Monday, February 20, 2023

Joe Biden: Palling Around With Democratic Socialists.



WeHaveBeenCursedByTheReignOfGoldFor
LongEnoughVille


In response to Joe Biden's rousing roundhouse rhetoric during his recent State of The Union speech that bamboozled the oligarchical lapdogs of the crazy crackers caucus into swearing fealty to social security, Rupert Murdoch's higher brow beater of a news organ, the Wall Street Journal, went deep into the back catalogue of so-called smears in an op-ed from Fox News contributor Daniel Henninger titled 'Joe Biden Is Bernie Sanders':

President Biden’s State of the Union speech was an overdue act of transparency. When Mr. Biden finally announces his re-election bid, he will be running as a democratic socialist. That is the clear takeaway from the more than 70 minutes Mr. Biden spent describing his plans to push federal spending and mandates into every nook of American life...


Ya, sure, but, really, so what?

After all, Uncle Bernie is no Saul Alinsky. However, he is doing his darnedest to follow in the footsteps of Eugene Debs, the legendary trade unionist and socialist who was the subject of a documentary Sanders made back in the days before first became the mayor of Burlington Vermont, a race he won by a whopping 10 votes in 1981.

But here's the thing about the modern day Mr. Sanders.

Progressive purity tests mean nothing to him because he's a pragmatist who didn't sulk when he lost to Biden in the 2020 presidential primary.

Instead, he rolled up to sleeves, heaved his hard earned leverage onto the Senate floor, and got to work. And now he's been given carte blanche to call the oligarchs to account, as noted by Tim Adams in the Guardian yesterday:

...Sanders has just become chair of the Senate health, education, labour and pensions committee. He clearly intends to use that office not only to pursue his primary long-term aim – Medicare for all – but to create some proper political theatre along the way. His opening acts have seen him request the presence before the committee of Stéphane Bancel, the chief executive of Moderna, who Sanders argues “has become a multibillionaire” by creating a coronavirus vaccine with government money. Calls have also gone out to Howard Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, to address his “union-busting” policies and their relation to his staggering personal fortune. Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, a long-term bete noire of Sanders, should also look out for an invitation. Expect TV ratings of Senate hearings to soar...


And if Biden runs for president again in 2024?

Well, Sanders is pragmatic in that regard also because he knows he can push the Overton window left by continuing to work with Delaware Joe:

...“I think what’s going to happen,” he (Sanders) says, “is that President Biden is going to run for re-election. And if he does, I will support him.”...


Imagine that!


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