What Biden Must Do; Which VP he Must Pick; How We should Respond

In the spirit of The Butler Did It, there is a French saying: Look for the woman.  Very French: to blame everything on women.

A similar motif is Follow the Money, in the area of major economic and political puzzles.

At the moment, we’re concerned with several things:

Police brutality, and institutional Racism.  This breaks down into several things: How to reform the Police system; how to change their training, to remove habitual intimidation from it; how to change American Culture, to strip built-in racism from it, e.g. from school textbooks, parenting, etc.  We also need to look at bank lending; real estate practices; all instances of segregation, such as public parks and pools, and so on.  Many cities have different sorts of courts and facilities in different city parks, to encourage white kids to go to one park, and black kids to another.  Similarly, when money runs out, swimming pools in black neighborhoods are more likely to close, because the revenue from concession stands are much weaker, while damage from harsh use may be higher.

An epidemic that is racking up increasing death rates in almost all states, and a national leadership that is more eager to avoid the appearance of concern with the epidemic, which might give the impression of political weakness.  In states where the governor supports wearing masks, and social distancing (an unfortunate term that has unintended connotations; physical distancing gets the point across a lot better), the citizens also tend to wear masks and distance reasonably.  In Pennsylvania, for instance, the vast majority of Democrats (who support the Governor) wear masks and are careful.  The Republicans, who hate the Governor, openly go around flouting mask regulations.  Childish?  Yes.  We are a nation of people who hate to think for ourselves; philosophically, we tend to be like automobile customers; we follow the line that looks the most attractive, without doing our own studying of the problem.

A major problem that has been brought on, on the face of it, by the epidemic, namely the elections.  Polling stations have long lines, which mean that not everybody can vote conveniently.

Republicans, who have an interest in discouraging Blacks from voting, and discouraging the Poor from voting, and discouraging Democrats.

A President who seems to use disinformation as a major political tactic.  Let's put this here as well: a president who has subverted the Justice Department, and blatantly influences the courts.

A Senate that is highly partisan, and whose majority leader concentrates on appointing conservative judges, as opposed to considering legislation.

A Democrat nominee who is looking for a Vice-Presidential running-mate, to get the greatest number of votes in the coming election.

Now, look.  Assuming that the Democrat Party has learned its lesson in 2016: those who disapproved of Hillary Clinton got Donald Trump.  If they were happy about that outcome, we should simply not consider them Democrats.  They may not be Republicans, but to be preoccupied with how they will vote in this year's election is probably not worth the effort.  The lesson is this: if Democrats vote, Trump will have to lose.  The Republicans will vote; for the first time, rank-and-file Republicans feel that their votes are counting for something (counting for Trump, obviously).

At the moment, if all Democrats are allowed to vote, and vote, Biden will be president in 2021.  That will not change between now and November, other things being equal.  It is not the state of the economy that will defeat Trump; it will be the gradual erosion of trust in Trump.

Now we come to the problem of reforming our security forces, our police.  This is intimately tied up with systemic racism, and the way that a typical newborn black infant has to, throughout its life, fight a lot harder and be truly exceptional to be as successful as a typical newborn white infant throughout its life.  However we may view the differences in their life arcs, we have to admit that racism has determined that the the black kid has it harder.

Firstly, I must say that we’re at a pivotal moment in US history, where it might be possible to strike a blow to systemic and societal racism that will put the minority races in the US on a more reasonable trajectory.  It won’t be a single action, or a single piece of legislation that does it; there will have to be effort made over more than a decade, to eradicate all the roadblocks that we put in the path of blacks and minorities (and women) from advancing.  If there is a peaceful protest march in our communities, we ought to join it.  This is no time for sitting it out.  If our leaders know that their hopes for business as usual have disappeared, change must come.

I personally think that if Biden chooses a running-mate who is female and Black, his chances of winning will be better.  But, as I said, if we vote, he will win, no matter who his running-mate is.  But there are other issues.

* If Biden dies, or becomes very sick while in office, this VP must be able to handle being president.  This is not difficult; she will have plenty of help.  But leadership is more than just being elected, as we have found out with Trump.  If we want to be led well, Biden must choose well.  Most of the VP prospects will be able to do this; only Governor Gretchen, being extremely young, would have a tough time with it, but she could grow into the job, if I will be forgiven the idiom.  But she has said she is more concerned with the future of Michigan, which is a praiseworthy concern to have.

* We must choose someone who can support the anti-racism steps that the White House must take immediately.  This includes the reform of Police.  Certainly, almost any of the ladies under consideration will help do this.

* We must choose someone who will encourage Biden to pursue the Health Reform that progressive Democrats want.  At least half the casualties we have with this virus can be ascribed to poor health care.  Most of the VP choices are probably on board with this.

* We must choose someone who will help address the economic unfairness built into US society, US culture, US businesses and banking, and the justice system.  In a sense, this is the whole battle.  Solving the problems of economic disparity, if it is successful, may not solve the problem of racism automatically; when White folks find that there are economically successful Black folks competing with them all around them, it will be convenient for them to exhume long-buried relics of racial prejudice, to give their children some sort of edge over their upstart neighbors.  So racism will probably be a problem in US society and culture for decades to come.

So, my main thrust is this: solving the problem of economic inequality should be the first battle that Biden must fight, and whoever he chooses for his VP, he needs someone who is openly, or covertly, intent on leveling out the economic handicaps that everybody outside the so-called 1% face; in other words, being intent on using the tax code, the health system, everything to make sure that a penurious economic underclass is not allowed to exist.  To do that, he will have to select one of those who has supported Medicare For All, because even if that is no longer a plank of the party platform, it would signal that person’s mindset, as being determined to eradicate the impossible living conditions that many of us face.  As soon as that is underway, we can move on to dealing with Police Brutality.  Or both problems can be tackled together.

Not far behind are environmental considerations.  I cannot believe that Trump so directly opposed stricter energy standards for cars of California.  That was vindictive, wrong-headed, and twisted.  He should lose this election based on that action alone.

So remember: all our concerns can be traced ultimately to economic inequality.  Either they exist because of economic inequality, or they support economic inequality, or they enhance, or are enhanced by, economic inequality.

Some may think that there is some spiritual source for all the ills of the nation.  If you do, look at how Christian churches are responding to the wrong that Trump is doing.

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