A passionate appeal from former vice president Joe Biden writing in The Atlantic:
If it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now: We are living through a battle for the soul of this nation.
The giant forward steps we have taken in recent years on civil liberties and civil rights and human rights are being met by a ferocious pushback from the oldest and darkest forces in America. Are we really surprised they rose up? Are we really surprised they lashed back? Did we really think they would be extinguished with a whimper rather than a fight?
Did we think the charlatans and the con-men and the false prophets who have long dotted our history wouldn’t revisit us, once again prop up the immigrant as the source of all our troubles, and look to prey on the hopelessness and despair that has grown up in the hollowed-out cities and towns of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and the long-forgotten rural stretches of West Virginia and Kentucky?
We have fought this battle before—but today we have a special challenge.
Today we have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and Klansmen and those who would oppose their venom and hate.
We have an American president who has emboldened white supremacists with messages of comfort and support.
...
Then a week after Boston, we saw the truth of this president: He won’t stop. His contempt for the U.S. Constitution and willingness to divide this nation knows no bounds. Now he’s pardoned a law-enforcement official who terrorized the Latino community, violated its constitutional rights, defied a federal court order to stop, and ran a prison system so rife with torture and abuse he himself called it a “concentration camp.”
You, me, and the citizens of this country carry a special burden in 2017. We have to do what our president has not. We have to uphold America’s values. We have to do what he will not. We have to defend our Constitution. We have to remember our kids are watching. We have to show the world America is still a beacon of light.
Joined together, we are more than 300 million strong. Joined together, we will win this battle for our soul. Because if there’s one thing I know about the American people, it’s this: When it has mattered most, they have never let this nation down.
17 comments:
With each passing day King Trump becomes more entrenched and more confident in himself.
He is also becoming more difficult to remove as he manipulates and ignores due process.
Biden offers nothing but words.
Until Hillary is gone and an electable successor is found the opposition to Trump will remain powerless and rudderless.
TB
Hillary IS gone and has been since November 9, 2016. What's more, she won't be back.
We won't see a successor until 2019, but that makes no difference at all. During the numerous Trumpcare votes, the Democrats in opposition showed they could vote as a block and stop Blue Dogs like Joe Manchin from peeling off to join the GOP. Without that solidarity, the ACA would already be dead. Far from being rudderless, Schumer and Pelosi have done an excellent job in keeping the party focused despite the daily outrages coming out of Twittler.
Cap
Hillary is a constant reminder to the Republicans of why they voted for Trump.
GW Bush had the good advise or forethought to vanish after his tenure.
In the UK Tony Blair is a reminder to many; not to trust 'New" Labour.
Greed and narcissism are common traits of the pretend Socialist, Blair and Hillary Clinton.
Maybe I miss the boat on Schumer and Pelosi.
It is possible I mistake their silence for patience as they watch and wait as the GOP self implodes.
TB
.. I expect we'll continue to see the aging pus sack 'president' continue to prove exactly how abjectly limited he is, on a daily basis. The preening, girning & mugging for audiences of the ignorant will go on & on.. the lies, pretensions, abject fails as well. The nepostism & conflicts of interest etc. But to underestimate a Mueller, a Biden.. Hillary or especially an Obama.. or presume the Dem Party is not grinding away, very methodically in the background would be a mistake. At the same time, I believe there are outside & foreign entities looking to disrupt American politics. Humiliating Pres Clump financially, or his family and/or the GOP via revealing debts & indiscretions is certainly a liklihood. Russians? Chinese! ISIS? Political rivals? Disgruntled folks or companies who've been ripped off?
But realistically the blundering fool is accomplishing it all without any help.. or conspiracy. Tearing away at any remaining fabric of the American nation & bringing to the fore.. freaks, creeps, twisted scumbags and diseased mainstream media like Hannity, Alex Jones, Limbaugh etc..
So Hillary should leave the US forever or commit seppuku perhaps. What about her spouse and off spring - are they reminders of her too? How about the people who worked in her Senate office or on her campaigns?
Snap out of it for fuck sake.
Along with her positive attributes and the contributions to public service for which she is and will continue to be respected by those who have agreed with them, Hillary remains a person whose manner of communication to the public can be annoyingly condescending but is more often merely irritating. Her remark that both her husband and Obama were superior politicians suggests that she probably has a general awareness of this shortcoming. This is simple stuff, but it matters over in the Etch Test. It's most annoying that her coaching has been so piss-poor. I think the party has already realized any benefit that's likely to ensue from a continuation of her grating public presentations. Just try listening to the featured spoken extracts from her most recent book.
"In the UK Tony Blair is a reminder to many; not to trust 'New" Labour."
Right on TB... - UK hates Blair as much as, or more than the Tories.
Corbyn talked right over the media assassination and was/is embraced.
"So Hillary should leave the US forever or commit seppuku perhaps. What about her spouse and off spring - are they reminders of her too? How about the people who worked in her Senate office or on her campaigns? "
Thanks Dana, this is exactly what should happen ... they should join Blair on a desert island somewhere. As long as they are in the way, it will be difficult for decent progressive leadership to emerge in the dis-United States of America.
"Decent progressive leadership in the dis-United States of America" almost made me laugh out loud but not quite.
Not in the remaining lifetime of the planet dear boy. Put it out of your mind. It remains just barely possible in dear old Canada though the odds decrease weekly. Best to spend your optimism where there is some chance of reward - even if only very slight.
What I find remarkable about those who proudly wear the banner of the New and Improved left is they are pretty much as limited in their ability to see reality as those they so sanctimoniously scorn. As in Uncle Joe does stump speech followed by hurrahs! Trump, is always on the Stump because he really doesn't have anything else. And poor Hillary the Maligned! Why she was just a good old girl, never meaning no harm. Lest you were Libyan or a Syrian. The once great White Female Hope who, despite her documented record of really bad judgement, was going to lead all youse Progs to the Promised Land! Once you got over her and dear Debbie putting in the fix..natch. Debbie did Bernie but he didn't have a Happy Ending :(
It's disparaging. I wonder about the new Progs ability to remember things in this age of the iphone, snapchat etc. Things that are important to remember.
A creative soul expressed Hillary vs. Trump thusly;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQA8W9Y4c3g
I empathize.
I find this persistent focus on Hillary more than curious. Few American progressives of my acquaintance were fond of her. She was not of the Left as some here suggest. By Canadian standards Hillary, at best, was what we would call a Red Tory. In any event she had her shot, Trump defeated her in the Electoral College, and Mrs. Clinton is history. Time to move on.
She was as progressive as the US zeitgeist will allow a sitting pol to be. Which is to say not progressive at all.
So now we, the enlightened, obsess over Trump the Horrible? Even though Hillary, the Horrible would most likely have been just as distasteful. Except she was more skilled as a smooth talking huckster than that other halfwit.
Them folks on the other side of the world are going to take away our Exceptional Peoples Crown you know, if we don't soon smarten up.
Oh yes indeed and I'm sure you believe that Gore would have been no better than Bush and Obama no better than Romney and Kennedy no better than Nixon and Nixon no better than Humphrey and so on.
And who the fuck is this "we"? Are you another half-wit operating under the delusion that the US Constitution is ours too?
"Are you another half-wit operating under the delusion that the US Constitution is ours too? "
Have you watched our public broadcaster or CTV lately? Do you go to the CBC website or what's left of Canadian MSM? It's all about the US now, Trump and more Trump. I've never in my life seen anything like it and I don't know how old you are, but your penchant for assumptions suggests you are a whole lot younger, and less experienced than me. So don't assume laddy O.
As for Obama, if you still believe in the Hope and Change mantra, well, you might just be another hopeless dreamer
Oh fuck off asshole.
As for obsessing over Trump the Horrible, my personal experience of the American presidency dates back to Eisenhower. There's been nothing to compare to Trump in American history. What are his credentials? Deviant, pervy old man, serial sex offender (by his own admission), pathological liar, chronic narcissist (personality disorder), apparent money launderer, cheat, a history rich in sociopathic conduct, inarticulate, profoundly ignorant in economic, domestic and foreign affairs as well as American history, vain, impulsive and unable to restrain himself, thuggish, undemocratic, indifferent and at times hostile to the rule of law and the Constitution, and in so many ways racist. The man is profoundly degenerate and mentally unstable. And yet he's entrusted with the nuclear launch codes that could bring life on Earth to a horrifying end. And you think we're "obsessed" with this fiend?
Do tell me which of these listed "attributes" you most admire in this man?
The stupid prick admires them all.
I'm sure it's understood by now that I have a very low regard for humanity and the various sacred sows and cows that have been vomited up over the millennia.
This asshole is a splendid examplar for my contempt.
Utter idiocy displayed proudly, loudly, even devoutly.
The gene pool is irretrievably ruined.
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