Biden is, yet again, being scapegoated. Perhaps this is propaganda that this is being pushed by some group; it is striking the way Biden gets no credit for his genuine successes, while every failure is magnified.
From @pwnallthethings.bsky.social, this summary: “Folks forget what the start of the term looked like. 2021 began with the COVID vaccine rollout, and rollback of Trump EOs; the end of it and start of 2022 began with Russia invading Ukraine, and the end of 2022 saw a giant economic crisis. And between that time, they also got CHIPS, IRA, KBJ to SCOTUS, Sweden and Finland into NATO, all through a Senate majority of one where Sinema and Manchin could either (or both) halt anything. And in 2023-2025 they did not have the House.”
I am struck by the way Biden is constantly blamed for things that are not his fault. He didn’t seat a hostile Supreme Court, dominated by wealth and fanaticism. He didn’t make four decades of economic policy that widely impoverished Americans. He didn’t make the deals that sent American manufacturing to China. He didn’t make Hamas make war on women and children or Benjamin Netanyahu a corrupt leader who would make common cause with brutal religious fanatics. Yet he is blamed for all of this.
I think the reason people are saying “the economy is terrible” is that they have suddenly noticed how bad things have gotten over the past 40 years. But this is not the fault of the Biden administration; the Biden administration is actually trying to make things better, having some success at it, and getting no credit for it, even from much of their own party.
Biden has had a lot of policy successes and he gets credit for none of them. As I said above, he seems to get the credit for nothing and the blame for everything. The press is treating him the way they did Hillary Clinton. I think also he’s being blasted for being politic and not being theatrical – demagogical – enough.
I wonder if the US founders, in their reading of classical history, understood that much of the public actually likes demagogy. I suspect they did.
Dictators use both fear and the democratic process to take power. Everyoine is urging Americans to get out and vote Blue to defeat Trump and the MAGAts. That will only go so far. no one talkes about the fear factor that drives people into the Trump crowd or prevents them from doing their job. People will not be allowed to vote in great numbers. Federal e;ections are not controlled by a Federal Election Commission but are conduscted at the whim of ever two-bit county. Voters are being purged in their millions. People are being trained in voter intimiadation at the polls. Is there a plan to counter this? State militia and police are onside of the GOP. Will federal forces be needed?
ReplyDelete