From what I recall it was not just whites. It was hugely unpopular with everyone. People did not want to send their children to schools that were miles away. That is why the feds did not mandate busing. I think that Harris took a cheap and incorrect shot for political gain. She is educated. She knows the issues at the time. The history of this busing issue is much bigger than Joe Biden’s stand on busing. If Harris is personally hurt by this as she indicated in the debate, she has a long list of people to confront as she did Biden.
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Why don’t you listen to his speech, instead of just throwing spitballs. Biden has done more for civil rights in his career than anyone else in public life, today. His sin last night was not being prepared - or not insisting on the right - to lay it all out. In presidential politics that’s a big sin, alright, which he will probably pay a price for. But you just don’t want him for president, and don’t want to listen to him. That is your right.
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Biden was Obama’s first huge mistake. Then Rahm Emanuel. And James Comey… and on and on.
Did you hear Joe Hands say last night that Obama charged him to get the troops out of Afghanistan? How’d that go?
Mostly, they’re not. Look at Chicago, where the policy has been magnet school integration, where Blacks and Latinx kids are schooled with White kids whose parents are okay with the idea and self-select into them. Throw charters into the mix, and close a bunch of public schools in Black communities.
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what gets me about the whole “bussing” thing is the hypocrisy.
While the Bidens of the world always talked a good game about improving educational opportunities blacks in “de facto” segregated schools, no real sustained effort to improve “black schools” was ever passed by Congress.
If Biden’s position had been to first ensure sufficient funding for black schools BEFORE passing legislation restricting bussing, he would be on solid ground. But he only talked a good game about improving black schools, while helping white taxpayers maintain the superiority of white schools.
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In some places busing was used to desegregate but it was not because the feds mandated it,
I like Harris and would be happy with her as the nominee, but agree this was a calculated move to take down her competitor on live TV. She seemed to be placing the entire blame for the discrimination endured in her childhood on Biden, and trying to cast him as a racist who is responsible for it.
Yeah, she knows better, but it made for great TV and got her lots of headlines, especially since Biden wasn’t prepared and ended up sputtering a weak defense.
Joe, if you are explaining 24 hours later, you already lost the argument.
After watching the debates it seems to me that Joe’s heart just really isn’t in this election.
He seems reluctant to defend himself (which is a big change from his earlier self) and unprepared (not Bernie Sanders-level unprepared, falling back on his Evil Big Corporations mantra for every answer) but Joe seemed actually surprised when Harris attacked him. Not like the 2008/2012 Joe at all.
With so many good candidates to choose from, I think it’s time for Joe to retire to “Elder Statesman” status and step aside and let the other candidates fight it out.
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I’m going to define this as the feds mandating something
“James McMillan, the federal district judge in the case, ruled in favour of the Swanns and oversaw the implementation of a busing strategy that integrated the district’s schools. McMillan’s decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld it.”
“In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), the Supreme Court let stand the practice of using mandatory busing to racially integrate schools.”
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If you take the time to look what happened in Berkeley in 1967 you would find out exactly what “voluntary” busing is.
“Berkeley Unified School District started voluntarily busing its
elementary students on a widespread level in 1968, under the direction
of a progressive superintendent, Neil Sullivan.”
In other words, your indignation is only a reflection of your ignorance.
Read:
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No, that’s not off-limits, at all. (Or, at least, it shouldn’t be). I was thinking a similar thing last night when I watched the exchange with Harris. I find it disconcerting and prohibitive.
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Maybe, but I don’t remember anyone other than whites throwing bricks at school buses.
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Joe’s campaign is dead in the water, and doesn’t seem to know how to re-starr the engines.
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Choosing to repeatedly deny something you actually said–on record!!-- rather than admit your position at the time no longer matches the position you hold today, is not wise and makes it harder to trust you! Biden is on record saying (back in 1975) "“I oppose busing. It’s an asinine concept, the utility of which has never been proven to me. I’ve gotten to the point where I think our only recourse to eliminate busing may be a constitutional amendment” (from Amy Goodman this morning on Democracy Now)
Yes, the 1970’s were a LONG time ago, and something said so long ago shouldn’t necessarily disqualify him. I’d still vote for Biden (or anyone!!) in a heartbeat if he is the nominee! But Biden needs to learn to accept responsibility for the things he’s said and done that were mistakes, even if he’s evolved and no longer holds those positions.
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You’re putting the cart before the horse with that comment. It’s only June.
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This is exactly what has always worried me about Biden. He’s OK. I’d vote for him in a heartbeat too. But JFC he acts like it’s easy to run for president. He’s sloppy and over-casual. He always was. Now it’s not like the future of civilization and liberal democracy might be riding on this OH WAIT ACTUALLY IT IS. So I wish he’d pull up his socks, is all. 
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It’s not even election or primary year yet.
I know it’s to winnow out candidates but I still think holding debates for the 2020 primary in the summer of 2019, not even the fall or winter, is a bit odd really and just not really normal.
Nonsense. The busing program that Harris benefited from was voluntary.
The specifics of the bill that Biden opposed matter. Further, the history of mandatory busing matters. In fact, mandatory busing has all but ended and schools have re-segregated in the intervening years. LA for example, had mandatory busing starting around 1978 and the program ended 3 years later:
Under a March 16 school board decision --Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling upholding the constitutionality of a voter-approved antibusing proposition --parents were given the choice of returning their children to their home schools as early as April 20, or waiting until the school year ends in mid-June, when the district’s mandatory busing program will be dismantled.
If you bother to look closely at the history, Harris’ Biden-directed indignation make close to zero sense. Harris was being VOLUNTARILY bused to a historically segregated white elementary school in the Berkeley hills starting around 1970. Note that LA didn’t impose mandatory busing until ~8 years later. Note too that the anti-busing bill that Biden supported was being considered in 1975 which was ~5 years after Harris started attending Thousand Oaks in the Berkeley hills.
I was of the impression he was a diehard Serutan man.
Fun Fact: Serutan spells “Natures” backwords.
h/t Lawrence Welk
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Well I am indignant with Biden for throwing part of the responsibility back on states’ rights.
States are taking women’s constitutional rights away at a terrifying rate and to a terrifying completeness. States’ rights is what they are using right now in the same fight as the fight between states and African Americans. It’s states’ rights vs civil rights. I was dismayed to hear him say “well that was your local administration’s decision” to Harris last night. And it’s not about then. It’s about now.
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