Let Us Know, Joe?

I would rather have a progressive who compromises with moderates than a moderate who tries to unite the nation by making concessions to uncompromising right wing Republicans. Today the panicked pundits are wringing their hands over the threat Trump poses to this nation, and they are urging Bernie Sanders to show his support for the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, by dropping out of the race. That is not going to happen – at least not yet. Bernie just announced that he is staying in the race. I know many people will disagree with Bernie's contention that he is winning the ideological debate while losing the electability debate. But Bernie is not wrong in stating that most people and particularly Democrats now favor a single payer health care plan! Most people also know that the system is rigged to allow the rich to get much richer at the expanse of the working men and women of this nation.

So if Bernie is almost certain to lose the race for delegates but he is winning the policy debate, why is he still running? The answer is that the reaction of the voters to Bernie's agenda is not that simple. In regard to health care and other systemic economic issues the devil is in the details. While most people know the system is broken, the many decades the Republicans have spent vilifying socialism and crying about tax and spend liberals continues to muddy the water. Older voters in particular are sensitive to any increase in taxes, and they often voice their objections to all taxes while ignoring the fact that what those taxes pay for actually saves them money in the long run. Meanwhile a younger generation is saying: “Hey gramps, that pothole you curse when you hit it every morning is going to cost you a lot more than the taxes you would have to pay to fix it!” The bottom line is that there is not just a divide between Democrats and Republicans, and a divide between progressives and moderates, there is also a divide between younger and older generations.

Could that be why Joe Biden has gone from portraying himself as the safe (read moderate) candidate to now insisting that he is actually a progressive candidate? To state the obvious, he will need the Bernie or progressive wing of the party and the youth vote to win the general election! In this regard I want to tell the people who are blaming Bernie for Hillary Clinton losing to Trump in 2016 to stop it! That election was Hillary's to win or lose, and, with a little help of Comey and Putin, she lost it. Then as now Bernie continues to press for systemic changes because he knows we are in need of such changes. Bernie did not set out to sabotage Hillary or to elect Trump. Whether Bernie should stop campaigning for his policies now is not an easy one to answer. Asking his supporters to hold their noses and vote for an agenda they consider inadequate in order to get rid of the dangerously corrupt and incompetent Trump agenda is going to be a hard sell. Like it or not, Bernie has redefined progressive, and Joe's attempts to now claim the progressive mantle makes Joe sound like he just does not get it. Bernie's young supporters do not have to see the end of the rainbow, but they do have to feel as though they are at least moving toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

Joe Biden has to be aware of the unrest of our times. He has to know that what he is offering is not new or exciting. At best he is saying that he has been a progressive and is not adverse to change. He should assure the voters that he will encourage and embrace any positive changes congress can deliver, and he should urge voters to elect Democratic senators and congress members who can bring about those changes. In other words, Joe Biden's first goal must be to seek unity within his own party. He needs to convince us that he will be a moderate who compromises with progressives rather than a moderate who makes concessions to uncompromising right wing Republicans. Because we all know what a nihilistic pile of crap the Republican Party has become, Joe must accept the fact that making concessions to Republicans and compromising with progressives are mutually exclusive choices.

Is there anything Joe Biden could do that would keep me from voting for him in the general election? Probably not.  As Bernie said, "beating Trump is the most important thing." What I am saying here is that we need Joe's help in convincing disappointed young people who support Bernie to vote for Joe. As I said about Hillary Clinton, this is Joe 's election to win or lose!