I just saw this on Twitter from @cindymccain:
My husband John lived by a code: country first. We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is
@JoeBiden
It was posted 23 minutes ago.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yay!
Just so you understand, this is only persuasive to people who are already supporting Biden. For the rest of us, it’s this constant chasing of right-wing, war-mongering. corporatist Republican votes (most of which never materialize) that turns away people on the left. I know the pundit class likes to believe that for every leftist you lose, you pick up two moderate suburbanites, but I have to ask, how did that work in 2016?
If Biden loses in November, please don’t blame the left when the Democrats have made the conscious decision to scorn us. Either our votes are needed, in which case, they need to be earned, or they don’t need our votes, in which case we can’t be blamed. You can’t have it both ways.
I want everyone to vote forBiden, even you, Dienne. The alternative is terrifying.
Is it possible to have a discussion without throwing out words like “war-mongering”? Trump is dangerous. A person can vote for the lying, neofascist white supremacist destroyer of the Constitution and democracy itself, or Biden, a normal, moderate (leaning progressive) politician.
I don’t get it when people insist they if a politician doesn’t pander to them, they won’t get their vote. There are two choices who have both showed you who they are.
Biden has been quite consistent in his policies since he started running for president. He isn’t hiding anything. If anything, he has become more progressive, and that is a genuine movement as he becomes more progressively “woke”. It isn’t pandering.
Biden has “earned” the vote of Bernie Sanders, the vote of AOC, the vote of Elizabeth Warren, the vote of Cornel West.
And the people who are at this late date still saying “work harder, Joe, you just haven’t earned my vote” are never going to vote for Biden. Period. Does anyone believe that even if Biden magically transformed and started campaigning on the entire progressive platform, they would vote for him? Do you know what they’d say? They say they don’t believe Biden, because he hasn’t “earned” their trust.
I know so many Republicans who are joining the vast majority of democrats and progressives in voting for Biden. And it is not because Biden is pandering to them. Most of those Republicans know Biden will enact policies they find way too progressive.
They are voting for him for Biden for the same reason that Democrats and progressives are voting for Biden – because Biden is the far better candidate and Trump is dangerous. That is what sane people on the right, in the center, and on the left are doing.
And the ones who are not are entirely responsible for their own vote and the outcome, irregardless of where they sit on the political spectrum.
Danielle Pletka, a conservative woman at the AEI wrote a hilarious and much-satirized op ed in the Washington Post, essentially blaming Biden for “forcing” her to vote for Trump.
I have seen multiple posts from “moderate Democrats” who complain the democratic party “left them” and they are voting for Trump.
And I see on rare occasions those on the left who complain the democrat didn’t earn their vote.
It is very, very hard to tell them apart.
By the way, for those tempted to invoke Putin: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kremlin%27s%20Law
In Trump’s case, he truly worships Putin. When asked about the poisoning of Putin critic Alexis Navalny, Trump first said he might have been poisoned by China. When asked today if he would speak out against this vile act, he changed the subject. Has there ever been an American President so deferential to the head of Russia?
I don’t think he worships anyone but himself . The piss tape would be the least of Trump’s problems . Mueller never followed the money nor did he conduct an intelligence investigation. In fact he was selected to “land the plane ” as an article in politico pointed out only weeks after Mueller’s appointment. Mueller was the only person in America who could assert with a straight face that he could not prove Goodell the NFL and the Ravens did not see the videos of the brutal assault of Ray Rice’s girlfriend.
Should we have been surprised that he could not conclude that the campaign strategy , polling data and targeted States ,delivered to a Russian agent by Manafort in conjunction with Trump was a conspiracy against the United States.
Guess who can prove it all,. Putin
For months, I forced myself to watch Trump’s speeches so I could then satirize them. It was a sort of game that I enjoyed for a time, imitating his Toddlerian idiolect.
I tried to watch the Jabba the Trump excrescence in Pennsylvania tonight. But I couldn’t. I just can’t do it anymore. This man (I use the term loosely) is utterly revolting and ignorant and cruel and stupid and dangerous. He’s like an unimaginative, poorly drawn, attempted parody of a comic book villain. Lex Trumptor. The Joker in the orange clown makeup.
That I live in a country in which an entire political party has so debased itself as to follow this subhuman slavishly utterly sickens me.
And that our intelligence services did not long ago show the world, definitively, how traitorous he is makes it impossible, now, for me to use the term “intelligence” to speak of them without a rueful laugh.
When I was a child, I thought that people grew up. I now see that many do not. Trump is still the abused child who admires the abusive father, the tough guy. He lacks any moral code whatsoever and sees everything in terms of Trump, personally, “winning.” He is willing to do and say anything to achieve his ends, including using the poor, ignorant white racists in his base and the fervent evangelical Christians, both of whom he personally despises. And they are willing to be used by him, in turn, because of one thing: abortion. He promises to give them an end to Roe v. Wade, which has become very real, now, because of the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And the Republican Party is willing to be used by Trump because he is so hands-off and ideologically compliant that for them he is a useful idiot–someone who enables them to deliver for their fat-cat donors in the form of trashing regulations that protect ordinary people but cost the fat-cats money. The whole edifice of federal governance, because of Trump, is now is sickening and short-sighted and corrupt. Yes, it was always corrupt. And it has often been extremely short-sighted. But Trump is the distillation of these evils into a pure, extraordinarily caustic form. I really don’t think that the country can survive four more years of him.
Wondering if anyone else heard him at the United Nations. Representing us to the world. Aie yie yie.
LOL, Dienne. That’s a good one. Right up there with your all-time best: “Trump is not a racist.”
It is not an example of Godwin’s law when one draws actual parallels between a political figure and Hitler.
Let’s see.
Hitler evoked a mythical past national glory and vowed to make his country great again, as it was. Trump, check.
Hitler evoked his country’s exceptionalism. Trump, check.
Hitler had a large following of armed thugs in the streets. Trump, check.
Hitler claimed that his authority as leader was absolute. Trump, check.
Hitler campaigned on ending immigration that was stealing jobs from citizens. Trump, check.
Hitler promised to rebuild his country’s military might. Trump, check.
Hitler ascribed to a theory of genetic supremacy. Trump, check.
Hitler campaigned against an enemy within. Trump, check.
When he was coming to power, Hitler described the German media as fake news controlled by a left-wing conspiracy. Trump, check.
Hitler appropriated national symbolism to a cult of personality. Trump, check.
Hitler was profoundly racist. Trump, check.
Hitler ran concentration camps. Trump, check.
Hitler buddied up with Russia. Trump, check.
Hitler created a nationalist school curriculum. Trump, check.
Hitler demanded absolute loyalty and obedience from members of his party. Trump, check.
Hmmmm. I think I’m seeing a pattern here.
Hitler allied himself with fascist authoritarians in other countries. Trump, check.
Hitler promised to enforce law and order. Trump, check.
Hitler spoken constantly of the country’s enemies within. Trump, check.
Hitler had flunkies organize monumental spectacles. Trump, check.
Hitler depended upon emotional speeches to mass rallies. Trump, check.
Oh Lord. One could go on and on and on.
And from what I can see, Dienne sees no difference between Trump and Biden. It seems that the only thing that matters is if her chosen candidate and/or agenda is totally and unequivocally accepted by everyone NOW.
Well, Dienne knows that Biden will talk about being for the working guy while he represents the banks, as he has always done. But here we are. We have a choice between cancer (Trump) and a skinned knee (Biden). Dienne doesn’t see these as fundamentally different.
I don’t doubt that he represented banks. He was the Senator from Rhode Island, for Pete’s sake! I do not know, however, what that means. What nefarious, dirty, deep, dark secrets does that assertion imply? For a man who has done many admirable things as well, I am anxious to know more than the sound bite version of everything. Unfortunately, in too many instances we all vote on the basis of sound bites. I want non-biased research rather than campaign fodder. It’s easy to lay out Trump’s shortcomings because he doesn’t hide them very effectively. In fact, I’m not sure he is capable of being anything other than the sad example he is. Biden, however, is a different story although if you listen to dienne, you wouldn’t know it.
It meant supporting Bush’s efforts to kill bankruptcy laws. It meant bailing out the banks instead of the homeowners during the 2007-08 financial crisis. That bailout could well have been structured so that the bailout funds flowed through the homeowners to the banks and so allowed them to keep their homes. There’s more, but I’m not going to go on about this. Biden is BY FAR preferable to Trump, who is a straight-up fascist. Anyone who doubts this needs help.
I need a refresher from Sen. Warren and Robert Reich as to how they think the crash should have been handled. I hated to see people like Jamie Dimon coming out with more than he went in with. I have a friend who is still fighting foreclosure with one of the bad actor banks. I will never do business with them, but I still want more, Bob. Even your comments are sound bites that don’t really tell me why Biden did what he did whatever he did do and whether he was an outlier in his opinions. Who disagreed? I guess I am just lazy. We latch onto these broad statements about someone’s actions and if we ever knew exactly what they did and why, that is lost. There is a cut and dried character to Trump’s missteps that make them easy to catalog that don’t seem to be part of Biden’s faux pas. One would think such an ardent supporter of the big banks would be rich; he isn’t.
Joe and Jill have a net worth of about 9 million. Not super rich but not poor by any means. There’s a lot available on Biden’s history on the Net if you want to look at it. I knew we were in trouble when Obama filled his cabinet with people from Goldman Sachs. Joe and Barack are not left-wingers by any means. They adopted the healthcare program developed for Massachusetts by Mitt Romney. Obamacare was Romneycare first. But I really don’t want to go into detail about this all right now, for we are faced in Trump with something far, far, far worse. Trump is a straight-up fascist. A Trump in a second term, “off the leash,” as Steve Bannon says he would be in a second term, is unthinkable for our country and for the world.
Most of which came from a book deal. In 2009 his net worth was $30,000, so he has not been out there during his years of public service raking in sweetheart deals. The rest of his most recent income has come from speaking engagements. I really don’t know why I am fixating on this other than I am so tired of sound bite ads. I don’t question that he is not as progressive as the left wing of the Democratic party would like (or me for that matter), but, frankly, people like Dienne scare me because they seem so sure that no one that does not agree with them 100% is worthy of their time or support. Democracy depends on compromise, which is sadly lacking these days, but at which Biden is considered to be accomplished, but that deal making means giving up some of waht you want in order to get something else. I see little willingness on the part of Dienne to be any more willing to do so than the Republicans are now. If Biden wins, he has to be the president of everyone if we are to survive. I really am more interested in what he has done “right” than a constant litany of fault finding. I also am interested in putting actions in context with the situation at the time, not what maybe we think now with 20-20 hindsight. I’m sorry, Bob, but sometimes it seems to me that I read more here about why Biden is a lousy choice than why Trump is.
I never claimed that Biden was on the take. I would not make such a claim. I disagree with him on many issues, but I believe him to be an honest, decent man.
Heavens, no! I didn’t intend for you to take my comment personally. It’s implied in the meme that Biden is no better than Trump. To me that says Biden is not above the dirty tricks in which Trump is willing to engage. You have never gone there. I’m sorry if I came across that way.
Biden is 100 million times better than Trump.
Maybe a billion.
Trump is ignorant, vicious, vengeful, low-class bully who sullies the White House by his presence.
Yup.
You won’t hear me saying that. I Denis a lousy choice. He won the Democratic primaries fair and square. His sweep of South Carolina, propelled by the black vote, made him the front runner. I think he is a good man, a decent man, a compassionate man, with deep experience in government. I probably won’t agree with all his policies or staff, but that’s democracy. If he’s elected, I will heave a sigh of relief and crack open some bubbly.
So, I’m supporting Biden in this race with all my heart.
I know you are. Thank you for putting up with me.
Biden has pledged to do something real about climate change. Trump continues to be a climate change denier and an environmental rapist (in addition to being a rapist rapist). This alone is sufficient for a sane person to decide for Biden. We cannot hide from this peril. It’s upon us.
Comic book supervillains almost always have their superpowers. Trump has two: his only ethical code is advancing the interests of Trump, so he is willing to do anything. Anything. Any thing. He is not bound by any normal human decencies. And he is breathtakingly, superhumanly obstinate. There’s always that period at the beginning of a new presidency when people think, well, perhaps this person will grow into the job. Perhaps it won’t be all that bad. Trump proved them wrong. And at the beginning of this election cycle, people thought, surely he will soften his stances to win over minority voters and the undecided and some moderate Democrats, but he has held by the playbook he got from Roy Cohn–double down. Triple down. Quadruple down. And he’s done this to such an extent that he now stands before the United Nations and embarrasses us as we have never been embarrassed before. He is a caricature. A reductio ad absurdum. And he just might win, again.
I’ll choose a band-aid for my boo boo instead of a pound of flesh requiring sutures. Here’s the thing though, Democrats really need to do better and they really need to get back to their roots. They need to choose People over party and they need to choose People over Corporate interests. They need to have a spine. So many Democrats stayed home and didn’t vote in 2016 because they didn’t like either candidate….it was NOT about the stupid emails!! The Bernie Sanders crowd were encouraged to vote HRC, but many couldn’t stomach the thought of it all the while thinking that their 1 vote wouldn’t matter because everyone else would be voting HRC….and look how that worked out.
YUP. Look how that worked out. But there are still people making the same argument again this year–that there is no difference between the orange clown and a corporatish Democrat. Aie yie yie.
I hope that those who stayed home and those who voted Green Party will come to their senses this year and choose appropriately. I also hope that the DNC will restructure, regroup and rethink who and what their “platform” represents.
Good for her! Diane, I have a sincere question for you, one that has consumed me. It concerns Lamar Alexander in particular, but also more generally so-called moderate Republicans today. You know Alexander and worked with him. Do you have insight that you are at liberty to share as to how he can in good conscience do some of what he has done and is doing? He was instrumental in getting Betsy DeVos through congress. He is not a stupid man; he had to know full well who she is and what she stands for. Now he is going along with the charade involving the Supreme Court. I am obviously not understanding his belief system and how his ethical calculus works.
Mike,
Lamar is a decent man who has lost his moral and ethical compass. During the impeachment hearings, I sent him private messages urging him to be on the right side of history. He threw in his lot with Trump and has followed that path ever since. There’s something about the Republican Party today that requires elected officials to abandon their ethics, their conscience, their brains, their soul, in service to the Ignorant tyrant in the White House. I’m sorry to say that Lamar has put party above country. He could have led the few moderates to dissent but he wasn’t up to it. History will judge him.
Right. And it’s that abandonment of “their ethics, their conscience, their brains, their soul” as a group that is, to my mind, more scary than any particular outrage coming from the White House….for we expect that of the vile and empty man who inhabits it. History shows us the horror that comes when “non-evil” people fall in line and do evil things. I know this phrase is much-debated, but Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” sure comes to mind.
The two things that worry me most about the current political scene is 1) the elected Republicans who follow a shallow, greedy, ignorant man like lemmings; 2) the 40-42% of the voting public who worship the man and think he is godlike, when in reality he holds them in contempt because they are not billionaires and don’t belong to one of his clubs. Why can’t they see that he is a playboy and a cunning con man? I see neo-fascism in action. These are critical times for the future of our democracy–not just because of Trump–I am equally concerned about the rise of shocking inequality. He makes the latter worse and brags about it, and people who live modestly think he is on their side.
Exactly
I caught a bit of commentary today on why the Republicans are so docilely following Trump. The contention was that their big donors are mandating it if they want their continued support. That is really sad. They are so beholden to big money that they are willing to give up their souls for it.
GOP= Groveling Old Penumbra
(Looking for an adequate P word describing these monsters, I found this in Roget’s, a noun meaning “darkness that results from the blocking of light~shade, shadiness, shadow
[Compare dark, twilight])
All vision, light & conscience are blocked by the unfit (in mind & body {a product of KFC, Coke, Oreos & junk food}–casting its shadow) it45.
perfect
So Dienne if your family member had a child in in a cage right now at the border you would still not vote and let Trump win? And then explain that your higher morality and political so called purity prevented you from supporting Biden? That’s just vanity and ego not morality.
This is from someone who voted for Sanders to be our representative twice, and then held her nose and voted for Hilary. I’m a social Democrat. Plenty of the ones I know active in our meetings and events are voting for Biden this year. Between the 200,000 plus dead, encouraging of violence by white nationalists, and children and parents torn apart they have had enough. If you are fine with all that you aren’t a leftist. It’s just your ego or you are a Trump supporter making excuses.
Amen to this. There has never been a more important election in my lifetime. There simply is no question about which candidate must have our support. Trump is a vile, despicable, dangerous traitor. Reelecting him would be catastrophic. As I have said many times here, there will be time enough for squabbles at the family dinner table after the ignorant thug is removed from his Whiter House and the place has been fumigated.
Biden 2020. Our very survival depends upon it.
Or how about this?
Imagine having, again, a president who can read.
In a Biden presidency, we will make crucial progress on climate change, we will protect the rights of women and LGBTQX persons, we will make enormous strides toward combating systemic racism, we will make extremely important strides toward increasing the quality of life of the poorest among us. We will preserve Democracy.
EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE WILL HAPPEN IF TRUMP IS REELECTED.
And, of course, under Biden we will restore and build upon our alliances and become a partner with civil nations rather than a coddler of authoritarian human rights abusers around the world. The largest economy in the world, now, in GDP measured in terms of purchasing power parity is China. We have seen in the past century the world transform from bipolarity (with two superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union) to unipolarity (the US as the sole superpower) to a situation with emerging multipolarity (the US, China, India). Our experiences in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq have taught us that sheer military dominance is not sufficient for the exertion of influence in an increasingly interdependent world. We must learn how to play well with others. Do we want a president who will have respectful diplomatic relations with these emerging powers and with the rest of the world. Or do we want the swaggering moron, IQ45, the wanna-be fascist, nationalist strongman? The latter is a stupid, dangerous, perhaps fatal course.
This is an extremely important election.
Thank you, Bob. Your last several posts are the ones I needed to see. They would make a fine post all on their own (hint, hint, Diane). You gave several very clear reasons why Biden is the clear choice.
Thanks, Speduktr! And thank you for working to make VP Biden our next president!
At this point, the administration of the country under Trump is so bad that I’m thinking The Tiger King would make a better president. LMAO!
Swing state socialist says: “If you are fine with all that you aren’t a leftist. It’s just your ego or you are a Trump supporter making excuses.”
You have nailed it precisely. One of those is surely true.
yes