SAN FRANCISCO, USA, January 9 (IPS) – With 2023 underway, incumbent Democrats are still dodging the crucial fact that most voters of their party don’t want the President. Biden is running for re-election. Among prominent Democratic Party politicians, respect is common while genuine enthusiasm is few.
Many assertions sound rote. Late last month, retired senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont put forward this gem: “I want him to do whatever he wants. If he does, I will support him.” Joe Biden has repeatedly said that he plans to be the Democratic nominee in 2024. Whether he will be is an open question — and progressives should try to answer the question. that’s for sure. No.
The next presidential election will be extremely grim if all the Democrats can offer as an alternative to the neo-Nazi Republican Party is an incumbent who has regularly served. corporate power and consistency serving the military-industrial complex. The Biden administration has done some important antitrust steps to prevent rampant monopolies. But the overall reality is continuing to widen the wide economic inequality that underlies the wheel of pseudo-popular GOP demagogues.
Meanwhile, President Biden has rarely expressed a sense of urgency or profound dissatisfaction with today’s social conditions. Instead, he frequently appears as “Joe’s status quo.” For the happy futures of so many millions and for the Democratic Party’s electoral prospects in 2024, representing the status quo would invite successive catastrophes. A few months ago, Bernie Sanders summary this way:
“The most important economic and political issues facing this country are the level of inequality in income and wealth, the rapidly increasing concentration of property rights, the long-term decline of America’s middle class and its growth into oligarchy.”
interview The day before, Sanders said: “It breaks my heart to see more and more working-class people voting Republican. Politically, it’s a disaster, and Democrats have to recognize that serious problem and address it.” But President Biden doesn’t seem to realize the problem is serious and he hasn’t addressed it. Over the past two years, domestic policy possibilities have been limited by Biden’s frequent and notable refusal to use the power of the presidency to make progress. He didn’t release much potential executive orders that may have moved the country forward despite the Senate deadlocks.
At the same time, the “podium bullying” advocacy for worker rights, voter rights, economic justice, climate action and more has been muted or non-existent. Biden seems unable or unwilling to articulate a social justice approach to such issues. As for the Pentagon’s generosity to continue to spike while limiting human need for so short a time, Biden was full of praise for the record-breaking, overwhelmingly cumbersome. 858 billion USD military spending bill which he signed in late December. While reporters and pundits in the corporate media are more inclined to criticize his age than his policies, what gets Biden into trouble. The most pressing issue for many voters is his outdated political approach.
Running for a second term would certainly make Biden a defender of current conditions – in an age where the personification of current conditions is a heavy gull that stands in the way of electoral success. A study by Hart poll of registered voters in November showed that only 21 percent said the country was “on the right track” while 72 percent said it was “going in the wrong direction.”
As the preeminent symbol of the way things are, Biden could well be a vulnerable standard-bearer in a country where nearly three-quarters of voters say they don’t like the road. current state of the country. But for now,’ there’s no progressive Democrat in Congress willing to mess with Biden’s White House by saying he shouldn’t run, let alone show a willingness. challenge him in the early 2024 primaries.
Meanwhile, a person recently poll afterward is different shows that nearly 60% of Democrats do not want Biden to run for re-election. A New York Times poll last summer found that one 94 percent of Democrats under the age of 30 would prefer a different candidate. While generally favorably leaning toward Biden, the media coverage has at times brought out the frankness that Democratic officials have refused to offer on the record. “Party relief in holding onto the Senate and minimizing damage to the House in the midterm elections has gradually given way to general anxiety about what it means for Biden to run for re-election,” NBC News report the day before Christmas. The conformist backing from elected Democrats for another Biden campaign reflects a lack of genuine representation on Capitol Hill. For example, there is a widening gap between the leaders of Congress’s Radical Group and the constituency — the radical establishment — that they claim to represent. At the end of November, CPC president Pramila Jayapal emphasized the gap as she tried announced “I believe he should run for another term and fulfill the agenda we have set.” Does such leadership represent progressives to the establishment or vice versa?
Norman Solomon is the country director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of dozens of books including War Made Easy. His next book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, will be published by The New Press in the spring of 2023.
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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
