No, Biden Isn’t Nearly as Bad as Trump
Not unexpected, but nevertheless disappointing, the official end of Bernie Sanders’ campaign has ignited a fury in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, especially in the hearts of the already disillusioned young voters.
Enraged by the prospect of Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, many have been vociferous about their frustration online, lamenting that there is no real difference between Biden and Trump, and questioning why they should bother going to the polls. Many said they will never vote for a rapist who is nothing more than a more palatable version of Trump, a ruthless capitalist, senile, guilty of war crimes in the Middle East, and a transphobe.
These feelings are valid. It is a fact that many women have accused Mr. Biden of behaving inappropriately with them. He has voted against gay marriage in the past, supported laws that worsened mass incarceration, voted for a law targeting women’s reproductive rights, and failed to adequately uphold school desegregation. However, these actions require context, and they do not mean that he will do the same if given a chance to ascend to, if only because the views of the public and the Democratic Party have shifted a bit since the 1980s.
Biden has always been more-or-less a centrist (I know many of you are allergic to this word, but bear with me), and typically voted along those lines. Back in 2003, the war with Iraq was considered inevitable, and although that doesn’t excuse Biden, especially since Bernie was able to keep his conscience clear by voting against it, he doesn’t stand out as a particularly malicious candidate — most Democratic senators and all but one Republican voted that way. Biden has voted for the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which stated that if the person earns more than the median income in their state, they can afford to pay $100 a month on their debts. Not an ideal law, not loved by progressives, but much less malicious than it is made out to be.
Yes, Biden has voted against gay marriage in the past. He changed his position to reflect that of his party during the Obama administration, and was vocal about his support for it by 2012. Back in 1982, Biden voted to allow states to overturn Roe vs. Wade, but that amendment didn’t make it past the Supreme Court, and when it was proposed again the next year, he voted against it. In 2012, he stated that, as a Catholic, he believes that life begins at conception, but that he does not want to impose that belief on everyone and that people should have access to safe abortion, as that decision is to be made “between [the person] and their doctor” — a standard Democratic position shared by many Americans.
Biden has opposed busing (the practice of assigning and, correspondingly transporting students to schools specifically to increase their racial diversity) as a means for desegregation, despite being on the record for saying he was against continued school segregation. To keep ourselves honest, we will note that this was the result of immense pressure from his white constituents, who vehemently disapproved of busing.
Lastly, Biden did vote for the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which imposed life sentences on people through the “three strikes and you’re out” clause and provided a fat sum of money for states to help keep and maintain prisons. But it also included the Violence Against Women Act and banned 19 types of assault weapons. In those days, it was highly unusual to find a politician who supported the legalization of marijuana, and the mainstream opinion was that drug use is a result of character flaws, rather than an illness, which the politics reflected.
What his record shows is that Joe Biden is a predictably center-left candidate who votes in line with his party, maintaining a relatively progressive stance without ruffling corporate feathers too much. He had his hey-day crushing Paul Ryan in the Vice-Presidential debate in 2012 and some cute moments with Barack Obama, but otherwise is not the most exciting candidate.
This, however, doesn’t paint the full picture of Joe Biden. Now that we’ve acknowledged his shortcomings, let’s take a good look at his current proposals and compare them to the alternative.
So far, the Trump administration has been packing the courts with judges who want to make abortion illegal, or so inaccessible that it is basically illegal for most, judges who do not believe in prison reform, judges who are reliably conservative, and necessarily back up corporate interests. On the other hand, we can be sure that Joe Biden would appoint, if not progressive, at least centrist judges who may still pander to corporate interests, but also uphold Roe vs. Wade, stand up for workers’ rights, and generally keep to the center-left.
When it comes to corporate interests, it’s hard to find a worse candidate than Trump, who has shamelessly appointed his own family members to work in the White House, has yet to release his tax returns, and is currently promoting a drug that has not been proven to be effective as a treatment for COVID-19 in the middle of a pandemic because he has a financial stake in it. He has also yet to use the Defense Production Act to make protective equipment for healthcare workers, even though the conditions they often work in are inexcusable.
Donald Trump has known about the dangers of the new human coronavirus at least since November, as he has gotten reports from the US intelligence within China, but failed to act on them until far too late. As a result, USA is the country with three times as many coronavirus cases as the second most-infected. New York has more documented cases of coronavirus than any country outside of the US. Trump has kept ICE raids up through this epidemic, targeting the populations most at-risk with the least access to healthcare, spreading the disease by being in contact with many different people, and shoving them into detention centers, where social distancing is impossible.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, has shifted his stance to support a universal basic income until the end of this crisis and free testing and care for coronavirus patients. Back in the beginning of last month Biden has already stated that, in combating the pandemic, he will heed the science and address the root of the problem by providing relief to those hardest hit in the form of increased unemployment benefits, paid sick leave, decreasing the barriers to get Medicaid, and food relief for low-income families. His plan was designed to remove the economic impediment to social distancing for the most vulnerable populations. Of course, we cannot fail to address the elephant in the room that is Biden’s opposition to free healthcare for all. But is that really enough of a reason to not vote for him in the 2020 election?
I’ve also heard many people proclaim that they are not voting for a rapist. Joe Biden has been known to make sexist remarks about women’s appearance, to behave inappropriately towards women by touching them without consent, and finally, there has been at least one documented case of Joe Biden sexually assaulting a woman — Tara Reade. He was about the age of her father and held a position superior to hers at the time, which he used against her in retaliation. While plenty of people accuse Ms. Reade of lying just to sabotage her campaign, I believe her story to be credible and Joe’s actions — despicable. But can we please return to the president Joe Biden is trying to unseat?
Trump has not only made sexist jokes and remarks in the past, he loudly and proudly disrespects women, has five children from three of them (as far as we know), the last of which is 24 years his junior, whom he has reportedly cheated on — he sexually assaulted someone while Melania was pregnant. At least 25 women have stepped up to accuse Donald of sexual assault — Karen Johnson has a story very similar to Tara Reade’s, E. Jean Carroll has a story of Trump violently raping her, Alva Johnson has a story of Trump assaulting her as recently as 2016, and, actually, I will just link the (incomplete) list of women who have come forward so far.
What I am saying is that there is no comparison between creepy Uncle Joe and Trumpy Dumpy when it comes to sexism. To pander to his evangelical supporters, Trump has been stuffing the Supreme Court, as well as the district courts, with the likes of Brett Kavanaugh, who have not only committed sexual assault, but who then have the nerve to deny millions of women quality sexual education and reproductive rights, as well as childcare benefits for when they do have kids. If you don’t vote for Biden, we will be guaranteed four more years of this, and seeing that (unfortunately), Justice Baden Ginsburg is not getting any younger, Trump might get to stick another rapist in there. Let’s not forget about the wave of anti-abortion access laws passed by multiple states that are making their way up to the Supreme Court — can we afford to have Roe vs. Wade overturned? Because it is possible. Judges are appointed for life, and one bad actor can lead to decades of damage.
And while on the subject of rape, why don’t we talk about foreign policy, shall we? Trump has often insinuated that Mexicans (which, for a sizable portion of Americans, means Latin Americans in general) are rapists and “bad hombres”, stoking peoples’ bigotry, and using this to make the separation of families at the border seem justified. Trump has been licking Putin’s boots since before he got elected, has done absolutely nothing to stop Russian occupation of Georgian and Ukrainian territories (the war in eastern Ukraine shows no signs of stopping and has already claimed over 14,000 lives including thousands of civilians), outright supporting Putin’s annexation of Crimea, which has only encouraged Russia to keep bombing, plundering, and killing Ukrainians. Trump has also started a trade war with China, and almost got us into a war with Iran, by needlessly killing Qassem Soleimani, after US had already retaliated for Iranian aggression. Let’s not forget Trump’s Muslim ban, and his recent African ban. And, as a cherry on top, Trump openly praises Narendra Modi’s anti-Muslim laws and Jair Bolsonaro’s atrocious policies (if we could even call it that).
When put in today’s context, Joe Biden has a comparatively excellent track record on foreign policy. When Russia annexed Abkhazia and South Ossetia (about 20% of Georgia’s territory) in 2008, Biden was firm in his support of Georgia and called for the US government to back the Georgian people. He has also reliably supported Ukraine in its conflict with Russia and condemned the annexation of Crimea. He put consistent effort into containing Russia’s aggression and fighting corruption in Ukraine. Biden has also been insistent on shifting his foreign policy to fight the rise of authoritarianism, and necessarily not forcibly spreading “democracy” in the rest of the world.
When it comes to the Middle East, Joe Biden’s record has greatly improved since his vote for the Iraq War in 2003. He promoted the Iran Nuclear Deal (which Trump then blew); he spoke out against the US alliance with Saudi Arabia, which is currently fueling the war in Yemen and has funded the Islamic State (while Trump continues to keep cozy with the regime); and he is a firm supporter of Israel, but at least has enough scruples to condemn its occupation of the West Bank (while Trump not only unquestionably supports this, but also was one of the only foreign leaders to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — an unspeakable act of disrespect towards the Palestinians). Biden supports keeping small amounts of troops in the Middle East to combat the Islamic State, and (we are really going downhill from here) has spoken in favor of Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak in the past (Trump supported his deposition, but in the same breath, said that unless Egypt becomes a puppet state to the US, they should receive no aid whatsoever).
Foreign policy is not the first thing that really tugs on peoples’ emotional strings, but a few bad decisions made by an unhinged narcissistic child can have negative effects that span decades, the waves of which are felt throughout the world. Allowing Russia to continue pillaging Ukraine and Georgia, allowing Saudi Arabia to continue sponsoring terrorism throughout the world, while directly causing millions of people to be bombed and to starve in Yemen sends the message that big world powers, no matter how cruel, can keep getting away with everything. Voting for Joe Biden at least gives us immigrants with our families in direct risk some hope of change, no matter how small.
And if you think that your vote doesn’t matter because you don’t live in a swing state, I’d like to disagree with you on that one. For one, we would have a lot more swing states, if only more people turned out to vote. And two, even if Trump wins this election (which is unfortunately very likely at this point, I admit), if he loses the popular vote by a large enough margin, at least the conversation will be shifted; at least the message will be sent that people will not tolerate the disgrace that American politics has stooped to, no matter how hard they try to make it seem normal. At least we won’t go down without a fight because we were unable to compromise and acted like children with the level of maturity comparable to that of our current president.