I’m sometimes accused — yes, accused!... — of being a Trump supporter. To which I say “not guilty”. If you press the “Trump” label below and can be bothered to look at the result, you’ll find I’m as often critical of Orange Man, as not. I’m accused, I guess, because I’ve given Trump his due for achievements or criticised hypocrisy of the Dems.
But it’s a battle between two people and so we must look at the challenger. Had that challenger been Tulsi Gabbard or Andrew Yang, I’d vote for either. In 2016, I’d said I’d hold my nose (because of Benghazi) and vote for Hillary. And I’d have voted Obama in two elections before. So there’s that, FWIW.
Yet the good burghers of the Democratic National Committee — more them than the people of America* — decided to foist Joe Biden on us, instead of a whip-smart young vet who repped Hawaii, or a Chinese-American entrepreneur with new ideas. For many, that’s just fine, as it’s ABT -- Anybody But Trump, They’ll happily pull the lever for Joe. Happily enough, anyway. And some seem to think it’s a choice between good and evil a letter this morning for example:
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| Post, 26 October |
Note the framing. The Dems are moral; the Reps are wicked. The Dems want “compassion, dialogue and multilateralism”, while the Reps want “discord, confrontation and unilateralism”. This attitude is what got Hillary done. The letter above is just a twist on Hillary’s “basket of deplorables”. I know Trump supporters. They are not keen on discord, they deplore confrontation and are cosmopolitan, not unilateralists. By the way, it’s a bit rich, surely, to charge the Reps with “confrontation “ when it’s Biden supporters, Antifa and BLM, who are torching and looting US cities across the Democratic heartland. Staunchly Democratic Portland has had over 150 days of protest and riots.
For me, it’s not such an obvious choice, between Trump and Biden, as people like the writer above seem to believe. Bottom line, though: if I had the vote in America, I would pull the lever for Trump. Not because I am unaware of his many failing and shortcomings, the fact that all his actions are refracted through his ego. How could I not know his manifold failings? We’ve been fed them every single day, non-stop, since his election. No, the reason I would not Trump rather than Joe is because Joe has been every bit as bad as Trump, yet threatens worse on many fronts. So, it’s a choice of two very compromised and awful candidates. I don’t think one ought not vote, as many folks seem inclined to do. You have to make a choice. And if it’s of the least bad, as it is now, then so be it.
Joe has gone largely unexamined. His 47 years in government have not been fact-checked, save by partisan “fact-checkers” whose aim is to provide counter arguments to criticisms from the right. The aim of this post and an earlier one is to fact-check Biden and give some links to stories on the man, so that one has a fuller picture of where America might be headed if the polls are right and Biden wins the election.
We know from surveys that liberals in the US get most of their information from liberal sources (CNN, ABC, MSNBC, NYT WaPo), whereas conservatives get their information from more diverse sources: see my “Bubbles and vortexes”. Partly, no doubt, because there’s so much more liberal mainstream media than conservative media, the latter being pretty much just Fox. The fact remains.
Which means that many liberals won’t know of Joe’s nefarious dealings with Ukraine and China. Or if they do, it’s only to repeat what they’ve been told, namely that they have been “debunked”. No, they have not. Denial does not make a debunking. As for the latest revelations, surely “bombshells”, the evidence is strong that Joe not only knew of his son Hunter’s business dealings with shady characters, but stood to profit from them as well. There can be little doubt that he’s been recipient of “gifts” in his Kong government career, or how else Dow he end up with a net worth of $9 million on a government salary.
This is all highly relevant since the biggest selling point of ol’ Joe is that he’s “honest Joe”, in contrast to Orange Man Bad. That’s it. It’s trust. Joe can’t run in his record, because he has nine, as Trump hammered home at the last debate. The two BillBills authored and brought to Congress — the Drug Bill and the Crime Bill — he has repudiated and said he’s “sorry” for.
So all you’re left with is “honest” Joe, and trust. And that looks like a bust, which the MSM is covering for him, openly, brazenly. His supporters, like the letter-writer above, don’t even know of it.
This is not his first time deceiving. Where I also link to articles you won’t read in the MSM.
ADDED:
* DarkHorse podcast no 51 on the Duopoly and why the DNC wants a malleable old-timer like Biden than smart young people like Gabbard/Yang
