I, too, recall that sobriquet for Biden. While I’ll vote for him in a heartbeat if he wins the nomination, I also suspect you’re right to be skeptical.[quote=“paul_lukasiak, post:14, topic:89400”]
(he was known as the Senator from MBNA)
[/quote]
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I agree - but then again, Obama needed balance on the ticket. Let’s put it this way: Those who are a “little” racist can live with Joe. Hence, the middle white voters who are disillusioned with Trump.
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If you haven’t noticed, pretty much everyone, in both parties, gets a pass on things that happened 25+ years ago. No, it’s not right, but it’s mostly how the people outside of the blogosphere think.
This shows Biden has lost it. Voluntary busing was not the issue.
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and yet, somehow or other Joe Biden managed to have a long and productive working relationships with toxic segregationists…
I mean, get serious. As long as Biden didn’t engage in dog whistle politics, Obama would be cool with him. Obama too has bragged about how well he works with those he disagrees. Biden was chosen to be VP to send a signal to “white working class voters” that Obama was not a threat. And had Biden been thrown off the ticket in 2012, imagine how THAT would have been interpreted by “white working class voters”…
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I don’t think anyone considers him a closet racist. His problem is that he has trouble admitting mistakes. He’s overly defensive about his past, instead of just accepting that times have changed. It’s the same way he handled Anita Hill or the handsy complaints. His ego won’t let him make that last 10 yards to a touchdown on a full apology.
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I’ll be shocked if Joe loses more than 3-4% over this and I’ll be even more shocked if he loses about the same with black voters. I’m seeing a shitload of vitriol aimed at Harris from black voters and a shitload of vitriol aimed at Joe from white voters. This is going to be interesting.
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I remember the tensions over busing in the '60’s and '70’s – from a kid’s point of view… and how they broke out into violence in the northeast. My family moved to Houston in the early 70’s from Kansas City – the KC districts had been forcibly desegregated during the early 60’s but there was still “white flight” to the suburbs. Houston – being in the south – didn’t have busing because the school districts were already desegregated by court order for two decades.
I do, however, remember the stories on the evening news showing screaming parents, pickets and just really ugly, ugly racism. Biden saying that he didn’t oppose “voluntary busing” would have played very well to those racist white audiences…
That he still doesn’t get it is reason enough for me to not want him on the ticket.
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Try again.
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is
Definition of is (Entry 1 of 4)
present tense third-person singular of BE
dialectal present tense first-person and third-person singular of BE
dialectal present tense plural of BE
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Interesting…but only in strict moderation.
Voluntary desegregation, eh? I guess that’s marginally better than forcible apartheid, but it doesn’t make you Mr. Civil Rights.
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Sorry, Joe, but voluntary bussing wasn’t the issue.
I heard (on Sirius) much of his speech to the Rainbow Push coalition. He relied heavily on “the Obama/Biden Administration.” I don’t begrudge him taking advantage of the experience and accomplishments, nor do I suggest that he is racist, but it struck me as a guy talking a lot about “his black friend.”
He needs to focus less on the past and more on how he will use his experience to fulfill concrete goals for the future.
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I don’t know why, but a lot of people have trouble expressing disfavor toward Biden’s candidacy without making themselves look silly.
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Why do black voters have a problem with Harris?
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I’m curious. What does Joe mean by “voluntary busing”?
The reason desegregation was so controversial was because many white neighborhoods didn’t want it. So…would that make desegregation “involuntary” for them?
From what he said during the debate, it sounded like he wanted to blame the US Department of Education. Which is what the anti-desegregationists would do…
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You only get a pass if you acknowledge what you did, and admit it was a mistake.
Biden could do the country a tremendous service, by admitting that as an ambitious young Senator, he went overboard in trying to convince white working class voters that he had their backs – and that he’s learned a lot since then about how the kind of policies he supported, and rhetoric he engaged in, perpetuated the harm caused by centuries of American racism.
Instead he wants to rewrite history.
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I’m not saying Biden’s a racist. But I’m a dinosaur who remembers what it was like in 1975 or so, with areas like South Boston and Dorchester erupting in anti-busing riot. scaring the shit out of Democrats, White and Black. Busing was given up as a tool, which eviscerated Brown. Tactical decisions were made to let go of this. I still say it was a mistake. The battle for quality education for all continues, from a much weaker position than in the seventies. Obama was a good president but not a god. Harris also said in the debate last night that she opposed Obama on some immigration policies
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Because she made her way to the top as a prosecutor.