President Biden, Will Things Really Get Better?

   Now that the initial euphoria of Donald Trump's election loss has begun to wear off on everyone except, extreme Trump haters, some liberal democrats and a certain phony late night television host we can finally get down to brass tacks. President elect Joseph Biden, former senator and Obama Vice President is being heralded by most in the mainstream media as the man who will bring dignity and empathy back to the white house. The man who can fix the covid-19 disaster, which currently still rages out of control. Somehow, pull off a miracle to get obstructionist, Mitch Mcconnell to allow another trillion dollar stimulus package to pass through a more than likely republican controlled Senate. Other then a few moderately important executive orders including, overturning the racist muslim travel ban, rejoining the World Health Organization, and Paris Climate Accords. Biden and his supporters are hopeful his sympathetic, "good guy" image will be enough to keep his approval ratings at or slightly above the fifty percent threshold. Let's take a look at Biden's career as a senator and vice president to really understand why true progressives aren't expecting much to get better for their vision of America.

    Joe Biden's political career began way back in 1973 when he became the junior senator of Delaware at the ripe age of 30. Biden soon was well known for his friendships he built on both sides of the political spectrum. One connection that grew closer over the years was with Republican senator and later presidential nominee John McCain. McCain, not exactly known for his progressive beliefs,which is quite an understatement, was a nice enough man and celebrated Vietnam war veteran but also known as a bloodthirsty warhawk. Which leads us to some of Biden's missteps as a senator, especially when it came to decisions on war. He voted against the original and successful Iraq invasion in 1991, yet inexplicably voted in favor of the second war in Iraq in 2002 based on the flimsy, unsubstantiated claims that Saddam hussein somehow had anything to do with the 911 terror attacks in New York City and Washington DC. That along with the flat out lie perpetrated by the Bush adminstration about wmd's that didn't exist. His other more forgetful claim to fame as senator was his disdainful, insulting treatment of Anita Hill, who testified during Clarence Thomas's supreme court nomination hearing. Hill faced a testy, shauvenistic Biden as she tried to testify that Thomas sexually harrrased her when she worked for him. Biden has sinced apologized for the incident but I'm sure his apology still rings hollow with many in the #MeToo movement.

   Twice Biden ran for the democratic nomination in 1988 and 2008, both times failing to make much headway. Biden's decision to run for president in 2020 was seen as his best chance to capture the nomination despite his advanced age. Joe was seen as the nice old guy, someone who could make connections with coal miners in western Pennsylvania, as well as African Americans in southern states. Early on, he struggled, as Bernie Sanders and even Elizabeth Warren were well ahead of him after the first three primaries in; Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. Then South Carolina happened. Biden rebounded with a bang, easily defeating the cluttered field of candidates. As they did with Hiliary Clinton four years prior, the DNC jumped on the Biden bandwagon, putting all their chips on Biden's ability to gain votes from liberal democrats, whose love affair with the Obama administration never wavered. They also bet Biden could flip some conservative Republicans whom were appalled by four years of Donald Trump and his insulting, childlike attitude toward governing the country. With the complete support of center-legt and center-right Democrats, the super PAC money poured into Biden's campaign as victories continued,leading him too and easy primary win. Kamala Harris, no matter how late the choice,was quite an adept choice, helping him bolster his ticket with suburban women and most minorities. Election night came and went, although there were tense times late night November 3rd, Biden eventually pulled out the controversial victory with his overwhelming advantage in mail votes. The late counting votes from democrats, most due to fears of catching covid-19 standing in long, stuffy lines wound up costing Trump the election.

   Now we get the real point of this piece, will a Biden admistration really save the "soul of the nation" but also succeed in severely reducing income equality, rampant police brutality, affordable health care, the mess of the student debt crisis and climate change? Making matters more difficult will be a heavily conservative supreme court and more than likely, Republican senate majority. I mentioned earlier the likely executive orders he'll almost certainly impose but that won't change much for the struggling, average American. Progressives haven't been too impressed with Biden's early cabinet picks. Mostly holdovers from the mostly disappointing Obama years, like Antony Blinken and John Jerry haven't inspired any positive vibes from the far left. In reality though, what did we really expect from a 78 year old man who for the most part is likely stuck in his old ways. He's no ex hippie, so more than likely he'll keep or even add to the troop levels in Afganistan and Iraq. There's absolutely no chance in bloody hell he's going to attempt to impose medicare for all. He and especially his vice president have heavy connections to Wall Street, therefore connected to medicare companies and big pharma.  It's the reason early on he's focused more on climate change and working out kinks in the affordable care act. Two issues that may have a chance at enough bipartisanship to actually get any serious consideration. Like most Democrats before him he'll inflict modest tax increases on the highest income individuals just to save a little face with some progressives. 

  Foreign policy will surely be so Obama-like it may as well be a carbon copy. Impose imaginary red lines on authoritarians like Erdogan, Putin and Assad, but avoid any intense military conflict. He'll pretend to be sympathetic to the Palestinian cause while selling weapons of death to Israel for a sweet discount and tell them to play nice and only bomb Gaza on months that start with a J. He'll return America too being a more major contributor to NATO, which in my opinion Trump had a point that it's an antiquated organization and does cost the US more than the European countries it's meant to protect. If his adminstration is unable to renegotiate the Iran Nuclear deal, Biden could always bomb away like his drone loving former boss did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Without much of an ISIS left to attack, who'll will feel the wrath of the drones? Well whoever seems "evil" enough at the time, whether it be hezbollah, remnants of Al Qeada and last but not least the easy target of the Taliban. They'll never agree to be a non violent entity, no matter what some paper signed with Kabul says. So buckle up, for four years of an Obama extension, without the darling personality and shrewd handling of the media, that Obama's used to near perfection. Ol' Joe can be, at times, a pleasant kind of fella, but he stutters, and struggles to complete sentences. He's also four decades passed his prime as a politician which doesn't help with his sharpness. The smart strategy would be to let Kamala do the talking! Especially if things go south, since she's been a lawyer her whole adult life she'll do a much better job lying to the public to smoothe over whatever goes wrong. Joe's got his work cut out for him, especially since some on the far-left are already jumping ship and he hasn't even been inaugurated yet.