@blatham,
blatham wrote:
Quote: I mean, [Biden's] a Democrat, a politician, and all that stuff, but I always had the feeling he was interested in what was best for our country.
You use "politician" in an interesting way, Roger. There seems to be a lurking cynicism in it. That's somewhat understandable of course but I don't think that framing gets us very far. In fact, I think it gets us to Trump.
Or, you know, to a strengthening of progressive ideas and movements which share and express people's cynicism about politicians. Granted, America doesn't have an encouraging track record on that, but there's absolutely no reason why the wariness of political and other elites should be a right-wing/Trumpian phenomenon; at least internationally, it used to be the left that embodied it.
This is what I was also getting at in my rant, though I was unsurprised that you couldn't make heads nor tails of it. Too many liberals have chosen to argue (and, judging on their own class background, likely genuinely feel) that 'our side' is the one that identifies with and defends the politicians, policy makers, bureaucrats, intelligence services and other, surely well-intentioned powers that be against that icky, cynical, crude, rabble-rousing populism Trump uses (and, you know, stole key parts of your old electorate with).
And hey, that strategy did get you some much-deserved cross-over votes from e.g. upper/middle class suburban Republicans, though mostly in states that don't matter in the EC. Why change?
