Politics

I’m pretty strongly liberal — about as far left as one can go without falling into libertarianism. Posts collected under this tag will likely reflect that viewpoint.

Biden/Harris 2020

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Two posts from Facebook about the just-confirmed Biden/Harris ticket that I’m mirroring over here:

Copied from a friend, except for these remarks. I’m perfectly aware there are good arguments as to why neither Biden nor Harris are who someone might want to be on the ticket. Neither of them were my first choice. But the alternative — either four more years of Trump, or “burn it all down”, which, come on, are basically the same damn thing — is so, so much worse that I honestly haven’t yet seen a convincing argument to not vote for Biden/Harris.

If nothing else, assume that you’re gearing up for a fight to improve things over the next four years. If the goal is five miles away, doesn’t it make sense to try to influence an administration that’s currently sitting one mile beyond the starting line, instead of one that’s spent the past four years running the wrong direction?

And for those grousing about this being “just another choice between the ‘lesser of two evils'”? Oh, come on. That’s like complaining that a choice between Cthulhu and Sid the bully from Toy Story is just too difficult because they’re so similar and really, probably exactly the same when you get right down to it, and it’s just so sad that we can’t have a unicorn sparkle pony on the ticket instead.

Now, on to the copy-paste part:

Now that the Democratic Biden-Harris President-Vice President ticket is set, it’s a good time for the following reminders:

  1. You’re not just voting for President.
  2. You’re voting to prevent a 7-2 dangerous conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Note: 87 year old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is single-handedly fighting off multiple plagues and cancers so she can hang on until we get rid of 45. This alone should be enough for historic turnout!
  3. You’re voting for the next Secretary of Education, Housing Secretary, and Attorney General.
  4. You are voting for the “down” ballot as well, in order to keep the House and to gain majority of the Senate in Congress.
  5. You’re voting for federal judges.
  6. You’re voting for the rule of law.
  7. You’re voting for saving national parks.
  8. You’re voting for getting kids out of cages.
  9. You’re voting for clean air and clean water.
  10. You’re voting for scientists to be allowed to speak and do something to help protect us from climate change and pandemics.
  11. You’re voting for greater transparency and confidence that the President isn’t using your tax dollars as a slush fund for his family and friends.
  12. You’re voting for housing rights.
  13. You’re voting for justice reform and for formerly incarcerated persons to be treated with dignity, so that they can be productive members of society when they return.
  14. You’re voting for everyone to be able to adopt a child without a lot of red tape.
  15. You’re voting for Dreamers.
  16. You’re voting so that there will be Social Security and Medicare when you retire… and for generations to come.
  17. You’re voting for veterans to get the care they deserve.
  18. You’re voting for rural hospitals.
  19. You’re voting so that everyone can have access to affordable health insurance, and good health care.
  20. You’re voting for education to be treated like the noble profession that it is and for teachers to be paid appropriately.
  21. You’re voting to have a President who doesn’t embarrass this country every time he attends an international meeting.
  22. You’re voting against allowing the USA to become yet another authoritarian regime.
  23. You’re voting for sensible gun laws.
  24. You’re voting for children born to military troops overseas to still be counted as US citizens.
  25. You’re voting to curb homelessness and find solutions to affordable housing.
  26. You’re voting to take measures to end the racial asset and wealth disparities.
  27. You’re voting to defend women’s reproductive rights and a woman’s right to make all health related decisions regarding her body.
  28. You’re voting to acknowledge the humanity and protect the safety of our family and friends in the LGBTQ+ community.
  29. You’re voting to stop the normalization of white supremacy and dangerous bigotry in the mainstream.
  30. You’re voting to rebuild a functional CDC to help prevent or eradicate dangerous pandemics like the coronavirus.

I know we can’t all agree on everything. Now, this is a two candidate race between Vice President Biden and 45. Those are our only choices. One of them will be our President as a result of this election.

The Biden-Harris ticket isn’t perfect. No ticket ever was and no ticket ever will be. Perhaps, for whatever reason, Vice President Biden and/or Senator Harris don’t pass your purity test. Just know this, they will be much better than four more years of 45. We must do all we can to ensure that the Biden-Harris ticket wins.

No, Harris isn’t perfect; yes, there are decisions in her background that I’d prefer weren’t there. But that can be said of literally any other candidate, and when you compare her record to other recent big-name candidates, she’s very much in line with them, and actually scores (by at least one site’s metrics) as more progressive than any of them.

I think she’ll do just fine. And when she doesn’t, or appears like she might not, it’s our responsibility to make our voices known. And as I noted in my earlier post, it’s going to be a lot easier and more likely to move towards more progressive policies under Biden/Harris than it would be with more Trump/Pence.

Progressive Punch rates Harris at the fourth most progressive Senator, above Warren, Gillibrand, Booker, and Sanders.

Ranking Harris's Voting Record

Harris and Warren vote in agreement 96% of the time.

Harris v. Warren

Harris and Gillibrand vote in agreement 98% of the time.

Harris v. Gillibrand

Harris and Booker vote in agreement 97% of the time.

Harris v. Booker

Harris and Sanders vote in agreement 92% of the time.

Harris v. Sanders

Political Compass (the fourth)

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This is the fourth time I’ve taken this test, though it’s been a few years — the first time was in 2002, the second in 2003, the third time was in 2012, and now, exactly eight years later, comes the fourth time. I continue to move ever further towards that bottom left corner…

2002 (age 29): -6.12/-5.90
2003 (age 30): -6.62/-6.41
2012 (age 39): -7.12/-7.33
2020 (age 47): -8.00/-8.26

Political Compass chart

Bernie Out; Biden the Presumptive Nominee

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Bernie Sanders Drops Out Of Presidential Race, Ceding Nomination To Biden

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ended his bid for the White House on Wednesday, effectively handing the Democratic nomination to former Vice President Joe Biden and ending hopes that a progressive challenger would take on President Donald Trump in November.

I know a lot of people on my list are going to be upset about this. There’s nothing wrong with that — I’m still upset that my candidate of choice this year dropped out, and I’m still upset that my candidate of choice in 2016 only won the popular election, but lost the electoral vote (\suchBS\). Take the time to grieve, to be angry, to rant and rave about how poorly our system works.

But once that’s done, please: Prioritize the good of the many, and recognize that however much you don’t like Biden, he will in no way be as bad as Trump. Sure, he’s not as good as you’d like, so push him to be better than he is! Continue pushing, fighting, and protesting in favor of all the causes that led you to support Bernie! Do everything you can to move Biden further to the left.

But please, please, please: Don’t throw a fit and refuse to support Biden, whether through giving your vote to a third-party candidate who has no chance of beating Trump, however ideologically closer they are to you than Biden is, or by not voting at all.

You’ve all seen what’s happened over the past four years. Please do everything you can to make sure we don’t have four more years of Trump in office.

Die, Heretic!

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A famous joke by Emo Philips:

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”

He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!”

Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.

This pretty much sums up how I see the Democratic party (and general left-of-center ideologies in the US) right now.

A lot of people who agree on 90%+ of what we want. But damned if we won’t eat each other alive over that last 10% and let everything burn down in flames in the process.

Modern Political Sexism

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From Elizabeth Warren, 2020, and the Sexism Next Door – The Atlantic

“Electability” claims to be a benign and objective concern. It is neither. It merely outsources biases, rationalizing them by appealing to the moral failings of imagined others. It talks about neighbors, and “other people,” and “what the country is ready for.” It throws up its hands and washes them at the same time. And it suggests an especially insidious strain of sexism. The sexism of the political past has often been blunt and unashamed in its expression (“Lock! Her! Up!”/ “Iron! My! Shirt!” / “She-devil”). The sexism of the political present, however, is slightly different: It knows better, even if it fails to be better. It is a little bit cannier. It has lawyered up. It is figuring out, day by day, how to maintain plausible deniability.

Beyond Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream

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It’s important to remember that Martin Luther King Jr. had a lot more to say in his life than just his “I Have a Dream” speech:

Figures like President Barack Obama have reminded us that King once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But over time, the great orator’s writings became less magnanimous and ever more convinced that white supremacy was the most significant obstacle in attaining liberation for all black people.

In his final book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, originally published in 1967, King wrote that “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn. The reality of substantial investment to assist Negroes into the twentieth century, adjusting to Negro neighbors and genuine school integration, is still a nightmare for all too many white Americans.”

He continued: “These are the deepest causes for contemporary abrasions between the races. Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.”

By this point in his life, King had abandoned the rose-colored glasses of his youth. Instead, he was laser-focused on addressing white supremacy in its basest and most intimate forms: in communities, schools, and neighborhoods.