Clinging To Power
It’s been about two weeks since one demented, racist, serially–dishonest sexual predator defeated the other demented, racist, serially–dishonest sexual predator in the 2020 American Presidential election.
Do we know which one? Probably. Does it really matter? Depends on how you look at it.
If replacing a straight-up fascist with a mere willing ally of fascists constitutes a major improvement, then that at the very least can be counted as a win for the good guys. Furthermore, said fascist’s refusal to accept the election results certainly highlights what a danger he is and always has been to democracy (or the flimsy illusion of it, anyway), not to mention the urgency of ousting him, in the short term.
Long-term, however, the obvious (and sometimes literal) crappiness of his replacement all but assures the rise and election of a more effective and malignant fascist in the near future, possibly as soon as four years from now.
In the meantime, Biden has already signaled that his Administration will do little or nothing to advance positive, meaningful or necessary action on any one of the serious issues currently facing the United States, to say nothing of the entire world, and will instead seek cooperation with the very gremlins who are determined to make things worse, while continuing to publicly snub everyone who knows better.
His statements about policy goals and plans for the future are often so meaningless, vague or contradictory as to be irrelevant; the only times they seem to show any consistency at all is when they’re actively terrible. The roadmap for his likely agenda has already been drawn up and certified by his long history of friendship with segregationists and support for their Cause; his deliberate efforts to essentially criminalize being black or poor; his slavish devotion to corporate pharmaceutical, insurance, and fossil fuel giants; and finally his wheezing, elderly hard-on for wars of imperialism.
On most of these issues, Biden is a lateral move from Trump in terms of awfulness—the latter is the only area where he’s significantly, unquestionably worse. Trump has been so busy waging war on his own constituents that he hasn’t had much time or the attention span for America’s many wars against foreigners, especially compared to his immediate predecessors.
Unsurprisingly, he seems to have been more concerned with vapid, macho displays of military power than he has with actually doing anything of consequence with it. He’s a racist dog with mushy dentures, mindlessly barking into a series of interconnected megaphones.
Biden, on the other hand, was one of the most aggressive Democratic cheerleaders for the 2003 Invasion of Iraq (exactly like his party’s previous nominee for President—are you sensing a pattern?); agreed with Barack Obama’s use of drones to commit mobster-like crimes against humanity; and just recently foreshadowed a desire to establish new battlefronts in America’s War On Anyone Who Won’t Hand Over Their Oil (Except For Saudi Arabia).
Yeah, Trump’s said the same kinda stuff many times while manically tweeting through his latest methamphetamine-fried chicken binge, but as stated above, while he’s had ample opportunity to act on those threats, they’ve generally proven to be little more than the hot-air ramblings of a loudmouthed but impotent thug, like when the dictator of North Korea waves nuclear missiles around as surrogates for his ding-dong. No wonder the two of them are such good pals!
Biden has already shown he usually will not hesitate to authorize and enable acts of excessive force against large masses of mostly-harmless, dark-skinned civilians, both domestically and abroad, and despite his creeping senility, he’s remained as steadfast and erect in those commitments to state-sponsored violence and oppression as he has to invading the personal spaces of visibly-uncomfortable women and little girls.
Of course, that final detail there represents the most ridiculous manner in which Trump and Biden are indistinguishable from one another—hence the imagery in my cartoon above, which acts as both a metaphor for their similarities, and a literal depiction of that one in particular.
What do you think? If you liked my drawing or my thoughts on the related topics, please consider supporting them with a donation, as I recently lost my day job, and just like the rest of you, I clearly cannot depend on the incoming President for any sort of rescue any more than I can depend on the outgoing one.
I promise I won’t take your donation, then immediately turn around and start doing political favors for billionaires and death–merchants, unlike these assholes.
One Response to “Clinging To Power”
All other nonsense in this article aside, Terrence, this bit:
“Do we know which one? Probably.”
There is no “probably” about it. Joe Biden won the popular vote by about as wide a margin as Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in 2012, more than the margin by which George W. Bush beat John Kerry in 2004, or Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford in 1976. This is undisputed. What is disputed in court is whether or not votes from black people really count. SPOILER ALERT: They do.
Incidentally, while Donald Trump is the first CANDIDATE this year who has suggested Biden’s votes from black people shouldn’t count, his supporters are not the first to suggest they shouldn’t. Believe it or not (and I somehow doubt you will), Biden won the popular vote of the Democratic primaries by the third widest margin in the history of contested Democratic primaries. (Obviously, Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2012 absolutely crushed their main opponent, “Uncommitted.”) Only Al Gore in 2000 – whose sole plausible opponent, Bill Bradley, never got his campaign off the ground – and John Kerry in 2004 – where Howard Dean collapsed immediately upon losing Iowa – did better.
Biden, on the other hand, despite coming in with a field of not one or two, but (at a minimum) FIVE plausible contenders, despite not even coming in third in Iowa OR New Hampshire, despite losing the most delegate-rich state of California, ended up beating second-place finisher Bernie Sanders by almost 10 million votes, or over 25% of the total ones cast.
How did he manage to pull that off? Well, once black people started voting in South Carolina, he did REALLY well. And don’t think Bernie supporters don’t know that. I can show you some pages.
If you’re saying there will be Electoral College shenanigans, no. There won’t be. Not enough to do anything, anyway. Don’t get me wrong, if Trump were the skilled negotiator and salesman he has told us for the last 40 years he is, there might be. But instead, his negotiation and sales strategy has turned out to be bullying and throwing a temper tantrum, which has a funny habit of turning off the people who might otherwise be inclined to help you out. Of the six states where he has been throwing his hissy fit, he would need to win AT LEAST two, depending on the two. Nevada is run by Democrats. He has pissed off Republicans in Georgia to the point where they’ve told him to go to Hell. Arizona has told him not to bother even asking. He has so signaled his intentions that Michigan’s Democratic executive branch has made it clear their laws make it impossible for him to do what he’s trying to do. That leaves Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which even if he COULD steal them (highly unlikely), would still give Biden 273 electoral votes – more than enough.
The only way Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. of Delaware does not become President of the United States at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the 20th of January, 2021 is if he dies, becomes incapacitated or for whatever reason steps aside, and it’s Kamala Devi Harris of California, instead.
But he won. Not “probably.” Factually.
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