GOP Ready to Drive Off a Cliff on Obamacare [Click] If they want to go out with a bang, that suits me. The Dems have the center-left and center-right of the political spectrum covered.
Before it disappears behind a paywall (must divide post):
“I Was Wrong” Josh Marshall
TPM Reader MM is pretty liberal and pretty gung-ho for Joe Biden …
Nikole Hannah-Jones’s [NY] Times Magazine Article [It Was Never About Busing; Court-ordered desegregation worked. But white racism made it hard to accept.] on busing, which greeted me this morning, is a revolutionary contribution to my understanding of what segregation was and is, and the role that busing played and still plays in enabling it. I thought I knew something about it, but what I knew was the first few bullet points on page one of the Cliff Notes version of “Busing and Segregation Made More Comfortable for Affluent White Liberal Northeastern Late Baby Boomers”. I had no idea.
Never would I allow myself to languish in such a state of ignorance in regard to a matter of science relevant to my work or interest, or in regard to my outside-of-work (I’m thinking ‘hors-d’œuvre’, but that’s never understood literally and I don’t mean ‘appetizer’) interests: music, cooking, wine, French politics, and so on.
I am ashamed.
It seems that Biden was more involved with those vile segregationists than I had been willing to accept. It wouldn’t have taken me long to research the truth, and I did exactly what I’m so quick to condemn in “low-information” voters: I allowed myself to reside in comfortable ignorance rather than risk informed unease. I could say that “I trusted Joe,” and that would be the truth, but it’s a lazy truth that let’s me off the hook. I didn’t do my homework, something that never happened once in all my years of formal schooling.
I’m conflicted. I still support Biden, because I think he’s basically a good man who’s done a lot of good, is by very far the best prepared to be president, and because polling suggests he has the best chance of beating Trump, which is Job One. I’d like to hear him renounce his opposition to busing 40 years ago, or at least explain in detail why he acted as he did, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. And I think that now, at last, thanks to Nikole Hannah-Jones, I finally understand why.
I’ve read (in TPM, The Times, and elsewhere) many times that Biden polls consistently better than any other candidate, and better recently than Trump himself, in the triad or handful or however many there are of purplish states that can deliver the election to the Democratic candidate. The basis for that support likely includes Biden’s positions on several issues, and probably also his way of approaching issues, as compared to his primary opponents. The relevant demographic is, of course, so-called “moderate white” Democrats. Now I realize that one of those issues is, quite possibly, that moderate white Dems in those states may not want black kids bused in to the excellent schools their kids attend, whether its New Trier or Payton or Walnut Hills or Upper Saint Clair or wherever (full disclosure: my ex-niece Sarah attended New Trier before Oberlin; for all I know any or all of the schools that I just mentioned (only because they’re famously great schools) may already have kids bused in: indeed, I hope that is the case.
When I was an adolescent, Joe Biden made some common cause with Eastland and Talmadge, politicians who made my skin crawl. I was too lazy to track that down and own that truth. Is that enough to disqualify him from being a good, perhaps very good president? I’d like and hope to think not, but I can’t be sure. He has said that he’s “sorry”, that he was “wrong” “a few weeks ago” (not 40 years ago, I can’t help but notice), that he “regret[s]” it, and that he’s “sorry for any of the pain or misconception [he] may have caused anybody”. We all regret missteps that cost us; the rest, while of course going far beyond anything Trump is capable of feeling (does he “feel” at all, in the sense we use term?), much less saying, is nevertheless pretty close to political boilerplate. It’s carefully worded to fall just slightly on the high side of the average politician apology in an analogous situation, but nowhere near the full-throated disavowal I’d like to hear.
He went on to say “I was vetted by [Barack Obama] and selected by him. I will take his judgment of my record, my character, and my ability to handle the job over anyone else’s,” and that carries considerable weight with me. But I can’t determine, on the basis of what I now know, whether his apology was limited or constrained, or indeed driven, mainly by what Biden feels in his heart, or by political concerns regarding those voters in those critical states (it seems overwhelmingly likely that he and his staff discussed that aspect of the matter fairly intensively). None of us is perfect, and of course we pick our friends and to some degree the politicians we support on the basis of whether we’re able to be comfortable with their imperfections.
As the late, great philosopher Richard Rorty (and Aristotle long before him) might have observed, all such judgments are contingent (in the philosophical sense, i.e., true in virtue of how things are in reality: not necessarily true or necessarily false). Our current reality is strongly conditioned by the necessity of getting Trump out of office.
If I had to abandon Biden, the only place I could go is Warren. And I don’t believe she can beat Trump.
I'm not sure Biden can debate DT. Harris can, and Warren can, and I think Bernie would do okay. And I'd take ANY of them over DT. But I truly want Bernie this time, Warren is second. I just wish she had endorsed Bernie last time.
I think that DT is constitutionally incapable of carrying on a debate with anyone. There shouldn't be any pretense of a debate until there is some evidence that he is capable of it. Like taking turns, answering questions, and not lying.
Hey, great news about Mike Gravel, Bill! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHurray!
DeleteGOP Ready to Drive Off a Cliff on Obamacare [Click] If they want to go out with a bang, that suits me. The Dems have the center-left and center-right of the political spectrum covered.
ReplyDeleteNeanderthals Were About as Right-Handed as Modern Humans [Click]
Netroots Nation attendees clearly favor Warren, second choice is Harris. [Click] A different reporter’s take [Click]
Trump Should Go Back to Where He Came From [Click]
Indeed he should, if wherever that may be will have him. I can't imagine anyplace taking him.
DeletePerhaps for enough money someone would be willing to grant him political asylum; I think of Idi Amin, Fulgencio Batista, and Ferdinand Marcos.
DeleteRoss Douthat on Bernie’s way forward [Click]
ReplyDeleteWhat happened with DOJ in New York? [Click] Just what I was thinking…
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteBefore it disappears behind a paywall (must divide post):
“I Was Wrong”
Josh Marshall
TPM Reader MM is pretty liberal and pretty gung-ho for Joe Biden …
Nikole Hannah-Jones’s [NY] Times Magazine Article [It Was Never About Busing; Court-ordered desegregation worked. But white racism made it hard to accept.] on busing, which greeted me this morning, is a revolutionary contribution to my understanding of what segregation was and is, and the role that busing played and still plays in enabling it. I thought I knew something about it, but what I knew was the first few bullet points on page one of the Cliff Notes version of “Busing and Segregation Made More Comfortable for Affluent White Liberal Northeastern Late Baby Boomers”. I had no idea.
Never would I allow myself to languish in such a state of ignorance in regard to a matter of science relevant to my work or interest, or in regard to my outside-of-work (I’m thinking ‘hors-d’œuvre’, but that’s never understood literally and I don’t mean ‘appetizer’) interests: music, cooking, wine, French politics, and so on.
I am ashamed.
It seems that Biden was more involved with those vile segregationists than I had been willing to accept. It wouldn’t have taken me long to research the truth, and I did exactly what I’m so quick to condemn in “low-information” voters: I allowed myself to reside in comfortable ignorance rather than risk informed unease. I could say that “I trusted Joe,” and that would be the truth, but it’s a lazy truth that let’s me off the hook. I didn’t do my homework, something that never happened once in all my years of formal schooling.
I’m conflicted. I still support Biden, because I think he’s basically a good man who’s done a lot of good, is by very far the best prepared to be president, and because polling suggests he has the best chance of beating Trump, which is Job One. I’d like to hear him renounce his opposition to busing 40 years ago, or at least explain in detail why he acted as he did, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. And I think that now, at last, thanks to Nikole Hannah-Jones, I finally understand why.
continued:
ReplyDeleteI’ve read (in TPM, The Times, and elsewhere) many times that Biden polls consistently better than any other candidate, and better recently than Trump himself, in the triad or handful or however many there are of purplish states that can deliver the election to the Democratic candidate. The basis for that support likely includes Biden’s positions on several issues, and probably also his way of approaching issues, as compared to his primary opponents. The relevant demographic is, of course, so-called “moderate white” Democrats. Now I realize that one of those issues is, quite possibly, that moderate white Dems in those states may not want black kids bused in to the excellent schools their kids attend, whether its New Trier or Payton or Walnut Hills or Upper Saint Clair or wherever (full disclosure: my ex-niece Sarah attended New Trier before Oberlin; for all I know any or all of the schools that I just mentioned (only because they’re famously great schools) may already have kids bused in: indeed, I hope that is the case.
When I was an adolescent, Joe Biden made some common cause with Eastland and Talmadge, politicians who made my skin crawl. I was too lazy to track that down and own that truth. Is that enough to disqualify him from being a good, perhaps very good president? I’d like and hope to think not, but I can’t be sure. He has said that he’s “sorry”, that he was “wrong” “a few weeks ago” (not 40 years ago, I can’t help but notice), that he “regret[s]” it, and that he’s “sorry for any of the pain or misconception [he] may have caused anybody”. We all regret missteps that cost us; the rest, while of course going far beyond anything Trump is capable of feeling (does he “feel” at all, in the sense we use term?), much less saying, is nevertheless pretty close to political boilerplate. It’s carefully worded to fall just slightly on the high side of the average politician apology in an analogous situation, but nowhere near the full-throated disavowal I’d like to hear.
He went on to say “I was vetted by [Barack Obama] and selected by him. I will take his judgment of my record, my character, and my ability to handle the job over anyone else’s,” and that carries considerable weight with me. But I can’t determine, on the basis of what I now know, whether his apology was limited or constrained, or indeed driven, mainly by what Biden feels in his heart, or by political concerns regarding those voters in those critical states (it seems overwhelmingly likely that he and his staff discussed that aspect of the matter fairly intensively). None of us is perfect, and of course we pick our friends and to some degree the politicians we support on the basis of whether we’re able to be comfortable with their imperfections.
As the late, great philosopher Richard Rorty (and Aristotle long before him) might have observed, all such judgments are contingent (in the philosophical sense, i.e., true in virtue of how things are in reality: not necessarily true or necessarily false). Our current reality is strongly conditioned by the necessity of getting Trump out of office.
If I had to abandon Biden, the only place I could go is Warren. And I don’t believe she can beat Trump.
I don't believe Biden can beat trump. I really don't.
Deletei think pretty much anybody can beat Trump.
DeleteI'm not sure Biden can debate DT. Harris can, and Warren can, and I think Bernie would do okay. And I'd take ANY of them over DT. But I truly want Bernie this time, Warren is second. I just wish she had endorsed Bernie last time.
DeleteI think that DT is constitutionally incapable of carrying on a debate with anyone. There shouldn't be any pretense of a debate until there is some evidence that he is capable of it. Like taking turns, answering questions, and not lying.
Delete