vote long enough to make sure the OLDS could vote for Biden by mail. They were so counting on scaring old people from voting in person, winning that crossover vote and sealing the deal before those less important states voted on Super Tuesday
Don’t kid yourself. They love voter suppression as much as the GOP does
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, I think I’m seeing the problem there…
different-church-lady
I find that in many cases when people say “let it go” it’s only because they want to have it all for themselves.
Geminid
@Mary G: One thing I have found on Twitter is that there are a lot of articulate, committed Democrats pushing back at leftie soreheads like Sirota and the Jerkobin Magazine crowd. @Sasha Beauloux is one of the best. She is very earnest and well grounded.
LesGS
@featheredsprite: She’s Irish…
Anne Laurie
Another one of Professor Parkinson’s Laws: First-rate men hire other first-rate men. Second-rate men hire third- or fourth-rate men.
Citizen Alan
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Well, this is anecdata, but back in 2016, I had a good friend who nevertheless was the epitome of “cosplay Marxist.” And I finally asked him point blank, “if there’s no difference between Trump and Hillary, who the hell are you voting for?” And after hemming and hawing, he finally told me that he really liked Eugene Puryear. This brought me up short as I considered myself more politically aware than nearly anyone else I know on a first name basis, and I had never heard of Eugene Pureyear. So I looked him up. And then I looked up Gloria La Riva and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. And then, I finally understood. Because there really is no difference between Republicans and Democrats if your number one policy goal is the destruction of capitalism and “the end of class society.” I should add that at this point in time, my friend, who apparently supported an outright and unabashedly communist candidate was also the VP for Intellectual Property at a somewhat prominent game design company. I never got around to asking him if his employers knew that he wanted their company to be nationalized.
CaseyL
@Mary G:
I’ve spent some quality time on my Twitter feed blocking MAGAts and Cosplay Socialists. It’s amazing how pleasant Twitter can be when you take out the trash. Also a good reminder that Twitter is not real life – something the MSM guest bookers will never acknowledge.
cain
@different-church-lady:
ohh! My humble apologies – I’m sure that will never happen to you.
Urban Suburbanite
I have no idea who Chakrabarti is, but that piece stinks of courtier press. I can’t tell if he’s hoping to jump on a backlash against Chairman Sanders or he wants to be seen supporting Biden.
Citizen Alan
@featheredsprite: The problem is with the ones who aren’t even in the tent. The ones who openly hate our tent and everyone in it, and who want to burn our tent down so that the rest of us will be forced to go join their tent, the one with the big red hammer & sickle flag flying over the top.
cain
@Anne Laurie:
In this case, he hired grifters. But an apt quote.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Your off-hours being prime time for more than a smattering of us nothwithstanding.
;)
Alison Rose
LOLOL “BIDEN’S NO FDR!!!!!”
So, Biden should have offered COVID assistance only to white people? You know, to be more like FDR?
different-church-lady
@Anne Laurie: Jesus, how many rating levels do we have to go down before we get to Trump’s team?
Ruckus
@NotMax:
That does sound…… better?
cain
@Citizen Alan:
Yeah, a good way to be a minority party. Frankly, I have yet to see the communist/socialist experiment work anywhere. China doesn’t have unions, the worker unions in Russia doesn’t seem to have any particular political power that I can discern, and in Brazil labor unions are struggling – Cuba prior had unions but again it’s a military dictatorship (or was?) so .. dunno what is up with just your general human rights.
All in all.. it seems like a mixed bag to me.
cain
@NotMax:
We could discuss the contents of Greenwald’s basement…
smike
@cain:
Maybe you are confusing it with 42:
“The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.”
Ruckus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You can’t think of anything, because there isn’t anything.
Ruckus
@artem1s:
Well I’d bet there are fewer of them and while they have “leaders,” they really are more like a pile of dried leaves in a windstorm, going whichever way the wind blows on any particular day. Voter suppression is as much of friend of theirs as it is to the grumpy old pricks party.
NotMax
@cain
“I’ll retire to Bedlam.”
– E. Scrooge
:)
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Sirota, Dayden, and BriWi? Wasn’t April Fool’s Day 3 week ago?
I guess Susan Sarandon and Cornell West were too busy on French Riviera to comment.
Noncarborundum
@cain:
Q: Why do computer programmers spend so long in the shower?
A: The instructions on the shampoo bottle say, “Lather. Rinse. Repeat.”
SectionH
@smike: Um, you mean like what is 6 x 9?
and
James E Powell
@Kent:
Mahoning County may be Trump Country; I’m sure racism is as common there now as it was when I lived in Ohio. But I wouldn’t call it deep red. That county gave Obama 62% and 63%.
SectionH
@Noncarborundum: I’m apparently up for some ancient jokes, and not much else.
@SectionH:
Rusty
If any of these folks had bothered to read Biden’s website with his policies during the election, they wouldn’t be surprised with his actions. They were very progressive and we’ll thought out. As for Bernie, I was leaning toward him 2016 until he had the terrible interview on banking before the NY primary. I went and read his campaign site on his policy position. It was a link to his proposal to eliminate big banks. The whole thing was really like 4 lines. Identify big banks, 30 day review and eliminate them. This was his signature policy? I’ve seen better plans from drunks on a cocktail napkin. It’s then I realized he was all talk but zero depth on anything. There is a reason with 40 years in office he has accomplished so little. No thanks. Joe said what he would do, and is working toward it. No drama, just competence.
quakerinabasement
Bah. Got through that whole post without seeing a mention of black voters, especially black women. Joe Biden is in the White House today because black women voters saw how Joe Biden served a black president and they gave him their trust. When the road to the nomination headed for South Carolina, Joe Biden’s fortunes changed. And it wasn’t white voters who made that happen.
And, by the way, thank you all for putting this country back on the rails.
Jay
@quakerinabasement: ???????????
stay safe, 6 feet, masks, stay healthy, wash your hands,
you dirty filthy animals.
,
James E Powell
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
If Sanders is remembered at all, he will be remembered for helping put Trump in the White House. I’m not saying it’s fair, but it’s the most impactful thing he did.
mrmoshpotato
Damn. Straight.
karen marie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Sanders’ supporters have been giving him a bad name since 2016.
karen marie
@Doc Sardonic: Well said.
The Dark Avenger
At least Radical Centralists have the wisdom to shit up about Biden’s promise to work with Republicans, unless you’re Manchin or Sinema, who have learned less from 01/06 than anyone outside the Rethuglican party.
Baud
These people have fallen outside of my info bubble, which has been very nice.
lowtechcyclist
2005 Bankruptcy Act.
The Dark Avenger
What did Biden do when he was in the Senate? Besides help his credit card buddies in Delaware?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
?????
Holy Shit!
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Ingenuity in flight (photo #1)
(photo #2)
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Baud
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Who’s taking the video???!!!
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Baud:
first photo is from Ingenuity’s onboard camera photographing it’s shadow in flight
Second photos and video from Perseverance
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
I thought That Fucking Guy withdrew the country from that, because it (i.e., the Geneva Convention) gave Vlad a sad.
lowtechcyclist
@Rusty:
I’m an old Jesus freak, so not only do I believe people can change, I have a bit of experience with it.
HOWEVER: while one should always be open to the possibility that people will change for the better, one should never rely on their doing so before their claim that they’ve changed starts manifesting itself in better actions.
So: Biden had a long track record as the Senator from MBNA, including the abominable 2005 Bankruptcy Act. And there were words he said on the campaign trail and on his website.
One could hope he meant the words, but anyone counting on them would have been a fool until he had the chance to prove them with his actions. The problem being that he wouldn’t get that chance until he was President, and it would be too late if we were wrong.
I’m more glad than I can express that Biden’s turned out to be the right person for this moment. But deep skepticism was entirely warranted.
SFAW
@artem1s:
I know you’re pissed at them, as are many/most of us, but this is a little silly.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
I know you love Anand! //
Uncle Cosmo
Viz., Irish Alzheimer’s – defined as “when you forget everything but your grudges.”
SFAW
@Doc Sardonic:
I’ve been told that “Scotch” is not a nationality nor ethnicity. Although it may be a religion with some, I guess.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Just so I’m clear, by “tankies”, do people mean “avowed communists who approved/would have approved of Stalin sending the tanks into Prague”?
Llelldorin
@The Dark Avenger:
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 was probably his best-known win, from what I can remember.
J R in WV
@featheredsprite:
Just wanted to say I adore your Nym, featheredsprite.
I hope that isn’t too forward of me… ;~)
J R in WV
@cain:
I always thought that was where they did Glenn’s Porn Film work?
CAM-WA
I’ve been reading The Atlantic’s columnists for a long time, and the above is an overstatement. Yes, they have some columnists whose brand of Libertarianism tilts (i.e., is biased) toward Republicanism, but to characterize the entire magazine as having a Republican tilt is at best an exaggeration.
Brachiator
They will cling to the fringe. It’s what they do. The fringe is their happy place.
glc
David Dayen is good at https://prospect.org/first100/
Today’s offering: https://prospect.org/first100/refugee-cap-debate-left-role-biden-coalition/
Earl
I see Anne Laurie is still on her anti-Bernie nonsense. With claims that Biden was just *obviously* a progressive. That would be Chairman Biden of the Clarence Thomas nomination and the sandbagging of Anita Hill — was obviously a progressive and we would have been idiots not to take him at his word. Despite his well-documented behavior. Biden, who couldn’t be arsed to even apologize until *2019* [1] for lying to Hill, allowing the confirmation to turn into a circus, and not calling other witnesses that could have validated Hill’s claims.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/politics/joe-biden-anita-hill.html