The US healthcare system is showing its complete dysfunction to the world in full corona pandemic. The two opponents meanwhile challenge each other about something completely different: who is cracking down the hardest on China? Thus, the elections once again become the four-yearly show as authorities and media like to have them: a 'battle between personalities' about anything - as long as it is not about the real problems of the ordinary American.
Now that Bernie Sanders is off the table, Joe Biden can focus his campaign on his Republican rival at the White House. However, Biden has hardly been in the media in recent weeks. Sanders, on the other hand, remains politically active in the federal Senate.
The past few days, Joe Biden seems to regain momentum. He is not doing that with an attack on President Trump's disastrous approach to the corona pandemic. With a number of commercials full of anti-Chinese racism, Biden launches the attack on… China. Who is cracking down the hardest on China? I! Trump responds with identical arguments in the opposite direction. At the very least, an otherwordly observer would expect the opposing candidate of the current president to attack policy with arguments on how to handle it differently. No, it's nothing of the sort.
The election campaign will be between two slightly confused seniors, one because of the onset of dementia, the other because he has always communicated like this. Who is most capable of dealing with the filthy Chinese who have unleashed the "China virus" on the US? That's what it will be about. American citizens with Asian roots can expect to see an increase in racist incidents with such discourse on TV programs and on the Internet. Because it is not the abominable private health care in the US that is responsible for the corona pandemic, but China…
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How deeply racist (or strategically racist) the government of Trump is, becomes tangible at a recent G7 video conference on March 24. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was the only one who refused to sign the final statement. His disagreement was not about some substantial part of the statement. He only demanded that the term COVID-19 virus be replaced by the "Wuhan virus". President Trump himself also constantly refers to the "China virus" or the "Chinese virus", although that changed in recent days. In the meantime, several incidents have already been reported where Asian-Americans have been harassed by other US citizens.
No attempt should be expected from Democrat Joe Biden to distinguish himself from his opponent. In essence, his campaign will be about this: "I'm going to do the same but firmer, faster and more drastic." This turns the campaign again into its extravagant show where personalities are uncovered, who has the most beautiful family, who makes the strongest statements and especially - the top of the charts - who is going to attack the 'enemy' the hardest. That enemy is never an internal problem peculiar to American society: Russia, Islam, Mexicans and now China. The commercials that Biden and Trump place in the media look like a sequel of the Cold War...
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The freezing irony of this spectacle is that the American voter has the choice between a very bad candidate and a candidate who in the past four years was even worse.
Anyone who thinks Trump is going to lose because of his lamentable approach to the corona pandemic is mistaken. Trump is better at superficiality, lying and cheating than Biden. The terrible state of the US media - and I'm not just talking about Fox News - is one of the reasons why so much of the American population is ill-informed about what's really going on in their country.
Protests were held in a number of cities by people demanding the end of the lockdown. It was not about huge crowds, but the media presented it that way. Barb McQuade, a "legal analyst" at the MSNBC channel (the most "liberal" major channel in the US) actually said that the protests were organized by Russians on social media. In short, don't count on the American media to inform voters what it's really about.
A campaign full of noise, but ultimately lacking in substance, is ideal for Trump. Biden offers no alternative. Biden has no chance against Trump in such a campaign.
On March 6, 1998, Biden promoted himself as "One of Senate's Most Conservative Democrats". Photo: Twitter @davidsirota
Biden has a miserable political record and has undeniable aging problems. He deviates and isn't focused during interviews and debates. What we get is a messy and incoherent picture. The Republicans are also going to finish him about his political past and about his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine. And on allegations of harassing women, Biden can only argue that Trump is even worse. Hardly convincing, isn't it?
The following summarizes the current state perfectly:
Donald Trump’s presidency is not an aberration of U.S. history in substance. His rise to power and the policies he has implemented are, in many ways, the logical product of the U.S. as a failed state, politically and functionally. Trump says the quiet parts about the system out loud, but his agenda is firmly rooted in the bloody history of this republic. And his rise was made possible by the failed two-party system and the corporate dominance of electoral politics in the U.S. Also, let’s not pretend that congressional Democrats have not enabled Trump by regularly voting for his obscene military budgets and sweeping surveillance powers while simultaneously calling him the most dangerous president in history. - Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept.
Sources:
- The Making of Joe Biden’s Conservative Democratic Politics
- Biden boasted of being "One of the Senate's Most Conservative Democrats"
- Joe Biden has advocated cutting social security for 40 years.
- NBC News Analyst Claims U.S. Lock-Down Protests Created by Russians…
- The Moral and Strategic Calculus of Voting for Joe Biden to Defeat Trump — or Not