President Donald Trump has spent months propagating the notion that his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, is a puppet of the radical left and that electing him will bring an end to the American Dream as we know it.
“Biden has made a corrupt bargain in exchange for his party’s nomination,” Trump said at a recent rally. “He has handed control to the socialists and Marxists and left-wing extremists like his vice-presidential candidate.”
Despite his best efforts, Americans aren’t convinced. No one actually believes Biden is a radical or extremist of any kind, and for good reason.
After a nearly five-decade-long record in American politics, voters know exactly who Biden is.
Biden has proposed cuts to programs such as Social Security multiple times, voted for the Iraq War and was a strong ally of the credit card industry — so strong, he was once known as “the senator from MBNA,” one of the largest credit card companies at the time.
Biden also supported the War on Drugs and authored the 1994 crime bill that accelerated mass incarceration and decimated Black and Brown communities.
The list of terrible policy positions goes on and on. We have a clear picture of Biden as nothing remotely close to a socialist, Marxist or whatever baseless claim the Trump camp has thrown at him.
The future of the country and the Democratic Party under a Biden-Harris administration will not be socialist or progressive.
Under this administration, “nothing would fundamentally change,” as Biden promised his wealthiest donors at a 2019 campaign fundraiser.
Not only will his administration not be progressive, but it may turn out to be rather Republican.
The Biden camp is currently considering a number of high-profile Republicans for Cabinet positions, according to Politico.
On the list are the likes of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and former Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent.
Kasich, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, has been touted as a moderate Republican, yet his record proves otherwise. As governor, he busted labor unions, denied climate change and restricted access to abortion.
Flake, another so-called moderate, may have rhetorically opposed Trump’s style but still voted in line with the president 81.3 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Even worse than Flake, Dent voted with Trump 93 percent of the time before resigning in 2018 to become a lobbyist for corporate-friendly legislation.
A Biden transition team spokesperson told Politico that “diversity of ideology and background is a core value of the transition,” and a former Republican representative close with the team said the move made sense for necessary “outreach to the other side.”
It’s funny how this “outreach” and “diversity of ideology” only ever seem to skew one way — the wrong way.
The Biden team is quick to extend an olive branch to the right, to Never-Trumpers who pretended to be appalled by Trump but supported almost everything he pushed through Congress. However, Biden refuses to substantively address progressives’ concerns.
For all the talk about “unity task forces” with Sanders, Biden’s personnel choices do not serve to unify the Democratic Party or the left at all.
Where is Sen. Bernie Sanders on the Cabinet list? The man who came in second in the last two Democratic primaries and represents a large coalition of voters within the party?
Where is Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, any member of the Squad or even Sen. Elizabeth Warren?
If there is any confusion on what the Democratic Party will look like under a Biden presidency, let me clear it up for you.
At the first presidential debate Biden said, “Right now, I am the Democratic Party,” and all but disavowed the left wing.
In the absence of Trump or another figure for Democrats to unite and passionately fight against, the party will continue to splinter and break.
The future of the Democratic Party is one with two defined factions: the moderate, incrementalistic faction that fights to maintain the status quo, and the progressive, democratic socialists who fight to change the system.
A war is brewing in the Democratic Party, and it isn’t going to be pretty.
