Joe Biden’s failure to ride easily into the White House on the back of a wave of anger against Trump is damning.
It was his election to lose.
The Florida result is an example of the untapped potential. Trump won the state, but some 61 percent of people also voted through a move towards a $15 an hour minimum wage.
It shows there is an appetite for policies that improve the lives of working class people—and voters can be swung either way.
If Biden had enthusiastically backed such policies, the voters swayed by Trump but unenthused by Biden’s “presidency as usual” promise could have been won to oppose Trump.
Privilege
Biden is a man who stinks of the establishment privilege he’s enjoyed for decades.
Whether it’s the coronavirus crisis, the climate crisis or police murder of black people, he offered no solutions.
Both Biden and his vice president hopeful Kamala Harris are neoliberals, warmongers and authoritarian on law and order.
Even though Trump’s oversight of the coronavirus crisis has slaughtered at least 235,000 people, Biden’s class politics shone through.
Even as thousands of people were dying daily during the election campaign, he still refused to back universal health care.
His failure to back the demands of Black Lives Matter showed how desperately he wanted to maintain the status quo.
In response to the police murder of George Floyd, Biden suggested cops “shoot them in the leg to deescalate circumstances”.
Biden then made sure to distance himself from the anti-racist uprising by using right wing talking points. “Ask yourself—do I look to you like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?” he said.
And Biden comes from a rich history of top Democrats who want to crush workers, enter into imperialist wars and prop up banks.
When they are in power, Democrats make limited reforms in order to sedate workers’ anger.
This was apparent during Barack Obama’s presidency—it was clear he would always back big business.
Fascists could be in office for the first time since the war
Dominion Society is building links with Restore Britain
Germany is the second largest supplier of arms to Israel
The US is home to 989 billionaires
