Biden’s Gettysburg Speech, October 6, 2020
Infidel753 introduces us to “Biden’s 22 minutes of speech worth listening to and watching in entirety.” It is interesting on multiple levels. Infidel753 writes for a blog of his own name Infidel753 and also posts commentary from other blogs and Angry Bear on Crooks and Liars. This speech was given on October 6, 2020. I had not heard much about it till Infidel posted it after he read it on Annie Asks You and I saw it on Infidel’s site.
“Most obviously, what a relief to see a leader who can speak coherently in complete sentences with an adult vocabulary, and who focuses on ideas instead of toddler-like insults and bragging. Our country needs to get back to the kind of leadership for which other democracies can feel respect instead of anxiety and incredulity.
The national-unity talk is what he knows he needs to use, to appeal to that large category of voters who have paid no attention to what has actually been going on for the last twelve years. They need to be told what they want to hear, because they can’t handle the truth.
I’m convinced that he actually knows better because he was Obama’s VP for eight years. He saw the Republicans’ obstructionism up close and he must know better than anybody that he can no more find common ground with them than with the coronavirus itself. And if you listen carefully, he shows it here.
After all the talk of unity and building bridges, he says that white supremacy cannot be tolerated. But that’s who they are now, or a great many of them. That was and is Trump’s appeal — it’s how he won the Republican primaries in 2016 despite the opposition of the party establishment, winning the support of the Republican masses, and it’s how he retains the fervent loyalty of those same Republican masses to this day, by racist dog whistles that sound more like nuclear air-raid sirens. To condemn white supremacy rules out reconciliation with the majority of Republicans as they truly are. Biden knows that. It’s not remotely possible that he doesn’t know that.
Biden says that mask-wearing is a scientific prescription and should not be partisan. But the rejection of science — and of expertise and education generally — is a central defining tenet of the American right wing and has been so for decades, on evolution and global warming and homosexuality and now also on the pandemic. Again, he’s defining something integral to the mentality of most Republicans as being unacceptable to the unified consensus-based America he wants
He rightly extols the vote as the true power and inalienable right of all citizens. But Republicans for years have used every scheme and scam imaginable to suppress the vote of people unlikely to support them, and are still fighting tooth and nail to do so right now. He’s claiming as a consensus value something that Republicans are grimly determined to destroy. Again, it’s not remotely possible that he doesn’t know this or doesn’t fully understand the implications.
If there’s a message of reconciliation here, it’s that right-wingers can be accepted back into American civilization if and only if they renounce most of what now defines being right-wing.
Trump and Trumpism are not some sort of odd aberration from which the Republicans will recover and revert back to being a normal party once Trump is out of office. They’re the natural culmination of where the US right wing has been heading for decades. Even the Republican leaders and officials who opposed Trump’s rise in 2016 now grovel before him, toadying to his every insane whim and pronouncement.
I’m convinced Biden is a lot smarter than most people give him credit for. He’s running this campaign on multiple levels. He gives the naïve the unity-and-reconciliation talk they want to hear, while signaling to those of us who live in the real world that he, too, lives there. As president he’ll probably make a genuine effort to work with the residual Republican minorities in the House and Senate, and when they spit in his face and pledge their undying hatred and obstructionism as they did with Obama, he can say that he gave it an honest try — and then he’ll get down to doing what needs to be done.
Thanks to Annie’s commentary “BATTLE for the SOUL of the NATION” at “Annie Asks You.”
I remember when Joe Biden would not have been thought of as being very bright as politicians go, which was a low enough bar as it was, but now thanks to Donald Trump our boy Joe seems like a freaking genius.
I spent 16 years in AZ surrounded by these people. They don’t pay much attention to the media opinions or summations, they just pay attention to what he says to them. They believe him because he is saying what they want to hear.
I used to spend a lot of afternoons at the local bar filled with them only because it held an off track betting facility. The day after the election when Happy Hour started every single time one of them came into the place chants of “Build That Wall” and “Lock her up” filled the place.
It was beyond disgusting. It is what they are and it is why Trump exists. They were beyond appalled when a black man became President, and that was the reason for the resurgence of the GOP and Trump’s election.
EM:
So you are telling me, I will not ne liked much there either? I am afraid my days of hob-knobbing in bars and mingling with those who have alternative views have passed with the advent of Covid. We refuse to eat in restaurants and it is cheaper to buy a bottle of Basil Hayden and sit around a fire in tha back yard than pay by the drink in a bar.
Fearing a ‘Blood Bath,’ Republican Senators Begin to Edge Away From Trump
NY Times – October 16
For almost four years, congressional Republicans have ducked and dodged President Trump’s offensive statements. But they’re starting to distance themselves.
The shift, less than three weeks before the election, indicates that many Republicans think Mr. Trump is heading for a loss in November.
WASHINGTON — For nearly four years, congressional Republicans have ducked and dodged an unending cascade of offensive statements and norm-shattering behavior from President Trump, ignoring his caustic and scattershot Twitter feed and penchant for flouting party orthodoxy, and standing quietly by as he abandoned military allies, attacked American institutions and stirred up racist and nativist fears.
But now, facing grim polling numbers and a flood of Democratic money and enthusiasm that has imperiled their majority in the Senate, Republicans on Capitol Hill are beginning to publicly distance themselves from the president. The shift, less than three weeks before the election, indicates that many Republicans have concluded that Mr. Trump is heading for a loss in November. And they are grasping to save themselves and rushing to re-establish their reputations for a coming struggle for their party’s identity.
Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska unleashed on Mr. Trump in a telephone town hall event with constituents on Wednesday, eviscerating the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and accusing him of “flirting” with dictators and white supremacists and alienating voters so broadly that he might cause a “Republican blood bath” in the Senate. He was echoing a phrase from Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who warned of a “Republican blood bath of Watergate proportions.” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the president’s most vocal allies, predicted the president could very well lose the White House. …
@Fred,
Thx.
Run,
More than likely. One advantage to bars out there is that almost all of them have outside patios, so you can quarantine yourself from their conversations pretty easily.
Covid, not so much.
Federal Appeals Courts Emerge as Crucial for Trump in Voting Cases
NY Times – October 17
This month, a federal judge struck down a decree from Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas limiting each county in the state to a single drop box to handle the surge in absentee ballots this election season, rejecting Mr. Abbott’s argument that the limit was necessary to combat fraud.
Days later, an appellate panel of three judges appointed by President Trump froze the lower court order, keeping Mr. Abbott’s new policy in place — meaning Harris County, with more than two million voters, and Wheeler County, with well under 4,000, would both be allowed only one drop box for voters who want to hand-deliver their absentee ballots and avoid reliance on the Postal Service.
The Texas case is one of at least eight major election disputes around the country in which Federal District Court judges sided with civil rights groups and Democrats in voting cases only to be stayed by the federal appeals courts, whose ranks Mr. Trump has done more to populate than any president in more than 40 years.
The rulings highlight how Mr. Trump’s drive to fill empty judgeships is yielding benefits to his re-election campaign even before any major dispute about the outcome may make it to the Supreme Court. He made clear the political advantages he derives from his power to appoint judges when he explained last month that he was moving fast to name a successor to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg so the Supreme Court would have a full contingent to handle any election challenges, which he has indicated he might bring in the event of a loss. …
Fred,
Here’s the thing. While Barrett makes it worse, it will not change any election lawsuits. Those results were already baked into the Court.
The one thing you can say about Roberts is that in his entire professional career he has attacked voting rights. From the time he was a lawyer just starting out until right now, he has been consistent in taking away voting rights.
5-3 is the same as 6-3.
GLE
yesterday was the 177th anniversary of the discovery of quarternions by Sir William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 when Adam Smith, the father of steady-state capitalism was only 20 years old.
one century ago economists began to mistrust steady-state capitalism. they began to suspect that capitalism could eventually fall into GLE, gimbal lock economy.
Upon closer inspection of the problem JMH made some startling observations. JMH, John Maynard Himself pointed out that wealthy folks have a high marginal propensity to invest whereas poor folks have a low marginal propensity to invest but a high propensity to consume; whereas the wealthy have a low propensity to consume those things that are produced on the assembly line built by Investments of wealthy people. to wit, when the capacity utilization of an economy is high, this indicates that the wealthy have not enough money to build more capacity. conversely, when capacity utilization is low this indicates that the poor have not enough money to drive up aggregate demand for Consumer items goods and services.
the self-evident remedies for each of there unusual situations are transfer payments from one economic caste to the opposite economic caste. ceu
when the capacity utilization is more than 95%, a government would be wise to promote immigration of investors who would invest into more capacity. Conversely when capacity utilization is less than 95% a government would be wise to promote immigration of consumers, poor folks, workers.
It is also self apparent that a small wealth transfer from the extremely wealthy to the extremely poor could be equally effective as a large transfer of wealth between two classes of people more closely equal in wealth. Ceu — between Democrats and Republicans. tell me something!
are almost all legislative attempts at stimulating the economy highly advertised as being Keynesian transfer payments when in fact they are merely camouflaged attempts to buy votes for
the incumbent
politicians
?
Justin:
Ok, you have my attention. How is your commentary germane to the post’s topic? There is an Open Thread area for this or if you wish to post something, I (we) can help you do so.
@Cidertrades,
“…in 1843 when Adam Smith, the father of steady-state capitalism was only 20 years old…”
[Adam Smith would have been 120 years old in 1843 had he not died in 1790, fifteen years before Sir William Rowan Hamilton was born.
OTOH, I do get why Keynes should be important to the economic plans of the Democratic Party, but Keynes had far more to say than just the macroeconomic implications of aggregate demand. Keynes understood structural imbalances (particularly in trade imbalances and trade dependence for necessary goods) and the risk posed by (yet unnamed) financialization, for which he espoused the euthanasia of the rentier. Keynes was very disdainful of the speculative trade in securities, which has subsequently been protected for its value in adjusting capital market prices. The capital gains tax preference has lead to capital gains and games as well as a ridiculous consolidation of firms affecting political power along with wages and benefits and further enabling offshoring for the purpose of global price arbitrage following labor into nations with lower standards of living. ]
Aside from the comment from Cidertrades, the stated platform for Joe Biden’s election observes Keynes well in its policy prescriptions across every line of economic problem that I have investigated. Reservations about the Democratic Party platform in this election cycle should be limited to the problems of internal division which may prevent them from delivering on Joe Biden’s stated platform, not the platform itself.
Ron:
Did not give a thought as to the error nor to what Keynes had said. What I was looking to was the clarity to Biden’s speech in comparison to something trump would have attempted to present in a speech.
Run,
Cidertrades was a familiar denizen of EV for years. Often he would change his posting ID apparently to disguise his identity, but he could not disguise his rhetoric. He blustered a lot about how the exorbitant privilege of the USD gave us incredible buying power that we should appreciate, not usually what is meant by bastard Keynesianism but equally appropriate for the title.
OTOH, if I write a longer article that I would like you to post then what should I do? I could E-mail it to you as a Word attachment for instance.
The topic I am thinking about is semantics, two things in particular. Keynes was a conservative in some meaning of the word that has been lost whereas liberal in much of the world and much of history has meant what we now call neoliberal laissez-faire capitalism . OTOH, actual socialism is a far different thing than the socialization of things that should be public goods, including credit.
When bastard conservatives and their Austrian economics sock puppets broadly generalize and speak in epithets and allusions then they can rest assured that their target audience will not do the hard work of ferreting out the truth. When pointy headed moderate progressives broadly generalize and speak with bromides and paltry promises then they can rest assured that their target audience will not do the hard work of ferreting out the truth whether or not progressives actually believe that they will. Either way we have a communications problem. My wife has been telling me about it since the campaign ads began.
Ron:
Sent you an email. I thought I recognized the name. I see so many here. The tactics were familiar. I will take care of it and it is timely.