Imagine being a progressive forced to vote for Joe Biden. There aren’t enough clothespins in the world to hold your nose. Biden has lately tried to make inroads with the left, jumping onboard the post-George Floyd campaign for racial justice and releasing an economic plan that encompasses many progressive priorities. But even that can’t mask the smell of his support for the Iraq war, his authoring of the 1994 crime bill, his backing of 1996 welfare reform legislation.
Oh, and he essentially wrote the Patriot Act too. Here he is bragging about that during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2002, featuring, natch, a smirking Robert Mueller:
The bill Biden is boasting about was called the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995, which itself contained two subsidiary bills dedicated to fighting domestic terrorism. Biden introduced the legislation in the Senate, while then-congressman Chuck Schumer introduced it in the House, with the Clinton administration in full support. The package was backed by other Democrats too, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, and opposed by civil libertarians and many Republicans who were worried it would be used to, as Biden said, target conservative groups.
Read the rest of the article at The American Conservative.
Matt Purple is a senior editor at The American Conservative.
Biden sounds like a Progressive.
“Biden sounds like a Progressive.”
Depends on what you mean by “progressive.” If you mean “Democratic Party Hack,” then, yes, he’s a progressive. If you mean “someone committed to civil liberties and peace,” then, well, not so much.
Since when have “progressives” been “committed to civil liberties and peace?” The firs American “progressive” president was authoritarian warmonger Theodore Roosevelt and subsequent “progressives” seem to have been cast in pretty much the same mold.
Different meanings for the term. While Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were called “progressives,” today, judging by their self-identification, “progressives” do tend to support civil liberties and peace more than “conservatives.” From what I’ve seen of your writings, what I am referring to here as a “progressive,” you would term a “liberal,” i.e someone who generally is favorable to civil liberties and peace. But in contemporary use, “liberal” means what you call “progressive,” i.e. a warmongering social fascist who is, more than likely, a Democratic Party Hack. My definition of progressive would fit someone like Dennis Kucinich.
I will not argue definitions, I just wish to point out that there are many, many disagreements over which terms mean what. I tend to try to base it off of self-identification, keeping in mind that even terms derived from self-identification tend to change over time.
By your definition, Pat Buchanan is a progressive :)
Dementia.
Biden not only wrote what would become the USA PATRIOT Act, he is the reason that police have a “second Bill of Rights.” Because of Biden legislation, police do not have to answer questions about alleged wrongdoing until they have their lawyer at one elbow and a representative from the police union at the other. As a result, police routinely get away with murder. Thanks to Joe Biden.
“”Imagine being a progressive forced to vote for Joe Biden””
WTF, forced at gunpoint?
Seeing how often Biden has been dunned for plagiarism, we should take this ‘boast’ with an appropriate amount of salt.
Say hello to the new boss. Same as the old boss. The WHO