Please read the NPE Action endorsement of Joe Biden for President.
We support public schools.
Donald Trump and his Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, are hostile to the very idea of public schools. They have spent three years proposing deep cuts to public education and attempting to establish federally-funded vouchers for private and religious schools.
In contrast, Joe Biden has proposed dramatic increases in funding to public schools by tripling the amount that Title I schools would receive. He has voiced strong support for more counselors and psychologists in our schools, as well as increased funding for high-quality pre-kindergarten programs. He supports community schools that link social services and the school together to serve children and their families better.
At the Public Education Forum held in Pittsburgh in December of 2019, Joe Biden was asked by NPE Board member Denisha Jones if he would commit to ending standardized testing in schools. His unequivocal response was, “Yes. You are preaching to the choir.” He said to a national audience that “teaching to a test underestimates and discounts the things that are most important for students to know.” He described evaluating teachers by the test scores of their students as a “big mistake.”
At the same public forum in Pittsburgh, he was dismissive of the policies of Secretary of Education DeVos, saying that under his administration, “Betsy DeVos’s whole notion of charter schools…are gone.”
The public statements expressed by Joe Biden encourage us to believe that he does not intend to follow the disastrous education policies of the Obama years included in Race to the Top, which were closely aligned with the failed policies of George Bush’s No Child Left Behind.
We are taking candidate Joe Biden at his word. We believe that he recognizes that Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind were harmful to our schools and our children.
However, if those policies re-emerge, we will vigorously oppose them. We will also continue to be engaged in monitoring the words of both candidates and their parties’ platforms.
We urge our supporters and all friends of public education to go to the polls in November and vote for Joe Biden. The future of our public schools and our democracy is at stake.
In the words of NPE Action President, Diane Ravitch, “We support Joe Biden because he has promised to reverse the failed “test-and-punish” federal policies of the past two decades. For the sake of our children, their teachers, our public schools, and our democracy, Trump must go.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
However, if those policies re-emerge, we will vigorously oppose them. We will also continue to be engaged in monitoring the words of both candidates and their parties’ platform
This is the critical component for NPE and supporters. You know well the TFA’s will be volunteering for staff positions and roles in shaping any legislation. That is to say nothing of the various lobbies formed to perpetuate the testing industry, promote sles of technologies, and marketers of pay for success contracts as if these are the path to finding best practices.
It’s critical as well that, if Biden is elected, no one should be considered for appointments if they are affiliated with these groups: https://cloakinginequity.com/2020/03/28/project-propaganda-aka-project-forever-free/
Recall that Obama had Linda Darling-Hammond on his transition team as a dupe to the base. Eli Broad et al, wanted Arne Duncan.
I would assume the 2 national teacher’s unions will be diligent in watching over appointments.
Michael Bloomberg’s is one to watch. He’s donating millions to the Dems and his daughter is deeply involved with the ed disruptors. They’re a incestuous group who appoint each other to a web of “charitable” foundations all with the aim of privatizing education; foundations that pop up like mushrooms funded by a million from one or the other billionaire.
https://tultican.com/2020/03/28/project-propaganda-aka-project-forever-free/
Cunningham was joined on the first board of RIEF by Emma Bloomberg, Bruce Reed and Kathleen McInerney. The board appears to be selected as a function giving. That first year, $4,729,146 of the $5,479,146 in grants received by RIEF were from two billionaires, Michael Bloomberg and Eli Broad. Board member Emma Bloomberg is Michael’s daughter and Kathleen McInerney represents Bloomberg on other boards and works for Bloomberg’s long used accounting firm Geller & Co. Bruce Reed is President of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.
It would be so nice to have a president who supports public education again. It’s been so long I don’t think people would recognize it as a “return” to supporting public education and instead might see it as an entirely new thing- especially young people.
I’ll give Biden the benefit of the doubt too, but if he wins we’ll know almost immediately if he intends to follow the same path on public schools as Bush, Obama and Trump- we’ll be able to tell by the people he hires. If he hires out of the ed reform echo chamber we’ll get ed reform echo chamber policy. That’s just how it works.
“We are taking candidate Joe Biden at his word. We believe that he recognizes that Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind were harmful to our schools and our children.”
Look, I get that you believe that Biden is better than Trump. Honestly, my dog would be better than Trump.
But why on earth would you believe Biden when he has a history of pandering and then turning right around and supporting big money interests at the expense of ordinary people? He was part of the Obama administration and has never once uttered a word of criticism for any of the Obama/Duncan education agenda. Why would you think he has changed his mind now? Biden’s brother is involved in a for-profit charter chain – do you think Biden is going to throw him under the bus?
At best, Biden’s education agenda is going to be Obama 2.0. We can certainly argue whether or not that’s better than Betsy DeVos (personally, I love Betsy simply because her Cruella di Vil act makes it so obvious what her motives are), but let’s not pretend that Biden is going to be some kind of champion of public education.
“…has a history of pandering and then turning right around …”
So it is better to hope, perhaps, that you can influence someone who needs you than someone who is downright hostile to you. Such is the nature of politics. I have more hope than you do. Not a whole lot more, but some. The tide is turning somewhat. Good politicians sense this.
It’s fine to hope, I suppose. I just don’t understand taking someone like Biden at his word.
Let’s take a hypothetical situation. Let’s say Obama could run for a third term and that he said he would keep his educational policies exactly like they were in his first two terms. Would people around here support him over Trump? Almost everyone here would. But would we enthusiastically endorse him as a champion of public education? Definitely not. People would hold their noses, but we’d know what we were in for educationally speaking.
Biden was Obama’s VP for 8 years. I think we have to look at him as Obama’s third term.
George HW Bush was Ronald Reagan’s VP for 8 years.
He voted to raise taxes.
LBJ was JFK’s VP.
He ending up supporting domestic policies significantly to the left of JFK.
Vice Presidents who become Presidents are NEVER exactly the same as the presidents they served. That can be both good and bad (depending on how much you liked the previous president.)
I guess you think that Richard Nixon was exactly like Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1968 – 1974 was not simply Eisenhower 2.0
Why, when the Republican is a neo-fascist, do people continue to look for non-historical reasons to cast doubt on every single position that Democratic nominee stands for?
Bernie Sanders isn’t doing that.
NYC PSP,
Congratulations, you are no longer in moderation.
Diane,
WHY can’t I be in moderation? What am I? Chopped liver?
Thanks a LOT!
I demand some equity.
🙂
Robert,
You have tried hard but thus far you haven’t broken any rules, you are civil. Your fault.
I’m disappointed. Nice guys finish last. This is America!
But with civility, and like Dienne, I will say that I don’t think I’m voting for Biden.
He’s all polish and no substance. If Trump is a prickly pear going down your throat, then Biden is a wonderfully tasting dumpling laced with flavorless, odorless arsenic . . . Tastes great and very satisfying until you digest him, and then – kerr-plunk – it’s too late.
Biden and Trump are both #^$&*@+)#@#$!!!!
How’s that for incivility?
I tried . . . I really tried. Won’t someone please find me to be a horrible, aggressive, truculent person?
Diane,
I just realized I was out of moderation. Thank you!
I think I said this before, but it should be said again — I absolutely respect your right to put me (or anyone else) in moderation and you are the final arbiter on what is civil. I hope all of my future posts meet that criteria.
However, my own issue with the Democratic party (and especially Obama) for the last 2 decades is that they placed “civility” — always extending the utmost politeness and courtesy — over arguing strongly and forcefully for what they believe in.
When you are confronting a Republican Party that simply lies and lies and then follow up with more falsehoods, being “civil” too often means legitimizing all of their false statements as being just as true as reality.
I have a real problem with how the “civil” NYT reports on Trump (bending over backward to give his every utterance the benefit of the doubt).
From DailyKos post by Walter Einenkel, Jan. 23, 2020:
“Ocasio-Cortez dismisses calls for civility: ‘I feel a need for all of us to breathe fire’
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is my ideal politician. She stands up for what is right. But she NEVER resorts to the kind of dishonest attacks that some progressives on here make.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez understands that making outrageously misleading remarks that imply that what Trump has wrought on our country is no different than what having one of those so-called “evil” corporate Democrats do would be a lie. And AOC doesn’t lie. Because she is a progressive and believes in honesty.
And there are some on the left who are already attacking AOC for not adhering to their dishonest trope of insisting that all Democrats are corporate and evil and there is nothing they offer that is any different than Trump.
I have no doubt they would turn on Bernie, too. They don’t want democracy. They want a revolution in which they – a small group of people – claim to represent the very working class voters who voted for Biden. They disrespect African-American voters and the condescending way they dismiss all their concerns with racism as simply “identity politics” is concerning.
You don’t win hearts and minds by insulting the voters in the Democratic party and insisting they are controlled by some evil DNC. You don’t win hearts and minds by ignoring the racism and devastation Trump has wrought that a Democrat would NOT have caused and tell the people that they would be suffering just as much if the Democrats were as completely empowered as the Republicans are.
Anyone who is not voting for the Democratic nominee and every Democrat running from dog catcher on up in this election is doing exactly what got the Republicans so much power.
What shocks me is that they claimed that not voting for HRC and empowering Trump would lead to a more progressive future.
Given that the evidence has proven that they were wrong, it is shocking to hear them doubling down and ignoring the evidence in a way that makes them shockingly like Trump himself. No evidence will ever convince them that they are not right to keep believing that killing the Democratic party and empowering Trump and the Republicans is not the best path forward for our country. And they would rather believe AOC and Bernie Sanders are corrupt sell-outs than listen to AOC or Bernie when they are saying anything good about the Democrats.
By the way, I felt like some of them in 1980 when I believed with all my heart that Jimmy Carter was the most evil corporate Democrat in history and voted for John Anderson because having Ronald Reagan as president was no different than having Jimmy Carter.
The only difference is that 4 years later, in 1984, I could recognize my mistake and admit it. I was wrong. Jimmy Carter would have been MUCH better than Reagan, even if he wasn’t as progressive as I wanted.
I wonder what people would have said if after 4 years of Reagan, I had kept insisting that I was right and Jimmy Carter really was just as evil as Reagan? I hope someone would have talked some sense into me if I was really too small-minded to be able to admit my error.
I watch the politicians and make up my own mind about the content of their words. You have to admit, Trump doesn’t usually make any sense, but every once in a while he does say something that clicks. Unfortunately, his tactic for dealing with the problem is usually counter intuitive, often doing more harm than good.
While I do listen to the pundits, I shift through the channels (I even listen to Fox, curious to hear their spin). What I’m looking for is fact checking. Sometimes I think the media focuses on irrelevant issues which I dismiss. Other times they catch a mistruth which really needs to be corrected.
My philosophy is “Don’t sweat the small stuff”, but the issues we face today are literally life and death. We need to pay attention and do whatever it takes to keep ourselves, along with our family and friends, safe, in spite of what the President or other I’ll advised leaders say and do.
And I don’t care what any TV doctor says, if there is a 3% chance (or even 1%) that my grandchild could die by attending school, then he will be home schooled until it is safe.
You know what dienne77, I agree with you 100%, but there are 2 reasons that I will vote Biden. #1 is that we at least have a chance with some of the other dunderheads that he will bring into the system via his Cabinet. Being the POTUS is just a talking head position….a mouthpiece to the public and nothing more. The real stuff gets done by Congress, the Senate and the committees that get run by the really special people bought by the stink tanks. Reason #2 is the Supreme Court especially when it comes to RBG. The poor woman probably wants to retire and she is like a cat with 9 lives and she’s using them up quickly at her age. I would hate to have another Kavanaugh fiasco and have the Repugs win. I will vote for Creepy Joe because he will be just as ineffective as the previous POTUS population, but I will be very careful about who I vote into office for Senate and Congressional seats where most of the vile and anti democratic decisions get decided upon. I can’t bear to think of another 4 years of listening to the current bafoon bloviating every night on the evening news. I hate a LOTE Vote too, but it’s getting late in this game and to lose big would be more disastrous than just losing. 4 more years of Jared Kushner and this planet will explode in war and/or climate destruction.
Agreed, all except for including the word ‘love’ and ‘Betsy’ in the same sentence 😉 As they say, ‘Fool me once, etc….” We should not fall for this “lesser evil” trap once again. Biden won’t be another Obama, he’ll be worse–just as much a creature of Wall Street as Hillary. Big business is already using the pandemic (Betsy’s block grants and “rethinking education”) as a means to dramatically increase the drive to privatization, the proliferation of online education and deploying waivers to allow tax scholarships, etc. Governors (Dems and Reps) are already announcing millions of dollars to be slashed from K12 education as sales and property tax revenue is crashing. The answer is genuine socialist policies including the reversal of the trillions being diverted in the name of CARES to the wealthy. The ill-gotten hoards of money, the product of horrific social inequality, needs to redirected from the pockets of the Bezoses, Gates, Zuckerbergs, Koches et al…. to public healthcare, public schools, and the alleviation of poverty. The lie we’ve been told for years, as teachers struck, that there was “no money” has been shattered. Time to use the money for the needs of students, parents, educators and society.
Nancy, are you voting for Trump? There are only two choices: Trump or Biden.
Only 2 choices? Not at all. Trump and Biden both represent a tiny oligarchy that dominates US politics, with some minor tactical differences between them. Citizens United, anyone? But opening the floodgates in 2010 was only a down payment. Now we see the stock market soaring while bodies pile up! Yet what we are told is that there is no money for PPE or adequate medical care or public schools. We are living through a social catastrophe unseen since the 1930s. The only real choice is for the working class to organize itself as an independent political force, uniting behind the vast majority who face unrelenting attacks on their standards of living, their futures and literally their lives, Social resistance is growing as workers are defying a drive to return to work under unsafe conditions which will cause far more death. We are passing through a critical moment. It is high time to discard a system that discards its workers, seeing them as only fodder for exploitation. In that way, we will finally achieve our social rights including generous funding for free high-quality public education pre-K through college, universal healthcare and an end to poverty.
There are only two choices: Trump or Biden. If you vote third party, it’s a vote for a Trump.
Diane, a little less than four years ago, you made a similar comment about one of my own ignorant, hysterical posts. It was a slap in the face I badly needed. It brought back long-forgotten lessons I used to teach in high school government. I dug up some old notes and looked at things I had written over the years. For whatever reason, I forgot we don’t live in a parliamentary system. And you reminded me that politics is a never-ending process. I thank you for waking me up.
Why, thank you, Greg. We go back a long way. I am a pragmatist, like John Dewey. You fight like hell to get your way, you accept partial victories, and you fight on. Persist.
I’ve learned over the years that pragmatism is two-sided blade. If it’s not grounded in intellectual consistency, it becomes negotiable according to political and selfish whims, which can send you in all kinds of directions. If it is, it becomes a consistent path toward principle. But damn, that road sure as hell can be crooked and at times confusing. You need to check the roadmap all the time to remind yourself where you’re going.
Pragmatism without principle is rootless.
Dewey was a principled pragmatist.
Bernie Sanders is a principled pragmatist!
He compromised — remember that when people claimed he didn’t do anything, Bernie reminded them of how he would negotiate amendments to get something he wanted from a bill.
I have started re-watching The West Wing with my young teen who had never seen it before. Not every episode is good, but in more of them than I recalled, the story line explained the political process in a way that is astonishing and brilliant. Yes, the dialogue can be stilted and the characters can be annoying, but even that works in context.
The program – despite being from a decidedly liberal POV – often also makes one understand the other side’s position, also, And the other side is very often not evil.
And on occasion, when the other side is a hypocritical fraud, the episode calls that out, too. Yes, there were compromises made to get other things done, but there was also standing up for what you believe in.
In short, that is what Bernie does. And that is what the vast majority (but not all) of the Democrats do. Even some of the more conservative ones. Some compromise more than others, but sometimes — like Bernie when he opposed gun control – their reasons are not to enrich themselves, but because they are thinking about their own constituents or they are trying to get something out of a flawed bill that will help people.
There are only a very small handful of Republicans like that, but the Republican party left them behind long ago.
“At best, Biden’s education agenda is going to be Obama 2.0. We can certainly argue whether or not that’s better than Betsy DeVos (personally, I love Betsy simply because her Cruella di Vil act makes it so obvious what her motives are), but let’s not pretend that Biden is going to be some kind of champion of public education.”
One doesn’t have to be a “champion” to be far less destructive of public education than DeVos. So what if people know her “motives”?
I take both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren at their word that they are no longer going to mouth platitudes about “good public charters” which allowed charters to claim the progressive mantle during the entire Obama administration. Why not Biden?
How many people do you know who turned against charter schools specifically because of Betsy DeVos? I haven’t heard of a single one. Unless you are claiming that Bernie would still be supporting “public charters” if not for DeVos and I believe that is simply not true. How many kids were harmed while people who “loved Betsy” insisted that having her hurt children would end up helping usher in a better day for public schools?
Having Trump for 4 years did NOT usher in the progressive era. It did NOT make people run to vote for Bernie Sanders.
But having Trump for 4 years did insure that this country would have a right wing Supreme Court for a long time. A Court that will make it much harder to get progressive legislation passed.
And having Trump insures that hundreds of thousands of people will die while the rich get richer and to the most corrupt go the spoils.
If you cannot say right now that you will vote for the Democratic nominee against Trump no matter what, then that speaks for itself. That doesn’t mean that you can’t fight the battles for the things you want.
But it does mean that you recognize first that the person who is the real danger to democracy is Trump and that he must be removed from office no matter what.
If you don’t believe that, then that speaks volumes about your own privilege.
PS — most people would be grateful to have Obama 2.0 – even with all his flaws regarding public education.
If you can’t see that as a vast improvement over Trump and the rise of his anti-democratic neo fascist bankrupting the country to enrich his pals reign, then that speaks for itself.
This is not a hard choice to make. Either vote for the Democrat to get rid of Trump and replace Supreme Court Justices, or empower the fascist Trump.
And no, taking joy from the mistaken belief that all the harm DeVos is doing is really going to benefit public education in the long run is truly off. How cynical to believe that public education defenders are so inept that they needed to empower DeVos because no other method that didn’t involve DeVos would do.
In fact, during Arne Duncan’s reign, the movement gathered steam and would have continued to do so.
That conclusion is as wrong as believing that having Trump as President was not any worse than having HRC because having Trump would make America more progressive.
People who are still trying to claim there are all sorts of silver linings to the harm that Trump has done are still trying to rationalize why they won’t vote for the Democratic ticket to defeat Trump.
Just a change in Presidential rhetoric around public school students would be helpful- stop calling them all “failing” and treating them like they’re presumptive criminals. Stop sneeringly referring to their schools as “government” schools or “factories”. I mean obviously public schools have problems but is trashing every single public school and public school student in the country really productive?
Is that we’re paying federal employees for? Their “expert” criticism of our schools and students? If so, why? There’s a whole private sector public school criticism sector that already exists in ed reform orgs. Do we really have to replicate that in the federal government?
What if we hired public employees in government who actually valued public schools and public school students? It’s worth a try, right? Now that we’ve tried hiring the anti-public school faction for the last 20 years?
This could be HUGE for the Biden campaign. Parents, teachers, and kids HATE the standardized test. And they love their local public school. This could be THE dramatic, sleeper set of issues that galvanize a large part of the electorate to pull the lever or fill in the bubble or whatever for Joe Biden.
Here’s hoping that the Biden campaign has the great good sense to see this and to create a widely aired commercial touting the NPE endorsement and opposition to high-stakes standardized testing and taking money from public schools to support vouchers and charters. This could be REALLY BIG for his campaign, as big as the immigration issue was for Jabba the Trump.
Please forgive the typos in that post. I was too excited when writing it!
cxs: hate the standardized TESTS; set of issues that GALVANIZES
The campaign would also be very, very wise to meet directly with Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris.
That’s what I was going to say. They should meet him at the White House, if not the first week, then the second for sure. They will both set him straight.
I emphatically support you in this, Diane.
Biden’s education platform is surprisingly positive for public education. If he wins, supporters of public education must also hold him accountable. If public education settles back into the test and punish syndrome, we need to protest loud and clear. If he continues to fund charter expansion, we must protest loud and clear. We must not forget the promises Biden made on the campaign trail.
I’m curious about how we can hold him accountable? If he fails to live up to his platform, what then? You’re not going to vote for him in 2024? I think that will be a moot point. What specifically can we do to hold him accountable? What the “or else”?
There are only two choices.
One is a wannabe fascist.
Choose one.
So if I’m understanding you, Diane, you’re saying that accountability doesn’t matter? No matter what Biden does it will be okay because at least he’s not Trump?
No matter what Biden does, he is better than Trump.
Biden respects the Constitution, our institutions, and other people.
Trump doesn’t give a fig about the Constitution. He thinks he is our king, our emperor, our dictator, with total authority. His fascist face is showing.
“Biden respects the Constitution, our institutions, and other people.”
Lucy Flores and Tara Reade would beg to differ.
You really do prefer Trump, don’t you?
Do you believe the more than 20 women who have accused him of grabbing them by their you-know-what?
Do you believe the journalist E. Jean Carroll, who said Trump forcibly raped her in the ladies’ dressing room at Bergdorf?
I would consider protest as a form of bringing unwanted negative attention to an elected official that has failed to live up to his promises. I think people were so impressed with having the first black president, they tended to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. Also, we did not have as much anti-privatization evidence then as we have today.
Well said, Retired Teacher
Yes.
Public radio had a long-ish stort this morning about teachers working with students with disabilities during school closures.
Really nice work- they interviewed actual teachers on what they’re doing instead of soliciting a quote by a national ed reformer, which besides making it more informative for parents, also made it more interesting.
It’s so rare it sticks out when you hear it. Harder work to interview teachers though- easier to get a quote from a national edu-pundit 🙂
“Secretary Betsy DeVos
Apr 14
We are all fighting #coronavirus together and today
@usedgov
announced that PPE purchased w/ federal funds for CTE programs can now be donated or loaned to help support medical response efforts during this national crisis. More details on the donations:”
I’d just like to mention that WHILE the US Secretary is tweeting this to the public, the political operatives her family hires and pays are staging demonstrations to remove the governor of Michigan.
Completely dishonest person. She’s talking out of both sides of her mouth.
We’re all paying her to run her far Right political operation out of the federal government. Good Lord. Ed reformers should be embarrassed.
This is the right decision for the NPE and for democracy in the United States. We will have to organize and struggle for equity to matter who is elected president. Another 4 years of a reelected and further unhinged Trump is a grave, unacceptable threat to all the human rights that we value. Biden will be the Democratic candidate. Either he or Trump will be the next president. No other alternative is possible at this point. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but his election will enable the work to be done. Trump enables death and suffering. Biden does not. Voting is not simply a matter of personal conscience or preference. It is a social obligation. I fully support NPE’s endorsement.
Ditto
On target comment, it is an obligation and as Bernie said, it would be irresponsible for his supporters to vote for someone else or stay home. My only two edits: another four years are a threat to humanity, not just human rights; and he doesn’t enable it, his administration causes it—quite deliberately and long into the future. No matter what our qualms, there IS NO OTHER CHOICE. NPE should have added, we pledge to oppose and fight this administration if they continue the failed, bipartisan policies of the past 20 years.
Let me just say, once again, that this could be THE decisive issue for Mr. Biden. This endorsement could be ENORMOUS for him. The candidate of the most significant voice for public education in the United States. What matters for public education is an issue a person can win and election on, and what more clearly says that this is the public education candidate than does endorsement by NPE.
Congratulations on this endorsement to the next President of the United States, Joe Biden
What should recommendations to the Dem candidate look like, to make such a platform plank believable? You know, e.g., “In my first 90 days of office I’ll…” what?
Ridding ESSA of the annual standardized test reqt would have to come first, I think, but how does that happen, & how does a Pres promote it?
While I accept (grudgingly) that Biden is the nominee (something I think the Dems will live to regret and quickly), I will point out that the primaries are not over and Bernie is still on the ballot. I would encourage those of you who have not yet voted to still vote for Bernie because the more delegates he gets, the more influence he will have over the platform.
I agree with you. The more delegates Bernie wins, the more influence he will have at the convention.
Thoughtful.
I get why NPE did this. What other choice is there? But it’s so depressing. I have very little hope that Biden would be any better than Obama on education. He’d barely be better than DeVos. I don’t believe for one moment that he is against high stakes testing. I don’t believe for a second that he would be against corporate welfare for charter schools and online learning – and he’d call it increasing education funding. But in America this is the BEST we can do. We can survive long enough to keep fighting. I get the logic. I just want to cry that this is the world we live in.
I understand your view, Steven. Biden was not my first choice either. But consider the alternative. Trump is an immoral, unethical monster who is packing the federal judiciary with bigots and right wing zealots. He has nearly destroyed the EPA. Biden may bring back Obama-Duncan retreads, but even so, he will be 1,000 times better than Trump.
I’ve forgotten who pointed it out, but there is very little evidence that a V.P. is going to be a “mini-me” of their former boss. V.P.s are expected to support their running mates whether they agree with them wholeheartedly or not. You would be hard pressed to find a V.P. going around undermining the President’s policies. While I have significant reservations about whether I will fully support Biden’s education policy (among others), I believe Biden will be a vast improvement over Trump. I don’t think we can survive another four years of Trump. Too much is at stake to sit this election out. Voting your conscience should lead you to vote for Biden. Anything else is a tacit vote for Trump.
If I were a loyal Democrat Party member, I’d be hard pressed not to be in the streets rioting over the DNC/”liberal” media selection of Biden. I mean, for four years now, party elites have been telling us that Trump is the most dire existential threat this nation, the world, and maybe even the entire universe have ever faced. Defeating Trump is the number one priority and failure means certain doom for all of us. Yet, the champion that the DNC and the media put their collective thumbs on the scale for is … Joe Biden? Really? A nearly octogenarian accused sex offender with problems in the truth department who’s suffering from clear cognitive decline? Really? That’s the best they can do?
I know, I know, now that Biden is the nominee, we’re not supposed to say anything bad about him. Like playing hide and seek with a two year old holding his hands over his eyes and saying “I can’t see you so you can’t see me”, apparently if we pretend that Biden has no flaws then Trump will be too stupid to see and use them for himself. (Facepalm)
For those of you who think that Trump is so obviously odious that even Biden will be able to walk away with a win, I urge you to think again. Trump may not be exactly intellectual (can I get the understatement of the year award?), but he is canny and he knows how to play the game of politics. I can assure you he is slathering at the prospect of going up against Biden. He won’t even need to “attack”. He can simply express concern for the struggles of an old man. He’ll suddenly find concern for women victims of sexual harassment and assault (and no, no one will believe him for a minute, but he will have scored the hypocrisy points he needs).
He’ll develop abundant sympathy for people “held hostage” in their homes by “scared bureaucrats” and he’ll even offer those people some (admittedly bogus and wildly inadequate) versions of the very policies that Bernie has been pushing – Medicare for All (Trump has already rolled out a plan for direct reimbursement to hospitals for coronavirus treatment so patients will never see the bill), moratoriums on rent/mortgage, maybe even debt relief, along with another stimulus check or two. Biden, meanwhile will be left defending insurance companies, corporations and banks. How do you think that’s going to play out in November?
Look, can we find that small child willing to say that the emperor is bare nekkid? Why are we accepting this? The primaries aren’t actually over. The convention isn’t until August (by which time Biden will have had ample time to make many more gaffes and Teleprompter goofs). Maybe, just maybe, if enough people make it clear that we will not vote for Biden (or any other neoliberal sub-in the DNC might pull out of their, er, left shoe), then maybe we still have a chance to get a progressive candidate?
Maybe the DNC needs to be put to the test. Which do they really care about more – defeating Trump or defeating a progressive candidate? So far, most of their energy has been put into defeating Bernie. But what if Bernie is what it takes to defeat Trump? Bernie isn’t vulnerable to Trump’s attacks of hypocrisy because he is in fact a decent man with no history of lying, racism or misogyny and who has genuinely consistently fought for the ideals he has always and continues to espouse.
I know that saying a lot of this triggers a lot of people, but I hope people will give serious thought to what I’m saying. I know I sound rather unhinged at times, but I see so clearly how the next seven months are going to play out and I see another four years of Trump. Since that’s supposedly what we’re all trying to avoid, I think you ignore what I say at your own peril There’s still time to reverse course (we have until August), but we have to get past the notion that There is No Alternative or that there are only two choices at this point. We’ll have to unite and we’ll have to work hard, but we can have better.
BTW, for those who don’t “believe” the allegations against Biden, please read this from Nathan Robinson, which addresses many of the “doubts” that the “liberal” media have been planting about Tara Reade’s story (which “doubts, incidentally, exactly mirror the “doubts” the conservative media planted about Dr. Ford’s accusations against Brett K): https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/04/evaluating-tara-reades-claims
Trump v. Biden.
The choice for me is obvious.
Trump and his family are grifters. He and his gold toilet should go back to Trump Tower or Mar-a-Lago.
Dienne, since you are upset about the accusation of sexual assault against Biden, are you equally upset about the multiple accusations against Trump, including forcible rape?
dienne77 says:
“If I were a loyal Democrat Party member, I’d be hard pressed not to be in the streets rioting over the DNC/”liberal” media selection of Biden….”
I am shocked that the African-American voters who strongly supported Biden are now condescendingly referred to as “the DNC/”liberal” media”
Isn’t it racist to pretend all those voters and their preferences do not exist?
Why are those voters invisible to you?
Also, please provide evidence that “the DNC and the media put their collective thumbs on the scale for is … Joe Biden”
Anyone who paid attention would know that not only did the media write Joe Biden off for dead, but that the DNC was doing so little for him that his campaign had no money.
There are a lot of right wing talking points in your post, which include the lie that Trump reimbursing hospitals has anything to do with Medicare for All. Bernie Sanders and AOC would never characterize it that way, but certainly right wing propagandists are desperately trying to push that dishonest meme. They are ALSO pushing the false meme that Trump has been seriously working to contain COVID-19 since January. They are also saying that Bernie Sanders wants to turn America into Cuba and take away all private property. They are also saying that AOC is a greedy opportunist.
What is shocking is hearing so-called progressives repeating any of he ugly lies offered up by the far right. Since you are so worried that the public will believe that lie that Trump is offering a great Medicare for All plan and “running to the left” of Biden on healthcare, you must also be incredibly worried that the public will believe the lie that Bernie will end all private property. Good thing Bernie isn’t the candidate, at least according to your reasoning that as long as a Republican makes an attack, it should be repeated by progressives to give it legitimacy.
Where is your concern about all the problems Bernie Sanders would have when Trump made it clear Bernie wanted to take away private property (and every union worker’s hard won health insurance)? Why wouldn’t voters believe that lie about Bernie just as much as the lie you just repeated about how Trump’s plan to pay off hospitals was so much like Medicare for All that it would hurt Biden?
If anything, that would hurt Bernie more because the union members who don’t want to give up their hard fought health insurance would — according to your reasoning – believe that Trump has provided for those who need it just like Medicare for All without forcing union members to give up their health insurance.
I see a huge flaw in your reasoning that anything Trump says would hurt Biden and not Bernie just as much if not more. Especially if dishonest people kept harping on the right wing propaganda to give it legitimacy under the guise of “I know Trump is going to say that Bernie wants America to look like Cuba and I’m jus so worried it will hurt Bernie when hjs policies are interpreted as wanting America to look like Cuba and did you know that Trump says Bernie wants America to look like Cuba – Bernie better not be the nominee because I know he can’t win because everyone will believe he wants America to look like Cuba.”
See how easy it is to demonstrate the flaws in your attempt to give legitimacy to lies? Because that works against Bernie, too. It works against every Democrat.
The answer is to stop repeating right wing propaganda and giving it legitimacy and start calling it out as the lie it is.
FYI, David Sorita, who served as a senior advisor for Bernie Sanders made a thought-provoking reflection on the election primary. People who are still engaging in Bernie vs.Biden debate should read his piece. It’s so easy for us to make an ‘either/or’ dichotomy for the upcoming election, but we should not lose sight of a much bigger structure that fundamentally questions the integrity and authenticity of elections in the first place. 2020 is not the very last election for the Americans. There’s not much people can do about Trump v. Biden narrative, for sure, but we still can learn a lesson from the ugly feud between the two camps to figure out how to fix the core of the problems.
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/david-sirota-bernie-sanders-2020-campaign
Thanks, Ken, for the link. David Sirota is always a good read & on-target.
I am holding my nose (w/a clothespin, as I do when I am drinking the awful potion {& I am one of those who has to drink nearly the entire gallon} that is prep for a colonoscopy–honestly, it does help!}) & voting for Biden. IMHO, the DNC, of course, acted wrongly (very wrongly–yet again. But here is where we are–a choice between something killing Americans
due to more than inept leadership, not to mention something inciting riots & discord–& a deeply flawed candidate with, hopefully, an excellent V.P., & a very smart wife who is more than capable of a
Nancy Reagan or Edith Wilson propping, if need be.
“2020 is not the very last election for the Americans.”
If Biden doesn’t win, it may well be.
I do not support Biden, but I will vote for him (still waiting for what deus ex machina moment will send a November election into a now unforseen direction, though.)
If you mistrust Biden, the best thing you can do is get as many people you know who have not yet cast their primary vote to give it to Sanders, whose name remains on the ballot. In order to have enough say in the DNC’s policy planks, on education and other issues such as Medicare for All, Sanders needs to garner 25% of the delegates overall. That’s within reach. We need a third party (or a fourth or fifth), but there’s scant time for organizing one for November, as we continue in shutdown mode.
Trump is terrifying. The Republicans are delighted at the spoils they have won, such as young, unqualified Federalist judges whose decisions will alter our liberties for the next generation. We cannot allow Trump a second term to appoint more judges, especially not to the Supreme Court.
If you haven’t tuned into Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa’s podcast, Gaslit Nation, I urge you to do so. Both women are experts on authoritarianism. They endorsed Elizabeth Warren, but have now come out in support of Biden. The remarks about stripping down the nation and selling it for parts are especially compelling, after Trump’s tweets yesterday inciting demonstrations to protest the loss of “liberty”. That division among the states is most vividly seen in a map which shows the various alliances governors have been forced to create to get the PPE and other medical supplies they so desperately need to save lives. No longer the United States.
“Apr 15 at 12:01am
Corporate Manslaughter
Gaslit Nation – Corporate Manslaughter.mp3
“On week ten billion of coronavirus self-quarantine, we examine being a captive audience to a reality TV autocrat. This week we discuss the danger of the newly created “Council to Reopen America” which features key members of the Trump Crime Cult we have been warning you about for years: Ivanka, Jared, Mnuchin, and Ross, along with three lesser known members of the Blood Money Brigade whose shady dealings we explore. Andrea then gives the latest on the President Ivanka Installation Plan and discusses Trump’s overt declarations of dictatorship and allegedly close study of Adolf Hitler.
“Then we move along to the medical heists of the Blood Money Brigade – particularly the scam involving a dangerous malaria drug Trump has been peddling during his daily propaganda hour made by a company in which he has an investment. So yes, Trump, once immortalized by John Bolton as having participated in a metaphorical drug deal in Ukraine, is now involved in an actual drug deal. But that is the least of it. Just as Trump covers up crime with scandals, he also covers up big crimes with smaller crimes. The big crime, in case you haven’t noticed, is his crime family’s long-held ambition to strip America down and sell it for parts – which is what he will do unless officials stop him.
“Finally, we discuss the future of the Biden candidacy, Bernie’s endorsement of Biden, and the need for a strong coalition of Democrats and election integrity. We continue our discussion of Biden in our special weekly bonus episode, available to Patreon subscribers at the Truth-Teller level or higher. For the last month, we have changed our weekly bonus episode so that our listeners can ask questions about coronavirus, the election, and whatever else is on your mind, and we answer your questions in depth! Gaslit Nation is an independent podcast and we rely on Patreon subscribers to keep us going: please consider subscribing and getting access to our extra features!”
https://www.patreon.com/posts/corporate-36012900
I supported Bernie Sanders for president. I also would have been thrilled if Elizabeth Warren was nominated. I will now vote for Joe Biden. He is the only potential Democratic nominee at this point. So, either he will be the next president or Trump.
To those who say they cannot bring themselves to vote for him:
To which women, whose right to an abortion are you prepared to say, “Sorry I couldn’t vote for Biden.”
To which deported asylum seekers are you prepared to say, “Sorry I couldn’t vote for Biden.”
To which fellow citizens, denied the right to vote, are you prepared to say, “Sorry I couldn’t vote for Biden.”
To which fellow progressive whose right to organize are you prepared to say, “Sorry I couldn’t vote for Biden.”
To which fellow humans whose climate continues to warm uncontrollably are you prepared to say, “Sorry I couldn’t vote for Biden.”
To which fellow breathers inhaling dirtier air are you prepared to say, “Sorry I couldn’t vote for Biden.”
Biden is very far from ideal but he would do none of the above things listed above, nor would he encourage violence.
Make no mistake, as bad as everything is right now, is can get way worse. History shows us, worse is usually worse and not necessarily “a wake up call” without unimaginable death and suffering. People often rise up, not in times of terror, but i times of rising expectation when things are looking up and with hope they say, “I want more.”
Do you want to preserve your (our) right to organize to set the stage for hope?
Please think about this.
Exactly right, Arthur.
Because, now, Americans are dying in never before seen numbers, & we are most likely not going to be done with this virus in November.
Today’s WSJ has a story from Seoul, “Recovered Patients Test Positive.”
We still know too little about coronavirus, but we know too much about the virus in the White House.
Thank you, Arthur. Your rhetorical questions are a much better way to frame the choice. Stop pointing out fears of what Biden might do, and start thinking about what Trump will do (and Biden won’t).
I second that — Exactly right! Thank you!
I noticed some other posts using words like “mistrust” Biden which is falling right into the trap that the right wing has set up — just like they did in 2016.
I TRUST Biden to be a significantly better President than Donald Trump.
I TRUST Biden to be a significantly less dangerous President than Donald Trump.
Back in 1980, when I was very young and very ignorant I could not stop talking about how I did not trust Jimmy Carter and how awful Jimmy Carter was and how it didn’t matter if
Ronald Reagan was President — after all, what would it matter because having Reagan would sure make people run to embrace progressivism. Instead, good progressive Democrats went down to defeat against horrible right wing Republicans.
And I was completely wrong about Reagan. I helped elect him by voting for John Anderson because the only thing I was certain about is that Jimmy Carter was a sell-out corporate Democrat.
It didn’t take me long to realize my mistake. I did not do what some people are doing now and insist I was right to vote against the evil Carter so I could help usher in a new era of progressivism that Carter’s defeat would bring about. I didn’t insist that having a Republican like Reagan as president was better for the progressive movement than having Jimmy Carter.
Trump is even worse than Reagan. The right wing courts that Trump has packed are going to prevent progressive legislation for a very long time. And Trump is completely without any moral core. He only does what is good for Trump and believes no law limits his power.
So it shocks me that the people who in 2016 sounded a lot like I did (except railing against HRC and not Jimmy Carter) are actually doubling down on their mistake and insisting that they don’t care at all if Trump is re-elected because what is more important to them is punishing some entity that they call the DNC (but is really the African-American voters who are invisible to them) because they didn’t vote for the candidate they wanted them to vote for. So let them have Trump, they say.
At some point, the railing against the DNC starts to sound a lot like racism. Because it wasn’t the DNC who voted for Biden. It was real people who are invisible to those who insist that having Trump is no big deal.
Bernie had a great chance to win the nomination. But all it took was a little propaganda implying that he wanted America to be like Cuba to stop his momentum. There would be much more of that in the general election.
I’m not a big fan of Biden, but one thing i know for certain — Biden is much more progressive than Donald Trump. Biden is much better than Trump.
I wonder if the Green Party or any progressive party will even run a candidate in the general election, given how important it is to protect our democracy to get Trump out of office.