We did not have Internet from 2:30 pm yesterday through late in the evening, which was after we went to bed. I went to the folks around dinnertime to watch part of the Lakers' game on their cable for awhile (the Lakers lost), and, with Biden already giving his speech, I figured I'd read the Biden speech transcript this morning, which I did.
When it comes to major presidential speeches, the bar has gotten lower and lower throughout my entire adult life (age disclosure, going on 64 this year). In that context, Biden's speech was a welcome pivot in the correct direction after a half century of mendacity, willful ignorance, and ultimately an abject rejection of the best New Deal values. Biden's speech may be the best presidential speech since I can remember as a functioning adult in his pivot back towards the New Deal. However, the speech is still woefully inadequate considering the last five decade's national statesmanship malpractice, the beggaring of the majority of Americans with the trade deals and automation, our nation's crumbling infrastructure, and the continued expansion of the US war machine which has murdered so many over so many decades--all of which bad things Biden was a leader in shaping. Here, then, are the good, the not-so-good, the bad, and the ugly from my read of Biden's speech:
The good: A solid majority of Americans support increasing taxes on the wealthy and corporations, though corporate media commentators often do their job for their corporate masters in obscuring that singular fact. I admit I was whooping and hollering to myself as I read Biden's express mention of the PRO Act (labor law reform), and how he gave that shout-out in the context of the infrastructure package he proposes. I was also pleased by his proposing an American Families Act. However, I was disappointed in the lack of details.
The not-so-good: I am convinced Biden did not go into details regarding his American Families Act because there is much less there than meets the ears and eyes. We know Biden will not be helping many who are in their 20s through 40s get their college/grad school debt off their backs. He then did a mislead with regard to so-called "free" college education. Biden initially said his AFP "guarantees four additional years of public eduction for every American..." But, then, a few sentences later he said that would only be true for community college. Then he reverted to the usual Clinton/Obama garbage about "increasing" (not saying anything specific) Pell Grants. If anything, Biden was instead focused on pre-school, which I suppose is okay. However, news flash: we are in a Birth Dearth, largely from our nation beggaring those of child bearing age with low paying jobs and high debt loads. Neo-libs still have a lot to learn, and it makes me wonder whether they are just bullshitting and don't give a damn. Worse, Biden's discussion of the ACA/Obamacare was vague, and it sounds as if he is merely proposing more subsidies which directly benefit rich Pharma and medical insurance companies. That is what subsidies for premiums and deductibles means. Biden was again pretty sparse in explaining what he means by strengthening the ACA/Obamacare.
The bad: Biden's quick mention of the $15 minimum wage was so cynical I almost stopped reading. He knew he did nothing to stop Manchin's destruction, when 63% of Manchin's constituents supported raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. So, it is not as if Manchin was listening to people in his own state. FDR and LBJ would have known what to do with that singular fact, too. Instead, Biden simply let Manchin act as if Manchin was president. Worse, Biden did not a mention anything in his speech last night about lowering Medicare eligibility to 60 or regulating prescription medication prices, things he literally campaigned on. Biden also made no mention of a public option, so beloved of the neo-libs like him and Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar when they were running for president. Also, "Cold War" Joe continues to put himself and the nation in a place where military contractors will be able to scream for more military expenditures against China and Russia, though we outspend both of those major sized nations combined by a significant amount. Nobody ever comes to grips with the fact our nation already spends more on our military than the next eight to ten nations combined (some years it is more than the rest of the world combined). Also in the bad category were Biden's statements about immigration, as they were too vague to merit more than a cynical nod. Biden basically said he is proposing something for everyone--without saying what that something is. He had an opportunity to tell people about the birth dearth, and say he is committed to getting every single American employed in the infrastructure and child care work, and we may then find we will need to put up help wanted signs, like we did when we built up our nation when our grandparents arrived from foreign shores.
The ugly: The immigration discussion was ugly when Biden spoke about Central America, as if the people and governments there were the source of the problem we have with immigration. The reason that is disgusting is it has been our nation which, since the 1970s, at least, created and has maintained support for the leaders who did so much killing there (see also the late Penny Lernoux's courageous journalism work, Cry of the People). In Central America, our leaders actively and knowingly supported priest and nun killers, labor organizer killers, doctor and nurse killers, which actively undermined whatever civil society those nations had before the 1970s. Most Americans remain painfully ignorant of our actions, while the leaders and policymakers who were the architects of the murder and mayhem remain in highly respected (among Biden Neo-libs and corporate conservative) American policy circles. To speak of immigration as a problem other countries have, and which they must solve, is part of why it is so ridiculous for our nation to not confront the facts of the American Empire and military-industrial complex.
We are a mixed economy, and that means there are socialist and capitalist elements. To deny that is to obscure issues, confuse voters, and continue to flounder.
It remains disgusting to me how we are still not over our Cold War nostrums that deny our economy is a highly mixed economy. We continue to give "capitalism" credit for anything economically successful in our nation when that is more historically and empirically false than true. Worst of all, in the context of our discourse, we crouch in defensive posture at every government proposal to directly help people, with voices across the approved corporate media spectrum saying such proposals must be rejected because they are "socialist," as if "socialism" is the creature from the film, Alien. Social Security and Medicare are socialist programs--and our continued denial of that fact obscures reality, and causes us to be misled and confused as a populace. Until we get over our fear of something being called "socialist," and realize what it took Europe two world wars to realize, we will continue to crawl on broken glass in the dark. We need to stop idealizing capitalism as a theory and demonizing socialism as a theory. Both are necessary in a mature, functioning mixed economy.
Biden remains the wrong man for the time
I remain unimpressed with Biden, unlike, say, so-called progressive congresspersons AOC and Jayapal. If Biden was really FDR, he would have gone much bigger in his demands and presentation, and would have put Joe Manchin and his corporate Democratic enablers on notice by saying he would go to the American people in state after state to push for his program proposals. Biden has started this negotiation too low, and has no plans to leave the White House to promote his program. The negotiations which will ensue behind closed doors in DC will most likely result in far less than what he promised, or implied for Americans desperate for anything. When President Manchin undermines much of what Biden promised, MSNBC/CNN viewers will end up dutifully accepting the shrugged shoulders from Biden and his enablers. Mark these words. Until Joe Biden starts acting as the president, and directly challenges Joe Manchin and the other corrupt Democratic Party senators who go along with the global corporate power agenda, the good in Biden's speech is only so much noise.
What is needed is a president who will galvanize Americans to agitation and use the Democratic Party as a major tool for popular organization. However, Biden didn't ask anyone to do anything--and the DNC, DSCC, and DCCC are filled with people who agree far more with Joe Manchin. Yes, I give Biden credit for indirectly recognizing the bankruptcy of the Clinton and Obama administrations' policies and philosophies (He made no mention of those two grifters at all, which I am sure Clinton and Obama noticed). However, Biden remains the latest in a series of the wrong presidents at the wrong time. I have little sense Biden's pretty speech will be anything other than the opening move of a continued failed strategy. Most depressingly, what we have seen from most progressive groups, and the Squad, is how they have been co-opted. We should no longer accept saying to ourselves, "I'm been down so goddamned long/Bottom looks like up to me."
