Search This Blog

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

So Now It's Biden -- So What?

The storm is essentially over.  Joe Biden has won the Democrat nomination.  Sure, Sanders can keep going, but for what reason?  The next batch of states is going to be good for Biden.  Pretty soon, Old Joe will have a lead that even Sanders has to recognize will mean a sure first ballot win for Biden.

The other day, I wrote about what this will mean in November.  Will Americans actually pick someone clearly suffering from declining mental abilities to lead them?  I don't think so.  To me the more interesting issue is how could the Democrats come to this?

There were almost 30 candidates.  It was as if the Volkswagen Beetle drove up and all thirty got out dressed as clowns.  The campaign went on for more than a year, and in all that time we heard nothing new, nothing to inspire America to move towards the future with hope, nothing worth repeating.  Let me be clear.  I don't mean that no one presented any plans.  Just Elizabeth Warren by herself presented plenty of plans.  I mean not one of these candidates came forward with plans that could actually have a hope of working to improve the lot of the average American.  These were all candidates who focused on anger.  There are billionaires out there; let's punish them.  There are people with good private insurance; let's take it away from them.  There is a rebirth of jobs in the energy industry; let's destroy them.  No matter what the subject that the Dems addressed, there were always big losers resulting from what they had to say.  Sure, they hate the President.  They're still angry that Hillary lost.  But anger and striking out at the "bad" people doesn't win elections.  There has to be a positive vision, not just a negative one. 

Indeed, in many respects, Joe Biden won because he didn't really enumerate a negative plan.  That was because Biden is campaigning on Obama nostalgia and nothing much else that could be described as coherent.  Ask yourself; what is Biden's plan for the economy.  What specifically does he want to do?  If you can answer that; then it must have come to you in a dream because Biden surely didn't tell us.  He's too confused.  What's Biden's plan for healthcare?  The other day he said he wants to raise premiums for those paying under $400 per month and also to put back the individual mandate that fines people who don't have insurance.  We know that can't be his plan.  You can't cut the cost of healthcare by increasing the premiums on those who are subsidized now.  So what did Biden actually mean?  We don't know, but worse, we suspect Biden doesn't know either.  Still, since Biden didn't focus on anger, he was "safe".  He beat the avatar of anger and envy, Bernie Sanders.

I refuse to believe that a decent candidate who was positive could not have won the Democrat primary race.  There just were none who came forward.  It's a true tragedy for the country.

No comments: