Biden in Horrible Position Already. New Sr. Adviser: 'We Don't Need White People Leading Democratic Party Right Now'
The unofficial Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign became official Thursday morning with a demagogic video that leaned heavily on the 2017 confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia, because why the heck not? Keep classy, Joe.
There also wasn’t much in the way of policies being discussed in the video, just a whole lot of Trump-baiting and the insinuation that Biden is the guy to beat the president in the general election — so suck it up, hold your nose, get over the socialist or the student-debt eliminator or the guy who livestreams everything that you may like, and cast your vote for the Democratic Party’s lowest common denominator.
“I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time,” the former vice president said in the video.
“But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation,” he said. “Who we are. And I cannot stand by and watch that happen.”
The core values of this nation… our standing in the world… our very democracy…everything that has made America — America –is at stake. That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States. #Joe2020 https://t.co/jzaQbyTEz3
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2019
However, one of his senior advisers declared three years ago that she would prefer people like Biden to stay on the sidelines.
While the former vice president’s campaign hires haven’t caused a whole lot of waves, we can make an exception for Symone Sanders. She was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ press secretary during the independent socialist’s 2016 Democratic presidential run. (No relation.)
In November 2016, a CNN panel discussed who should lead the Democrats in the wake of Trump’s victory over Hilary Clinton.
Sanders made her views clear. “We don’t need white people leading the Democratic Party right now,” she said.
“The Democratic Party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in our leadership and throughout the staff at the highest levels from the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.
“I’m here for the millennials and the brown folk,” Sanders added.
Of course, this is an individual who served as the press secretary for a very white candidate who also tended to attract a very white swath of the Democratic Party.
And now she’s a top adviser to Joe Biden, who isn’t exactly beloved by the party’s left guard because of his handling of Anita Hill‘s allegations during Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings, his stance on criminal justice bills in the 1980s and 1990s, his position against school busing for desegregation, his willingness to work with one of the Senate’s most odious racists on said opposition to busing — that sort of thing.
Now, what Symone Sanders said was profoundly racist. While I would assume she would certainly think “white people” ought to vote for her party, she seems to believe they shouldn’t have a say in where it goes or hold positions of power. Tolerance in action.
Sadly, it also was completely in line with what the party believes now. This is a political season where Biden has been attacked for being in the political mainstream during a past the Democrats want to judge through the prism of the present.
And you know what? My sympathy for him is virtually nil.
Yes, I understand that Biden wasn’t an overt racist and what he said and did during his 40-odd years in public service don’t evince anything like that. Don’t tell that to the Democrats in the age of identity politics, however. Now, if you didn’t act like one of the woker-than-thou 2020 presidential candidates throughout your career — even though times and mores change — it’s “problematic.”
Joe Biden was one of the central figures in the party as it underwent this change. He was never the type who was going to try and check the inexorable slide to where we are now. That he is viewed as a moderate is pretty much just because the rest of the party has rushed to the left, but it’s essentially worthless.
Symone Sanders is clearly within the mainstream of the party now; witness the fact she’s now a top adviser to Biden even though she essentially kneecapped him and every other white person in the party.
This is where the Democrats are these days — and the sad thing is, that’s why Biden is going to have a rough time getting through the primary. He could be the party’s best bet to defeat Donald Trump, but that also means he’s sane. Sanity isn’t a quality in much demand for the Democrats nowadays.
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