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Will Biden be the next Carter? His Democratic Party is unrecognisable

Ghosted by Carter. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Ghosted by Carter. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)


April 25, 2023   5 mins

On the face of it, Joseph Biden Jr and James Carter Jr ruled over two Americas, their terms separated by six administrations and more than four decades. Their futures, too, could not seem more divergent: today, as America’s 46th President declares his intention to remain in office, its 39th will remain at home receiving end-of-life care.

And yet, only 18 years separate the two men’s births; they are of the same generation. Perhaps it is no coincidence, then, that their political careers seem inextricably bound.

Both presidents were explicitly defined as the antithesis to a tumultuous predecessor, with Carter as the anti-Nixon and Biden as the anti-Trump. Both were elected into eras of high inflation. Both had low approval ratings. And both pursued a foreign policy of restraint that, according to their critics, only emboldened aggressors. Carter’s administration saw the Soviets invade Afghanistan, following the fall of Saigon under Nixon-Ford. Biden’s saw Russia invade Ukraine, following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban a year before.

For all these parallels, though, there is a crucial difference: the composition of their party. While Biden’s party has all but severed its ties with the white working class, Carter was the last president elected by the coalition that grew out of Roosevelt’s New Deal America. The states of the former Confederacy all voted for Carter, as did the Southern evangelical regions that would later become a mainstay of the Republican party. Carter also appealed to white voters in the northeast by promising not to use federal force to change what he called the “ethnic purity” of Irish-American, Italian-American and other neighbourhoods resistant to racial integration.

Even before Carter’s election, the future of the Democratic Party had been foreshadowed — in George McGovern’s doomed campaign of 1972 and Nixon’s landslide victory that followed. By the Obama years, the McGovern coalition of college-educated white voters and racial minorities was the Democratic mainstream, growing by absorbing many former liberal Republicans concerned by the rise of conservatism and populism within their party. What had been the obsessions of northeastern liberal Republicans in the 2000s — family planning and environmentalism — became the leading issues of a Democratic Party that caters to rich and professional elites.

This was not inevitable. Until 1975, Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, a Catholic as well as a liberal, insisted that human life begins at conception. By 1992, however, a brief period in which Democrats were allowed to disagree about the issue ended: at the Democratic convention that nominated Bill Clinton and Al Gore, Pennsylvania Governor, Bob Casey, was denied the right to speak because of his opposition to abortion rights.

Until the Seventies, the environmental movement had been similarly dominated by well-to-do, patrician northeastern voters, whose great cause was wilderness conservation. The New Deal Democrats, by contrast, favoured conservation as well as industrial and infrastructure development. But as wealthy Republicans switched their allegiance, the Democratic position shifted. The party began to call for the removal of more acreage from development and for increasingly draconian laws on what businesses and homeowners can do with their property. Just as its new pro-choice stance drove out many Catholic and evangelical Democrats, so the increasing environmentalism of the party, symbolised by Al Gore’s rise, alienated many former moderate Democrats.

Early in his career, Joe Biden was a New Democrat like Bill Clinton and, to some degree, Jimmy Carter: he was pro-business in economics and culturally moderate. But while Clinton was a socially moderate Southern governor like Carter, the rise of the McGovern coalition continued during his presidency. A 1996 Pew report described the alienation from the Democrats of New Dealers, whom it described as “older, unionist, socially conservative” (and implicitly white): “Clinton’s support is weakest and hostility to him strongest (23% unfavourable) here among all Democratic groups… New Dealers, who often defected to Ronald Reagan, are the Democratic group least satisfied with the quality of the presidential candidates this year. One in three (30%) would prefer a GOP Congress if Clinton is re-elected.”

By the time Obama was elected, this New Deal coalition was finally and fully replaced. Indeed, Trump owed his 2016 primary and presidential victories to his appeal to white working-class voters from traditionally Democratic families, many of them members of union families in the industrial states of the Midwest and mid-Atlantic. Rather than mourn their loss, many Democrats saw the expansion of their vote among college-educated Americans and immigrants and started to believe they could dispense with white working-class votes altogether.

Yet in 2020, fearing a second loss to Trump, Democratic elites rallied behind Biden and pressured the progressives and Sanders, in many ways an old-fashioned New Dealer, to drop out of the race. The other great voting bloc in the present-day Democrats — black Americans — was rallied to vote for Biden in the primaries, winning him the presidential nomination. Biden went on to win the presidency and, in the midterm elections two years later, lose the House of Representatives. The great wave of revulsion against Donald Trump that many Democrats had counted on in 2020 and 2022 turned out to be a trickle.

This didn’t dissuade Biden, though. His administration has been the most Left-wing in US history. While Obama sought to make concessions to moderates and conservatives, Biden’s domestic agenda has mirrored the aims of the billionaire-funded progressive non-profits and public-sector unions that now dominate policymaking in the party. In just one term, he attempted to impose an extreme lockdown agenda, meeting resistance in the courts, and ordered his executive agencies to make race and gender inclusion central to all of their activities, whatever they may be. Meanwhile, the border crisis continues to fester, and his much-touted Inflation Reduction Act appears to have done little to stem inflation, instead handing out cash to renewable energy firms and wealthy owners of electric vehicles.

Why did the Biden administration turn over policymaking to progressives, who make up only a quarter or so of the electorate and half of Democratic voters? One theory is that Biden wanted to forestall a more progressive challenger in the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries. Either way, Biden and his allies are taking no chances with his renomination: the Democrats have made South Carolina, with its large number of black voters who gave Biden the nomination in 2020, the first primary state, replacing Iowa and New Hampshire, whose largely white progressives are to the Left of many black Americans.

Whether this strategy bears fruit remains to be seen, but Biden has advantages that Jimmy Carter lacked. Although Carter responded forcefully to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Republicans portrayed him as weak, and the prolonged American hostage crisis in Iran and the failed mission to rescue the hostages damaged his reputation. To date, however, the mainstreams of both parties have supported Biden’s policies in Ukraine, and few Americans will condemn him for finally ending the war in Afghanistan.

And Biden possesses an ally that Carter did not have — the US media. America’s establishment newspapers and networks were often critical of Carter, and even though most journalists were Democrats, the prestige press attempted to treat Republicans fairly. But during the 2020s, America’s mainstream media organisations were radicalised into becoming more or less explicitly partisan Democratic outlets, even in their news coverage — playing up Republican scandals and downplaying anything harmful to Democrats. Biden has held far fewer press conferences than other presidents, raising questions about the effects of age. Yet the press continues to treat him as a leader whom they must shelter and support, rather than a president to be questioned and investigated.

But perhaps the greatest difference between Biden and Carter is also the President’s greatest strength. While Carter had to fight the genial Reagan for his second term, Biden may be engaged in a rematch with the scowling, histrionic Trump, who is leading among Republican voters. Some polls show Trump slightly ahead of Biden, but polls are not votes, and it is hard to imagine significant numbers of voters who went for Biden in 2020 switching to Trump.

Biden, then, unlike Carter, may succeed in becoming a two-term president. What will that mean for the Democrats? Well, there was something poignant about Biden recently letting slip that Carter had asked him to deliver his eulogy. It seemed entirely fitting. If and when Biden does fulfil Carter’s wish, it won’t just be a eulogy to America’s 39th President, but to a Democratic Party that no longer exists.


Michael Lind is a columnist at Tablet and a fellow at New America. His latest book is Hell to Pay: How the Suppression of Wages is Destroying America.


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Bruce V
Bruce V
1 year ago

“And Biden possesses an ally that Carter did not have — the US media”. I’ve lived through the 60’s onward and to me this recent systemic bias is the most troubling development of all. So many of todays’ coddled young people seem to lack even the barest basics of the mental toughness and skepticism needed to withstand such a daily onslaught of selectively biased news (from all sides). Yes that’s a gross generalization but I offer up the perceived need for “trigger warnings” as peoples exhibit A.          
In the US you can also add-in the late night so-called comedy talk shows to the mix as well. Jay Leno was left leaning but when he skewered one side he would always, and very deliberately, skewer the other side in the next joke. I always appreciated that as a subtle sign of respect for, or at least a tactical acknowledgment of, the mix and sensibilities of his audience.

Last edited 1 year ago by Bruce V
Chris Wheatley
Chris Wheatley
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruce V

I must be of a similar age to you. I remember that the most important thing for me was to be a ‘Grown-Up’. If I acted childishly people would say, “Grow up, will you!!” Growing up meant taking on a toughness – or at least a veneer of toughness. Nobody would look after me. I would have to stand on my own two feet.
Today young people seem to want to be young for ever. Someone else has to be there to protect them. If not the parents, then the government. Just the act of going to work produces ‘mental problems’ and help is required.
Where has this come from? Extenuating circumstances? The demise of the blue collar worker? I think it has come from OLD people.
When I was young the idea was to (at least) respect your parents – maybe to see their views as old-fashioned but views nevertheless. Today this has switched to parents having to respect their children and factor the childrens’ views into their everyday lives. Children will always be children, even if they are 30 years old. The children learn to play the vulnerability card, to get away from taking responsibility for themselves. They actually want to be treated as children for ever. Governments pounce on this as a means of controlling the voters – as you would expect governments to do.

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago
Reply to  Chris Wheatley

“OLD people” ?? Not so.
Middle to late-middle aged perhaps, but i can assure you that parents of my generation (i’m in my 60s) didn’t treat their children as you suggest.
But it may depend on how you define “old” – since i’m still nowhere near that stage!

Jeremy Sansom
Jeremy Sansom
1 year ago
Reply to  Chris Wheatley

“Where has this come from?” I
I agree partially with your assessment that the ‘old’ – my generation – are responsible. I suggest a more significant contribution comes from the determined deconstruction of our Judeo-Christian heritage. The tough-speaking, uncompromising, clear-thinking, vision-imparting, love-dealing, violence-eschewing Jesus of Nazareth, who demonstrated his commitment to solving the existential dilemmas of humanity by not resisting the most barbaric of executions, once acted for successive generations as a sublime role-model of soft power and grace and peace and wisdom and truth.
In failing to defend and promote his legacy, we have left this generation with a most perplexing question: “Who do we follow?”
Indeed, who now is qualified to reconcile man to God and usher us out of the despair and chaos of our times into a totally ‘other’ Kingdom?
Thank God! Jesus still reigns! There is always HOPE.

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago
Reply to  Chris Wheatley

“OLD people” ?? Not so.
Middle to late-middle aged perhaps, but i can assure you that parents of my generation (i’m in my 60s) didn’t treat their children as you suggest.
But it may depend on how you define “old” – since i’m still nowhere near that stage!

Jeremy Sansom
Jeremy Sansom
1 year ago
Reply to  Chris Wheatley

“Where has this come from?” I
I agree partially with your assessment that the ‘old’ – my generation – are responsible. I suggest a more significant contribution comes from the determined deconstruction of our Judeo-Christian heritage. The tough-speaking, uncompromising, clear-thinking, vision-imparting, love-dealing, violence-eschewing Jesus of Nazareth, who demonstrated his commitment to solving the existential dilemmas of humanity by not resisting the most barbaric of executions, once acted for successive generations as a sublime role-model of soft power and grace and peace and wisdom and truth.
In failing to defend and promote his legacy, we have left this generation with a most perplexing question: “Who do we follow?”
Indeed, who now is qualified to reconcile man to God and usher us out of the despair and chaos of our times into a totally ‘other’ Kingdom?
Thank God! Jesus still reigns! There is always HOPE.

Justin Clark
Justin Clark
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruce V

trigger warnings…and safe spaces… yup!

Courtney Maloney
Courtney Maloney
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruce V

The coddling has accelerated. There exisits rumbling from Language Patrol that “trigger warning” is itself, triggering.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruce V

Agreed. The media bias has been moving strongly in this direction since the Clinton years, but it has gotten woefully obvious in the last 6 years. There is only State media these days.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
1 year ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

When Elon Musk labeled NPR and PBS as ‘state media’ – they got all huffy and left the platform. The truth hurts.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
1 year ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

When Elon Musk labeled NPR and PBS as ‘state media’ – they got all huffy and left the platform. The truth hurts.

Chris Wheatley
Chris Wheatley
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruce V

I must be of a similar age to you. I remember that the most important thing for me was to be a ‘Grown-Up’. If I acted childishly people would say, “Grow up, will you!!” Growing up meant taking on a toughness – or at least a veneer of toughness. Nobody would look after me. I would have to stand on my own two feet.
Today young people seem to want to be young for ever. Someone else has to be there to protect them. If not the parents, then the government. Just the act of going to work produces ‘mental problems’ and help is required.
Where has this come from? Extenuating circumstances? The demise of the blue collar worker? I think it has come from OLD people.
When I was young the idea was to (at least) respect your parents – maybe to see their views as old-fashioned but views nevertheless. Today this has switched to parents having to respect their children and factor the childrens’ views into their everyday lives. Children will always be children, even if they are 30 years old. The children learn to play the vulnerability card, to get away from taking responsibility for themselves. They actually want to be treated as children for ever. Governments pounce on this as a means of controlling the voters – as you would expect governments to do.

Justin Clark
Justin Clark
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruce V

trigger warnings…and safe spaces… yup!

Courtney Maloney
Courtney Maloney
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruce V

The coddling has accelerated. There exisits rumbling from Language Patrol that “trigger warning” is itself, triggering.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruce V

Agreed. The media bias has been moving strongly in this direction since the Clinton years, but it has gotten woefully obvious in the last 6 years. There is only State media these days.

Bruce V
Bruce V
1 year ago

“And Biden possesses an ally that Carter did not have — the US media”. I’ve lived through the 60’s onward and to me this recent systemic bias is the most troubling development of all. So many of todays’ coddled young people seem to lack even the barest basics of the mental toughness and skepticism needed to withstand such a daily onslaught of selectively biased news (from all sides). Yes that’s a gross generalization but I offer up the perceived need for “trigger warnings” as peoples exhibit A.          
In the US you can also add-in the late night so-called comedy talk shows to the mix as well. Jay Leno was left leaning but when he skewered one side he would always, and very deliberately, skewer the other side in the next joke. I always appreciated that as a subtle sign of respect for, or at least a tactical acknowledgment of, the mix and sensibilities of his audience.

Last edited 1 year ago by Bruce V
Amy Horseman
Amy Horseman
1 year ago

Interesting, if depressing, piece. One correction. “And Biden possesses an ally that Carter did not have — the US media.” The US mainstream media is not a self-identifying “ally”, it is a bought and paid-for PR operation. State propaganda now permeates all of American life. The Biden administration even infiltrated and controlled the narrative on alternative media for a time. See the so-called “Twitter files” and censoring of academics such as Jay Battacharya. But they’ve just showed all their cards. Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox (regardless of whose choice this move was) will galvanise the backlash against the glaringly totalitarian agenda. It will be fascinating to watch the fall out.

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Horseman

Yes – US media is utterly polarised. And in any event, voters pay no attention to news anyway. On all sides, lies and facts are treated equally. On all sides, stories liked by any faction (left or right) will be highlighted, and conversely. In 2023, Watergate would barely make the front pages. And any censorious exposure thereof would nowadays only make a current-day Mr. Nixon more, not less, popular. The game has changed, and the rules now favour the people of shiny-eyed certainty, on all sides. Moderate / doubtful people everywhere now are a beleaguered and shrinking minority.   

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Horseman

Yes – US media is utterly polarised. And in any event, voters pay no attention to news anyway. On all sides, lies and facts are treated equally. On all sides, stories liked by any faction (left or right) will be highlighted, and conversely. In 2023, Watergate would barely make the front pages. And any censorious exposure thereof would nowadays only make a current-day Mr. Nixon more, not less, popular. The game has changed, and the rules now favour the people of shiny-eyed certainty, on all sides. Moderate / doubtful people everywhere now are a beleaguered and shrinking minority.   

Amy Horseman
Amy Horseman
1 year ago

Interesting, if depressing, piece. One correction. “And Biden possesses an ally that Carter did not have — the US media.” The US mainstream media is not a self-identifying “ally”, it is a bought and paid-for PR operation. State propaganda now permeates all of American life. The Biden administration even infiltrated and controlled the narrative on alternative media for a time. See the so-called “Twitter files” and censoring of academics such as Jay Battacharya. But they’ve just showed all their cards. Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox (regardless of whose choice this move was) will galvanise the backlash against the glaringly totalitarian agenda. It will be fascinating to watch the fall out.

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
1 year ago

‘Both were elected into eras of high inflation’

What was the inflation rate in Nov, 2020 when Biden was elected?
Two percent?

Of course, if Biden runs in 2024, he will get 82 or 83 million votes. Guaranteed.

Robert Cocco
Robert Cocco
1 year ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Pretty generous of the author to say they were both elected “into” eras of high inflation.

Robert Cocco
Robert Cocco
1 year ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Pretty generous of the author to say they were both elected “into” eras of high inflation.

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
1 year ago

‘Both were elected into eras of high inflation’

What was the inflation rate in Nov, 2020 when Biden was elected?
Two percent?

Of course, if Biden runs in 2024, he will get 82 or 83 million votes. Guaranteed.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
1 year ago

First – the author wrote: “Both (Carter and Biden) were elected into eras of high inflation” – FALSE – when Biden took over from Trump inflation was 1.6%….after Biden’s ENORMOUS spending push – inflation shot up to 10%+ and today hovers at 5 to 6 %.
Second – “Few Americans will condemn Biden for finally ending the war in Afghanistan” – Biden’s polls were fine, even great, prior to the debacle of a really horrendous pullout from Afghanistan. Biden’s polls subsequently dropped dramatically and have never risen again.
As for the Democrat Party – the author is correct – it is a shell of its former self. It was always corrupt (Kennedy cheated in Chicago in the 1960’s, etc)…but it’s corruption has reached new heights – Obama tapping Trump’s campaign, Hillary fake dossier and her Russia, Russia, Russia campaign, two faux impeachments, the FBI & CIA corruption for the DNC and now we find out that 51 CIA officials lied about the Hunter laptop (and there’s so much more..) – Who know what the Democrat Party stands for today – but for sure its hunger for power has exceeded all bounds.

Last edited 1 year ago by Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
1 year ago

First – the author wrote: “Both (Carter and Biden) were elected into eras of high inflation” – FALSE – when Biden took over from Trump inflation was 1.6%….after Biden’s ENORMOUS spending push – inflation shot up to 10%+ and today hovers at 5 to 6 %.
Second – “Few Americans will condemn Biden for finally ending the war in Afghanistan” – Biden’s polls were fine, even great, prior to the debacle of a really horrendous pullout from Afghanistan. Biden’s polls subsequently dropped dramatically and have never risen again.
As for the Democrat Party – the author is correct – it is a shell of its former self. It was always corrupt (Kennedy cheated in Chicago in the 1960’s, etc)…but it’s corruption has reached new heights – Obama tapping Trump’s campaign, Hillary fake dossier and her Russia, Russia, Russia campaign, two faux impeachments, the FBI & CIA corruption for the DNC and now we find out that 51 CIA officials lied about the Hunter laptop (and there’s so much more..) – Who know what the Democrat Party stands for today – but for sure its hunger for power has exceeded all bounds.

Last edited 1 year ago by Cathy Carron
TheElephant InTheRoom
TheElephant InTheRoom
1 year ago

The Biden admin is a disaster on every level.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
1 year ago

And the comment in the article about ‘the effects of age’. How kind. He clearly has dementia.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
1 year ago

And the comment in the article about ‘the effects of age’. How kind. He clearly has dementia.

TheElephant InTheRoom
TheElephant InTheRoom
1 year ago

The Biden admin is a disaster on every level.

Kent Ausburn
Kent Ausburn
1 year ago

Biden was not “elected into an era of inflation”, he and his party created the Era of inflation we are now in with their profligate spending.

Kent Ausburn
Kent Ausburn
1 year ago

Biden was not “elected into an era of inflation”, he and his party created the Era of inflation we are now in with their profligate spending.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago

I’m immediately suspect of the motivation of any “fellow” from New America, which is a think tank funded mostly by big tech, including the Gates Foundation. George Soros’s son is on the board for heaven’s sake and so are many elite left wing media people. If Wiki acknowledges them as merely a think tank, and Influence Watch labels them as “left-of-center”, then they must be a hard left organization. If an organization or think tank contains a shred of conservative thought, however, they are immediately labeled as “Far Right” by many.

Last edited 1 year ago by Warren Trees
Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago

I’m immediately suspect of the motivation of any “fellow” from New America, which is a think tank funded mostly by big tech, including the Gates Foundation. George Soros’s son is on the board for heaven’s sake and so are many elite left wing media people. If Wiki acknowledges them as merely a think tank, and Influence Watch labels them as “left-of-center”, then they must be a hard left organization. If an organization or think tank contains a shred of conservative thought, however, they are immediately labeled as “Far Right” by many.

Last edited 1 year ago by Warren Trees
Cho Jinn
Cho Jinn
1 year ago

“Well, there was something poignant about Biden recently letting slip that Carter had asked him to deliver his eulogy.”

Not the least dubious thing he has mumbled.

Cho Jinn
Cho Jinn
1 year ago

“Well, there was something poignant about Biden recently letting slip that Carter had asked him to deliver his eulogy.”

Not the least dubious thing he has mumbled.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

Biden will definitely NOT run for President, he may stagger, or totter, but he wont run.. Nor will Trump… he will just slide on his own slime…

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

Biden will definitely NOT run for President, he may stagger, or totter, but he wont run.. Nor will Trump… he will just slide on his own slime…

Betsy Warrior
Betsy Warrior
1 year ago

I’ll never vote again because the only two candidates are: worse and worser. These candidates aren’t chosen by the people. They’re chosen by party hacks, corporate paymasters, and billionaire hedge fund executives. Don’t tell me it’s my fault that I don’t get the government I want if I didn’t vote cause I’ve voted for decades and didn’t get the government I want and donated my hard-earned dollars as well. I remember when Howard Dean’s anti-war candidacy was smashed by the media and the Democratic party, and Al Gore’s win was sacraficed to the Supreme court, when the Dems tried to arrest Ralph Nader in Boston when he attempted to join the primary debate, and the shut off of Shirley Chisholm’s “Unbought & Unbossed” campaign, not to mention the shuttering of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren campaigns in Iowa.
It’s you who vote who are to blame because you go along with the charade, uphold the lie, participate in the stagecraft, perform in the performance. Not I, no longer. You, go ahead, lend them legitimacy and sell the lie to others by example.

Last edited 1 year ago by Betsy Warrior
Betsy Warrior
Betsy Warrior
1 year ago

I’ll never vote again because the only two candidates are: worse and worser. These candidates aren’t chosen by the people. They’re chosen by party hacks, corporate paymasters, and billionaire hedge fund executives. Don’t tell me it’s my fault that I don’t get the government I want if I didn’t vote cause I’ve voted for decades and didn’t get the government I want and donated my hard-earned dollars as well. I remember when Howard Dean’s anti-war candidacy was smashed by the media and the Democratic party, and Al Gore’s win was sacraficed to the Supreme court, when the Dems tried to arrest Ralph Nader in Boston when he attempted to join the primary debate, and the shut off of Shirley Chisholm’s “Unbought & Unbossed” campaign, not to mention the shuttering of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren campaigns in Iowa.
It’s you who vote who are to blame because you go along with the charade, uphold the lie, participate in the stagecraft, perform in the performance. Not I, no longer. You, go ahead, lend them legitimacy and sell the lie to others by example.

Last edited 1 year ago by Betsy Warrior
Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

I did ask Biden’s charge nurse, but apparently He is in the patients TV room waiting to hear more about the Kennedy news just in from Dallas…

Penny NG
Penny NG
1 year ago

Don’t forget, they also served together in federal offices in the 1970s. Some of us in a slightly younger group of their generation saw a Carter redux in the making in 2019. Even we, however, didn’t expect this.

Andrew Halliday
Andrew Halliday
1 year ago

As a left-winger myself I would not describe the Biden administration as the “most left-wing in US history”. “Very slightly less right-wing than some previous administrations” would be my description.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago

Biden’s politics and presidency don’t belong to any “wing”. Even with its progressive dimension, the institutional alignment and personal traditionalism (blue-collar-born churchgoer) of Biden makes him decidedly centrist and mainstream. That’s part of what makes many hate him.
Trump was very pro-business and presents a nostalgic, egoistic view of American greatness–but he is not man of tradition or old-fashioned good character (perhaps Biden isn’t either, but more so in my opinion) and not much of a political or social conservative. Trump has a radical disregard for norms, traditions, and people that do not serve him. That’s part of how he attracts an impressively broad coalition of the angry, desperate, and mischievous.

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Your comment only makes sense if one focuses on personality and demeanor while entirely ignoring policy moves. As if being chief executive of the United States is rather like hosting a talk show.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

So what Biden policies are radical or far-left and which Trump initiatives are big-C Conservative?
(Also, I’m talking more about electability, perception, and voter appeal–valid aspects of a political chat–than legislative or executive substance)

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

I think some of Trump’s moves were clearly conservative. Most crucially: the refusal to pursue further wars in the Middle East. Under constant pressure to do so, he wouldn’t escalate against Assad and he wouldn’t start anything in Iran. He put a stop to their regime change cash cow. This, more than anything, may be the reason the Deep State pulled out all the stops to get rid of him.

I’m also convinced Ukraine wouldn’t have happened had Trump been in the White House. He’d have seen the demand for Ukraine’s inclusion in NATO for what it clearly was: a recipe for war, *intended* to lead to war. He’d have scuttled it or insisted on a deal.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

Wow. Glad you’re convinced. The idea that Putin would have sat on his expansionist yearnings because of big bad Trump is not very convincing to anyone who’s not under DJT’s spell, from where I sit.
I think it’s far likelier Trump would have let Ukraine fall, denying, on the example of his bromance object Putin, that at least most of Ukraine was a separate nation at all.
I agree that Trump’s de facto lack of war-making, despite some reckless talk, was a positive aspect of his disastrous presidency and that his isolationism is a form of Conservatism.

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

Wow. Glad you’re convinced. The idea that Putin would have sat on his expansionist yearnings because of big bad Trump is not very convincing to anyone who’s not under DJT’s spell, from where I sit.
I think it’s far likelier Trump would have let Ukraine fall, denying, on the example of his bromance object Putin, that at least most of Ukraine was a separate nation at all.
I agree that Trump’s de facto lack of war-making, despite some reckless talk, was a positive aspect of his disastrous presidency and that his isolationism is a form of Conservatism.

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

I think some of Trump’s moves were clearly conservative. Most crucially: the refusal to pursue further wars in the Middle East. Under constant pressure to do so, he wouldn’t escalate against Assad and he wouldn’t start anything in Iran. He put a stop to their regime change cash cow. This, more than anything, may be the reason the Deep State pulled out all the stops to get rid of him.

I’m also convinced Ukraine wouldn’t have happened had Trump been in the White House. He’d have seen the demand for Ukraine’s inclusion in NATO for what it clearly was: a recipe for war, *intended* to lead to war. He’d have scuttled it or insisted on a deal.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

So what Biden policies are radical or far-left and which Trump initiatives are big-C Conservative?
(Also, I’m talking more about electability, perception, and voter appeal–valid aspects of a political chat–than legislative or executive substance)

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Your comment only makes sense if one focuses on personality and demeanor while entirely ignoring policy moves. As if being chief executive of the United States is rather like hosting a talk show.

Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago

As an ex-left-winger, I’d say the Biden admin is by far the most left wing in US history, if we take “left wing” in its dismal current usage, i.e. woke identity politics + censorship = being of the left.

As for standing up for any working class, regardless of race or sexual proclivity, no—of course Biden isn’t left wing. No Democrat is.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

You’re also referring largely to talking points or public presentation (identity politics) rather than policy–like the New Deal, which was far more left-wing than any recent major legislation–as if the presidency was largely a personality driven “bully pulpit”, which it is.
Incidentally, I largely agree with you despite the combative footing we’re on.

Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

No, Biden’s identity politics are backed up by policy moves. Not to mention by FBI investigations and harassment where there is no crime (of parents upset at school boards, of pro-life protesters). The spread of the definition of “domestic terrorism” is widely noted.

As for breaking of “norms and traditions”, Trump, for all his crassness, never sent the feds to invade Hillary Clinton’s home. Biden tacitly allowing a DA on his team to go after an ex-president over something as lame as the Stormy Daniels payments—thats a very, very bad precedent. Not sure I’ve seen a more signal break from American political norms in my lifetime, and I’m in my fifties.

But yes, we agree on the New Deal and that there is nothing really authentically left about Biden’s policies.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

Trump openly, publicly called for Clinton to be locked up. Led chants to that effect. No one but Trump or Jefferson Davis advocated overturning/revolting against an election–for any reason (there may have been an 1876 thing with Hayes and Sam Tilden, but I’m not well-versed and I won’t wiki-cheat). These aren’t mere personality quirks, nor trivial afterthoughts.
I don’t know where you’ve landed as a “former left-winger” (standpoint epistemology?), but it seems to be in quite a Trumpy or Trump-apologist place. Correct?

Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Chanting at rallies vs. sending the FBI/actual indictments. Notice the difference?

Step back and listen to what you’re saying. Trump’s “bromance” with Putin? Where did you even get that? I know where.

Compare Trump’s policies re: Russia with Obama’s.

As for why the war in Ukraine was inevitable, and stupidly walked into, John Mearsheimer’s summary lecture at the University of Chicago from a few years back (2016, I think) is the place to start. Expansionism? Indeed.

Last edited 1 year ago by Eric Mader
AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

Well my sources are left leaning, but varied and unlikely to be as bubble-wrapped as yours. I can certainly hear (“listen to”) myself assert that Trump engaged in sustained, wholesale demonization of his opponents, calling Democrats bad and evil people as a whole. Yes, many partisan and extreme lefties do this too, but not from the Oval Office.
Riling up crowds is worse than an FBI search Trump could have easily avoided, over the course of many months of refusing to comply. And inflaming the significant portion of the Jan 6 crowd (not half the electorate, or even half that crowd mind you) with a violent/white-power mindset was selfish, low, and deadly. Pence and Pelosi (for starters) were nearly mobbed to death.
Trump has repeatedly praised and adopted his version of a fawning tone in praising Putin’s strength, smarts, and “savviness” well into the Ukraine invasion–that’s where I get it. Where do you get the idea that Trump doesn’t admire dictatorial leaders like Vlad, Duterte, and Kim Jong Un?
I’m glad you don’t want Trump in 2024. Since I know you despise Old Joe (I don’t love him as a president): Who do you want to win?

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

Well my sources are left leaning, but varied and unlikely to be as bubble-wrapped as yours. I can certainly hear (“listen to”) myself assert that Trump engaged in sustained, wholesale demonization of his opponents, calling Democrats bad and evil people as a whole. Yes, many partisan and extreme lefties do this too, but not from the Oval Office.
Riling up crowds is worse than an FBI search Trump could have easily avoided, over the course of many months of refusing to comply. And inflaming the significant portion of the Jan 6 crowd (not half the electorate, or even half that crowd mind you) with a violent/white-power mindset was selfish, low, and deadly. Pence and Pelosi (for starters) were nearly mobbed to death.
Trump has repeatedly praised and adopted his version of a fawning tone in praising Putin’s strength, smarts, and “savviness” well into the Ukraine invasion–that’s where I get it. Where do you get the idea that Trump doesn’t admire dictatorial leaders like Vlad, Duterte, and Kim Jong Un?
I’m glad you don’t want Trump in 2024. Since I know you despise Old Joe (I don’t love him as a president): Who do you want to win?

Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Chanting at rallies vs. sending the FBI/actual indictments. Notice the difference?

Step back and listen to what you’re saying. Trump’s “bromance” with Putin? Where did you even get that? I know where.

Compare Trump’s policies re: Russia with Obama’s.

As for why the war in Ukraine was inevitable, and stupidly walked into, John Mearsheimer’s summary lecture at the University of Chicago from a few years back (2016, I think) is the place to start. Expansionism? Indeed.

Last edited 1 year ago by Eric Mader
AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

Biden is the more signal break?! Nah. You seem keen to deny that the U.S. presidency is also a position of world influence and governance across instead of toward division, not executive policy alone (or even mainly). I’m in my fifties too.

Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

I have plenty of problems with Trump, and would prefer he not run again. I think our fake left, however, is ruining the republic. Treating half the electorate as terrorists and baselessly labelling them “white supremacists” is not democratic. Or prudent. Aside from all the other imprudence and weaponization of our institutions.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

I agree with the substance of those particular remarks, though not your absolute, to-me-hyperbolic tone (“ruining the republic!!!”). And I think it’s absurd to put Biden on the hook for woke idiocy.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

I agree with the substance of those particular remarks, though not your absolute, to-me-hyperbolic tone (“ruining the republic!!!”). And I think it’s absurd to put Biden on the hook for woke idiocy.

Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

I have plenty of problems with Trump, and would prefer he not run again. I think our fake left, however, is ruining the republic. Treating half the electorate as terrorists and baselessly labelling them “white supremacists” is not democratic. Or prudent. Aside from all the other imprudence and weaponization of our institutions.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

Trump openly, publicly called for Clinton to be locked up. Led chants to that effect. No one but Trump or Jefferson Davis advocated overturning/revolting against an election–for any reason (there may have been an 1876 thing with Hayes and Sam Tilden, but I’m not well-versed and I won’t wiki-cheat). These aren’t mere personality quirks, nor trivial afterthoughts.
I don’t know where you’ve landed as a “former left-winger” (standpoint epistemology?), but it seems to be in quite a Trumpy or Trump-apologist place. Correct?

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

Biden is the more signal break?! Nah. You seem keen to deny that the U.S. presidency is also a position of world influence and governance across instead of toward division, not executive policy alone (or even mainly). I’m in my fifties too.

Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

No, Biden’s identity politics are backed up by policy moves. Not to mention by FBI investigations and harassment where there is no crime (of parents upset at school boards, of pro-life protesters). The spread of the definition of “domestic terrorism” is widely noted.

As for breaking of “norms and traditions”, Trump, for all his crassness, never sent the feds to invade Hillary Clinton’s home. Biden tacitly allowing a DA on his team to go after an ex-president over something as lame as the Stormy Daniels payments—thats a very, very bad precedent. Not sure I’ve seen a more signal break from American political norms in my lifetime, and I’m in my fifties.

But yes, we agree on the New Deal and that there is nothing really authentically left about Biden’s policies.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Mader

You’re also referring largely to talking points or public presentation (identity politics) rather than policy–like the New Deal, which was far more left-wing than any recent major legislation–as if the presidency was largely a personality driven “bully pulpit”, which it is.
Incidentally, I largely agree with you despite the combative footing we’re on.

Rob C
Rob C
1 year ago

Less right-wing than all previous presidents. Perhaps Franklin Roosevelt or Johnson made bigger changes, but Biden is less right-wing than them.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob C

So now even FDR is some version of right-wing? If that’s the case, then the term has been exploded to the point of incoherence.

Rob C
Rob C
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

I’m trying not to trigger the guy I was responding to. I should have said “less to the right of”. Relative vs absolute terms.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob C

I see. Fair enough.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob C

I see. Fair enough.

Rob C
Rob C
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

I’m trying not to trigger the guy I was responding to. I should have said “less to the right of”. Relative vs absolute terms.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob C

So now even FDR is some version of right-wing? If that’s the case, then the term has been exploded to the point of incoherence.

Susan Grabston
Susan Grabston
1 year ago

A true left winger understands it’s always about the money. The sleight of hand that took the left from Occupy Wall St to Woke is no accident. The soi-disant left is now simply a mouthpiece of billionnaire weath protectionists who permit a left of centre culturalism as a way to divde and rule.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago

Biden’s politics and presidency don’t belong to any “wing”. Even with its progressive dimension, the institutional alignment and personal traditionalism (blue-collar-born churchgoer) of Biden makes him decidedly centrist and mainstream. That’s part of what makes many hate him.
Trump was very pro-business and presents a nostalgic, egoistic view of American greatness–but he is not man of tradition or old-fashioned good character (perhaps Biden isn’t either, but more so in my opinion) and not much of a political or social conservative. Trump has a radical disregard for norms, traditions, and people that do not serve him. That’s part of how he attracts an impressively broad coalition of the angry, desperate, and mischievous.

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago

As an ex-left-winger, I’d say the Biden admin is by far the most left wing in US history, if we take “left wing” in its dismal current usage, i.e. woke identity politics + censorship = being of the left.

As for standing up for any working class, regardless of race or sexual proclivity, no—of course Biden isn’t left wing. No Democrat is.

Rob C
Rob C
1 year ago

Less right-wing than all previous presidents. Perhaps Franklin Roosevelt or Johnson made bigger changes, but Biden is less right-wing than them.

Susan Grabston
Susan Grabston
1 year ago

A true left winger understands it’s always about the money. The sleight of hand that took the left from Occupy Wall St to Woke is no accident. The soi-disant left is now simply a mouthpiece of billionnaire weath protectionists who permit a left of centre culturalism as a way to divde and rule.

Andrew Halliday
Andrew Halliday
1 year ago

As a left-winger myself I would not describe the Biden administration as the “most left-wing in US history”. “Very slightly less right-wing than some previous administrations” would be my description.

Emery Roe
Emery Roe
1 year ago

Yes, let’s blame Biden and forget all about the alt-right crazies in the US.

Amy Horseman
Amy Horseman
1 year ago
Reply to  Emery Roe

Who are the “alt-right” crazies? I’m not familiar with this term.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Horseman

Here’s a few introductory examples: Bogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, the “classic good ol’ boys” of the KKK, Nick Fuentes, and Richard Spencer.
Many among the above list keep their composure and their views differ, but they are all some combination of violence-ready ethnocentrists and straight-up blood-and-soil bigots.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Horseman

Here’s a few introductory examples: Bogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, the “classic good ol’ boys” of the KKK, Nick Fuentes, and Richard Spencer.
Many among the above list keep their composure and their views differ, but they are all some combination of violence-ready ethnocentrists and straight-up blood-and-soil bigots.

Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  Emery Roe

General rule, Emery: Read the article before you comment.

Amy Horseman
Amy Horseman
1 year ago
Reply to  Emery Roe

Who are the “alt-right” crazies? I’m not familiar with this term.

Eric Mader
Eric Mader
1 year ago
Reply to  Emery Roe

General rule, Emery: Read the article before you comment.

Emery Roe
Emery Roe
1 year ago

Yes, let’s blame Biden and forget all about the alt-right crazies in the US.