Trying to Present Biden As a Stalwart Who Will Unify the Country This
election to secure the presidency of the United States -- a main source
of power and resources for the financial oligarchs -- has become a
vicious fight between coalitions that fluctuate while simultaneously
doing their utmost to convince the people to save the outdated
democracy which no longer serves anyone. While Trump continues to
espouse his brutal "law and order" agenda, Joe Biden has been presented
as the one who can quell the resistance movement raging across the
country and unify the warring factions within the ruling circles.
 The Trump
administration has obliged the demand of the financial oligarchs that
the president be able to act with impunity, without regard for the law
or existing constitutional arrangements. They want no limits on their
ability to serve their narrow private interests. To achieve this, Trump
positioned himself and was positioned as an outsider, someone who was
not a member of the "Washington establishment" and associated
perceptions of corruption, cronyism and self-interest. "We have ended
the rule of the failed political class," Trump said. This portrayal has
been seen as necessary to contend with the fact that the existing
institutions, such as Congress, are dysfunctional. Every effort has been
made to end the prerogatives of Congress and extend those of the
President.
This was also evident during the
Republican National Convention when both Trump and his wife spoke from
the White House to emphasize the power of the presidency. The same can
be said when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke from Jerusalem while
on a state visit. A Secretary of State is not even supposed to
intervene in the campaign, let alone blur the line between campaigning
and governing. Such actions serve to indicate that the rulers are no
longer even trying to hide the fact that they have completely usurped
the prerogative powers of government to serve their private interests.
There is no longer any line in the sand, if ever there was one, as there
is no regard for what has in the past constituted "the public" or
government in the service of a "public good."
Biden and the Democratic Convention also had little to say about the
role of Congress, and, like Trump, he focused on the presidency being
decisive. He also made clear that he is "a stalwart," loyal to the
status quo who will also use the presidency to provide unlimited
resources to the oligarchs while keeping the people out of power.
"None of the things I'm talking about are inconsistent with
a free market, not inconsistent with capitalism," Biden declared. He
has announced plans to provide more than $1 trillion in government
handouts to the oligarchs, especially the oligopolies involved in war
production based in auto and steel. Massive amounts of public dollars
are promised to the private financiers to finance debts incurred.
Recurrent themes in Biden's speeches include: "We
have to unite America;" "If we can't unite America, we're done;" "we're
dead;" "I've long said America is at its best when we act as one
nation, one America."
 Certainly the
many millions demonstrating and the many millions more who support them
do not see their America, their fight for change that favours the
people, as "done" or "dead." This morbid preoccupation with defeat and
death mainly refers to the threat posed by the sharpening conflicts and
divisions within the ranks of the rulers and the possibility of violent
civil war. Biden is putting himself forward as the champion who can unite
the military bureaucracy and overcome divisions between federal, state
and local elected officials and policing agencies. This distinguishes
him from Trump who has failed on this score and merely resorts to
repeating that everything can be achieved on the basis of law and order
suppression. How Biden will achieve the miracles he promises is of course
where the rub lies. He stresses addressing criminal justice reform,
voting and cyber security for elections. He says that by first setting
the democracy straight at home, he can then deal with it abroad.
His image as someone who "can bring people together" brings
with it the implication that he will work first at uniting the
industrial and civil authorities, such as those at the state and local
level. His choice of Kamala Harris as Vice-President in part serves
this purpose. It is hoped that her extensive ties and knowledge of
state's attorneys general and policing agencies will serve to
peacefully unify state and local forces under federal leadership.
By presenting himself as a loyal and reliable force for the
status quo, Biden also makes clear that nothing he is saying goes
beyond providing opportunity. He regularly says that everybody deserves
"just a shot," and that he will be sure it is "everybody" and not just
some. "This is our moment to imagine, and to build a new American
economy for our families and for our communities, an economy where
every American, every American has a chance to get a fair return for
the work they put in, an equal chance to get ahead," Biden says.
People are indeed demanding a new direction for the economy,
one where the rights of the people take centre stage, such as the right
to health care, education, a livelihood and housing for all, not just
"access" and a "chance" which are nothing if not a repetition of what
is inherent to the failed "American Dream." Biden himself states that
"over 56 per cent of the American people think their kids will never,
never reach the standard of living they had." People have reached this
conclusion based on their actual experience that the existing economic
and political relations cannot provide equality and rights to decide
issues like policing, health care, war and peace, but this is totally
ignored.
 The "American
Dream" of the rulers lies in tatters. The "America" the people were
raised to believe in revealed its true colours as never before in the
"shock and awe" aggression against Iraq and the torture camps of the Bush
regime which showed the essence of American democracy, freedom and
rights. Far
from the Obama administration overcoming the humiliation,
Americans then suffered the loss of their homes when the housing bubble
burst and Obama responded by bailing out the criminals on Wall Street.
The Obama doctrine of drone warfare to assassinate innocent
civilians in far-flung lands in the name of catching terrorists and
saving American lives did not restore faith in the American Dream nor
did his role as Deporter-in-Chief -- a tyranny taken further by
Donald Trump. The claims of the Biden camp that he will try to
achieve the same thing in a manner which is more "fair" will come to
naught. He is offering some public housing, for example, and repeating
that there will be millions of "good paying union jobs." It is
yesteryear all over again.
It is all pie in the
sky so long as there is no role for the people in deciding how the
promised massive investment in federal funds are to be used, who will
pay for them and who decides -- all with no guarantee of the right to
housing and jobs.
Biden is attempting to divert
from the existing reality where an increasingly tiny group of powerful
oligarchs have usurped power and use governments entirely for their own
narrow private interests -- which are directly against the interests of
the peoples in the U.S. and abroad. This old notion of equal opportunity as a
solution is indeed dead and hardly likely to quell the growing demands
for people's empowerment, for the people themselves to govern and
decide.
As the people say, you have to be asleep
to believe in the American Dream.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 42 - November 1, 2020
Article Link:
Trying to Present Biden As a Stalwart Who Will Unify the Country
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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