Biden at 100 Days: Boring as a Secret Weapon
Posted on April 29, 2021 Posted by John Scalzi 73 Comments
It is a little odd to me that the very best thing about Joseph Biden in his first 100 days is that he is boring. First and most obviously, that’s in contrast to his predecessor, a narcissistic chaos engine who essentially held the nation’s attention hostage for four years; the idea that one might not have to think about one’s president several times in a day is delightful. Biden almost never uses social media and when he does (or more accurately when his social media staff does) he does it blandly. We never have to worry about a 4am rage tweet from the toilet from good ol’ Joe Biden, which an entire governmental apparatus will then have to bend to rationalize the next work day. You don’t realize what a gift that is until you’ve had to live through its opposite.
Second and slightly less obviously, there’s almost nothing for the GOP outrage machine to latch onto. Why did the GOP spend two days rather ludicrously screaming that Joe Biden, of all people, is going to take away your steak? Because that’s all they can manage with Biden. Biden and his team spend almost no time engaging in the GOP outrage machine; the most they get is White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki bemusedly schooling Peter Doocy on whatever patent bullshit Fox News is trying to push on its audience of ancient racists that day. Otherwise, Biden and his people are doing other things.
Third, and speaking of those ancient bigots, Joe Biden is a bland and genial old white dude who doesn’t trigger a “fight or flight” response on the sort of people who spent eight years forwarding horribly racist cartoons about Barack Obama to each other on Facebook. Oh, don’t get me wrong, these people are still there and now they’re gunning for Kamala Harris; it’s not for nothing that Kimberly Guilfoyle was just this week trying to push the idea that Harris is secretly running the White House. But it doesn’t really seem to stick. Biden is rather obviously not as mentally enfeebled as the right hoped they could portray him as, and Harris seems to be doing mostly normal Vice President-y stuff, working from the Obama-Biden mode of “first in, last out” executive collaboration. Turns out Biden is both in charge, and is the proverbial president you’d have a beer with. Even for ancient racists, that has an effect.
The political right in the United States has spent so much time turning politics into a loud grift that it forgot (or deemed it inessential) that the actual goal of politics is governance. Joe Biden, however, has not forgotten that. It turns out he’s pretty good at it, as are his people. As a result Biden can claim real and concrete accomplishments in his first 100 days, and all the right can do — all it’s trained itself to do, over the course of decades — is to whine and scream about socialism, or whatever. Trying to stick socialism onto Joe Biden is difficult. Joe Biden does not scream socialism. He doesn’t even hoarsely whisper it.
But his programs are socialist through and through! One, lol, no, and two, even if they were, it turns out “socialism” is pretty damn popular — lots of Americans like the idea of spending money to create jobs and fix infrastructure and future-proof the US rather than to simply cede the 21st Century to China. Biden’s address to the joint session of Congress had the word “jobs” in it dozens of times: good jobs, he said. Blue collar jobs. Union jobs. Jobs you can raise a family on. And so on. Biden is genial, and he’s also not stupid; it’s harder for the outrage machine to scream “socialism” when the mantra of Biden’s people is “jobs.” They’ll still do it! Again, it’s all they know how to do at this point; they’ve let their governance organ atrophy into nothing. They’ve staked outrage as the game. Biden and his folks are playing a different game, a boring one that’s not flashy but actually does things, and they’re doing all right at it so far.
Biden wasn’t my first choice as president and I’m not going to pretend he or his administration have done everything perfectly or even well. Left or right, if you’re looking for things to be pissed at the Biden administration about, they’re there, as Biden either moves too fast or not fast enough, or hasn’t delivered on something important to you, or has done something you vehemently oppose. You’re not wrong! We have not entered a golden age. We’re still dealing with the aftereffects of four years of a malign and incompetent US administration, and this current administration has an extraordinarily narrow legislative window to get things done in. It can’t and won’t get everything done, and they’ll be lots to be unhappy about as we go along.
But I have appreciated all the boring. I mentioned on Twitter earlier this week that aside from any executive or legislative accomplishment the Biden Administration wanted to claim for its first 100 days, another is that it allowed me to write a novel in that timeframe — after having to junk a novel that I’d been working on for the better part of a year, but which never gelled because of various reasons which included lack of focus brought on by pandemic, election and sickness, I thought up, wrote and turned in an entire damn novel between first week of February and the third week of March. Again, many reasons, but I would be lying if I said one of them was not that I was no longer immediately worried about the state of governance in the United States. Joe Biden and his people being boringly competent (or competently boring, take your pick) gave me mental headroom to write. In the grand scheme of things, this is one the administration’s lesser accomplishments, to be sure, and one I doubt it will take much credit for. But there it is.
100 days in, I like Biden being boring. I also think Biden being boring is working for him and his administration in terms of getting things done. I hope they continue being boring for a long while to come. I think the nation will benefit from it, and so will I. I think that because in both cases, we both already have.
Thanks, Joe Biden. Keep it up.
— JS
As always with political posts, the Mallet is out: Please be polite with each other.
Also remember I have my “Right Wing Bullshit Talking Points BINGO Card” out, and, yes, “Socialism” is the free space in the middle. If your post fills up too many squares, I might Mallet it for trying to gallop through as many BS talking points rather than actually being an instrument of conversation.
Also also, ageist, sexist, racist and otherwise bigoted bullshit is very likely get the Mallet. You know this (it’s in the site’s comment policy!), but it’s always good to remind folks.
Also also also, yes, I’m aware that “100 Days” is a totally arbitrary benchmark. On the other hand Biden and his administration (among others) worked to get specific things done within that timeframe, so, maybe a little less than absolutely entirely arbitrary this time around.
He’s been boring as far as his demeanor and how he treats people I guess.
But he has done some exciting things and proposed other exciting things. At the very least he seems less worried about the government spending = bad that has been killing us in recent years.
Unassuming competence has always been my favourite quality in a government.
Biden has Presidential down to, if not an art form, then at least a very well worn vaudeville schtick. In the best possible way: there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, but in some ways it’s hard to notice because the act is both the most prominent thing and something you’ve seen a million times before.
Like Our Gracious Host, Biden wasn’t my first pick, or even my second. But his combination of apparently unassailable Old Boring White Dude and fairly progressive politics seems to be a pretty good one. And I’m enjoying not having to think of him every day.
I just wish I felt like it would last more than two years, because without a major shift in voting patterns, and with redistricting mostly controlled by the GOP, 2022 is going to be a hard year.
The term I use has been quietly competent, but it means pretty much the same thing.
All the boring level of competence is glorious.
The Right has definitely overused the “Socialism” label to the point that it is no longer nearly as useful, in my opinion. It still provokes the Pavlovian response in their base, but outside of that…I think it was John Rogers who said that the Right has been labeling anything that helps people in any way as “Socialism.” This tends to make the younger generations think Socialism isn’t so bad, because literally everything that government does that helps them is “Socialism.” Even if it’s what should be a bog standard highway bill.
In the Army I learned the difference between competently boring and incompetently exciting. I much prefer the boredom. It’s less fatal.
I am so happy to have competent people doing their jobs and not making a fuss about it unlike the entirety of the previous administration
So much this.
Not, of course, that they haven’t complained about him being boring. They complain about him not tweeting! Yeah, guys, he’s working. You (the GOP) forgot that Presidents are supposed to do that.
The GOP really has deemed governance an inessential goal. To the GOP the goal is divided between a. preventing governance from taking place at all, b. maintaining and increasing their own power, and c. ensuring that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer “as God intended.”
They are the enemies of the American system of government.
I’ve mentioned to several of my friends already how it’s a goddamn relief to wake up and not immediately have to check twitter with a sense of dread of what 45 managed to shit all over while I was asleep this time.
It’s doing wonders for my sleep schedule.
I think I can second just about all of this.
Biden was probably 6th or 7th on my list in the primary. But as it turns out, he’s good at both politics and governance. And he’s almost always squarely in the middle of the Democratic Party which at the moment is.. historically pretty progressive.
We can be angry about how a lot of things will go, but it’s not going to be because Biden didn’t try or messed up enormously, but because people like Manchin and Sinema have enormous power in our fucked up congress and that zero Republicans will work with him in good faith. And he’s making real accomplishments under those restrictions.
What I’d land with this is that it isn’t boring – it’s considered and planned. But a lot of the work that’s happening is really exciting.
@Ren Or every time an alert goes off on your iPhone, you don’t say, “Oh Jesus. What’s that chucklefuck done NOW?”
Yep, yep, and yep. I think some folks underestimated how much appeal boring would have. Only quibble I’ve got is this bit:
“The political right in the United States has spent so much time turning politics into a loud grift that it forgot (or deemed it inessential) that the actual goal of politics is governance.”
I don’t think they’ve forgotten or deemed it inessential. Their brand is “government is bad!” It behooves them to govern badly in order to prove that point. I don’t think that it’s a winning strategy long-term, but I really believe that’s the plan, not an omission.
Yet — and yet! — large parts of the media regret the absence of constant chaotic corrupt disruption. Yea, even members of the so called ‘lamestream’ media. Disgusting. But, you know, it was so good for the clicks and numbers.
So far, Biden’s worst has been orders of magnitude better than Trump’s best.
You know, I really like boring and competent.
But you know what else I like? The way that both the First and Second couples demonstrate what loving, committed relationships look like.
That, and I can look at just about everything Dr. Jill wears and think “I LIKE THAT OUTFIT.” But then, I’m a retired teacher, so…..
The last 40 years of government equals bad is because for the past 40 years we have had Reaganomics. During the 40 years between WWII and Reagan, nobody worshipped stockholders to the extent of today’s blatant exclusion of corporate and community stakeholders, and nobody dreamed that there would be endless tax cuts, even during wartime.
Joe Biden, to his credit, questioned having a tax cut while troops were in harms way.
As I recall at the time, and college folks back then would have disagreed, people liked Reagan partly because nearly all the various crises of the 1960’s and early 70’s disappeared from the national conversation when he got in. It was so relaxing at last.
What I tend to notice is that the GOP basically breaks government and then blames government for being broken. Biden seems to be trying to fix it and getting it working again. I really hope he does.
What struck me about last night’s speech was that it laid out a coherent and positive (no “American carnage”) future and gave concrete steps to achieve it, including how to pay for it.
And for me the best part of Boring Old White Guy is the lack of a constant stream of insults. Old is courtly rather than crotchety.
I agree with quietly competent – but don’t want to underestimate the “competent” – Biden has a good team immediately around him, and seems to have generally appointed competent people in the broader government. Then he delegates to let the staff carry out the policy.
I think Trump was an evil genius as a demagogue, the only blessing was that he was incompetent at actually running the government. A lot of rules and executive orders got recycled because they didn’t know how to properly execute. I worry someone may follow Trump’s example, but be a better executive.
But at the current pace of 1 book written a quarter under Biden we should have plenty to read by 2024.
Speaking of ancient bigots, one of the regular cycle of local op-ed columnists in my local paper just put out a piece explaining that when a cop kills a black dude, it is the black dude’s fault. I wrote a strongly worded response, including the “R” word. To my surprise, the editor in chief got back to me and is going to print it. I chided him for printing the column in the first place. Labeling something an “op-ed” does not eliminate the responsibility for editorial oversight.
“Socialism”: I noticed last summer that the usual suspects were responding to what should be a banal statement that Black lives matter with a shout of “Socialism!” I started asking them to define the word. Not one of them passed the test, which is saying something, considering that it was open book.
I feel like Rincewind. I’ve been pursuing ennui for years and have never found it until now. Having a boring President is such a relief!
@dbr: I am registered as a Republican because the Republican primary is the relevant election on the local level where I live: a true RINO. Back in 2016 I was faced with voting for the Republican presidential nomination. I voted for Trump. Why? Because at that point it was down to Trump and Cruz. Cruz is at least as evil as Trump, and much, much smarter. A Cruz presidency would have been far more damaging to the country.
Well stated. It’s so good to have a real president again!
How can you say he’s boring. He’s taking your meat and making you drink vegetarian beer? At least that’s what Faux News told me. And we know Cucker Tarlson wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.
:-)
Considering the cry about ‘Socialism’, as someone born and lived in an Eastern Europe socialist country, I found it pretty ironic that actually the values and policies of the Republican party have much in common to what was the reality in the Soviet Union and it’s satellite countries.
some examples:
Abortion:
Republicans – anti-abortion (call themselves pro-life)
Democrats – pro-choice
Soviet Union – anti-abortion, illegal during Stalin’s rule, allowed reluctantly afterwards, and could carry long-time social stigma, especially if result of pre-marital sex
Gay marriages (and LBGTQ rights):
Republicans – against
Democrats – pro
Soviet Union – gay marriages were totally unthinkable and impossible
and overall, the Republicans being the party of “family values” is very similar to the socialist countries motto that the classic family “is the building block of society”
Military:
Republicans – strong military, increase defense spending
Democrats – reduce defense spending
Soviet Union – strong military, large defense spending, emphasis on patriotic duty, compulsory 2-year military service for all adult males
Environmental policies:
Republicans – less environmental protections, it should not hinder businesses
Democrats – more environmental protection, concern about climate changes
Soviet Union – no environmental protections, emphasis and pride on heavy industry, repress pro-environmental movements
Minorities:
Republicans – pay lip service to equal rights, but implement policies to repress them
Democrats – protect minorities
Soviet Union – minorities did not have rights, and could be fully repressed as part of governmental policy
Taxes:
Republicans – lower taxes, especially for the rich
Democrats – higher taxes, especially for the rich
Soviet Union – low taxes (a basic search in Google resulted in figures like 12% for the first 100 rubles income, 8% for the rest). But of course in a full planned (non-free market) economy where everything is owned by the state, the taxes do not really matter – it is the government who is both your employer and your tax collector, so you get as much money as they decide, and you cannot negotiate your salary
John: yes.
Given that the entire world is still dealing with some terrifying stuff, it’s truly a relief that we don’t have to be constantly terrified about our federal administration. I got through 2020 by staying away from the news. Now I’m actually willing to glance at it a few times a week.
“bemusedly schooling Steve Doocy”
No. There is another.
Like many of others here Biden wasn’t my first choice. However I’m starting to think maybe he should have been.
Jogy: I am stealing this.
I like to comment that Republican political correctness is just a copy of Soviet and Maoist political correctness, but this point by point comparison is even better.
@jogy, i think the issue is that the USA has never had a proper ‘left wing’ party, so therefore the centrist Democrats look left compared to the other party. I mean Bernie Sanders would have to drop his more right wing ideas to have been elected to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party as he wouldn’t have been socialist enough for them.
“Like many of others here Biden wasn’t my first choice.”
Not mine either, but by the time my primaries rolled around, he was pretty much the last Democrat standing. I had no trouble filling in that bubble. In retrospect, I don’t think any other candidate could have beaten Trump, precisely because Biden IS a boring old white guy. There’s simply very little for the Republican outrage machine to focus on, and it removed racism and misogyny as rally points around which aggrieved Republicans could coalesce.
So, yeah, boring FTW.
It’s a relief to be able to hope-scroll a bit through Facebook and Twitter these days, in my opinion. “Quietly competent” is not the same as “boring” in my eyes, and watching Team Biden-Harris’ progress has been not-boring in a therapeutic way.
My advice: shore up the Congressional and other down-ticket stuff every way you possibly can over the next two years! Please!
@ Xopher:
Been reading your comments for years and am excited to see you here! Fangirl squeeeeee!
@ Richard, well said in all posts.
@ Jogy:
I too will be lifting this one for my own personal use; I promise to only use your powers for good.
In general, I like what Biden has done.
Am I happy about things he hasn’t done? Absolutely.
Am I unhappy about things he hasn’t done? Absolutely.
Am I mildly worried about some of the things he has and has not done? Absolutely.
Thing is, I don’t have to worry about Hunter or Ashley holding major government positions for which they aren’t qualified.
I don’t have to worry about his relationships with America-hating autocrats (and I’m not talking about the republicans, at least not yet) and how they may do long lasting harm to our society.
His gaffs probably aren’t going to involve insulting other heads of state or needlessly chest-bumping nutty dictators who’d love nothing more than to reduce (insert major American city or critical government building) to a smoking and radioactive crator.
I don’t have to worry about him taking to social media on the daily to fill a trough with status anxious scaremongering, conspiracy theories , white supremacist read meat and incitement .
I don’t have to worry about being shipped off to some “center” for uppity, disabled black women.
As for the panicked and bitter caterwauling from the right-quarters, yawn.
The best part is watching them flail, splutter and scream about Satanic shoes, potato heads, cancel culture and autonomous decisions to pull books that contain images they like because racism.
As for their swipes at Biden, that whole phenomenon puts me in the mind of the big brother pressing on the head of the sweaty and pissed off little brother who is trying ineffectually to beat him up.
Oh, and deploying Uncle Tim didn’t accomplish what they think it did, especially with black folks.
The hard-core white supremacists are going to blow Scott off because he doesn’t look like them, so I guess he’ll have swayed the “I’m not racist, but…” crowd.
Here’s one blistering but hilarious take on that display:
In late January I was listening to the radio in the morning and they announced, “the President said” and I tensed up … and then they repeated something sane Joe Biden had said and I relaxed. It’s a relief to not have to be constantly on edge as to what’s going on in the government. And Biden seems to be trying to fix all the things that have been broken. He’s hiring competent, experienced people. He’s a beacon on just plain decency.
Boring white guy FTW!
He’s done some good stuff, the feds managing the covid vaccine roll-out being one of them, and finally getting the F out of Afghanistan (19 years too late). I’m still bemused by the people “thinking” that ISIS is going to invade the US from AF in Toyota tacticals and murder us all, when they are going to stay home and murder each other. Which is Not Great, but is in line for what they’ve been doing for the last two millenia – the only time they’re less focused on killing each other is when an outside force occupies the territory, when they pause killing each other briefly to fight the occupiers.
We’ll see if he manages to get anything else done with Manchin the deciding vote. I hope he manages to get infrastructure done before some other old white dude in the Senate inconveniently dies and the R governor appoints some Trumpian lunatic. The other time limit is the 2022 elections, after which it will be Benghazi! Hunter Biden’s laptop! No more beef!!! Impeachment for Presidenting while Democratic and VP-ing while Black! 24/7 from the GQP lunatics.
I don’t actually recall a time when the GQP was interested in anything other than tax cuts for the rich, shoving all the country’s wealth up, and stuffing the judiciary with theocratic authoritarians gun-humpers, but I’ve only been in the US for 20 years. Biden seems to be handling them well, I was afraid he’d learnt nothing from the Obama years, but he seems to know that the GQP are never negotiating in good faith and will never ever ever vote for anything the Dems propose, so he talks to them but gets on with moving forwards in the background. Smart politics.
I’m hoping the inevitable collapse into another anti-democracy yahoo can be staved off for another 8 years, when we can retire and move to Italy. 2020 was far too damn close for comfort.
John, any chance you’ll try to write books faster in the next 4-8 years to make up for the inevitable slowdown when the other party takes office again?
I’m waiting for the “Hey, the grandkids are here, It’s pizza & movie night! I’m taking off the POTUS hat for a couple hours! See you in the morning!” Tweet… like a NORMAL GUY might?
I was saying on twitter earlier today that, admittedly as a non American, I didn’t even really know what Biden sounded like. Every US President since Reagan, I’ve been able to bring their voice to mind pretty quickly, but with Biden I got nothing. And since then I’ve listened to a couple of his speeches, and now an hour or two later I still can’t remember what he sounded like. And that is not an insult, I think that is a good thing. I want more world leaders who have basic competence in governance instead being more concerned about their image and personality.
Goodness knows, I wish that my own country’s leader had that; instead of being a cross between a mobile haystack and a braying donkey that swallowed a latin textbook.
I laughed myself silly at the Texas senator who asked if Biden was really in charge when he’s not constantly being interviewed by new channels, seldom tweets, and when he does tweet, it’s boring. Gee, maybe that’s a sign that he’s actually working.
Hear, hear! Boring competence is better than obnoxious incompetence any day!
You know, the more I think about the topic of this conversation the less “Boring” feels to be appropriate. The truth is, what the Biden administration is doing is anything but boring to me.
Then there is the President’s First Lady’s first 100 days too — she’s part and parcel of all this, as is VP Kamala Harris and her First Gentleman. Anything but boring, for instance:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/29/politics/jill-biden-first-100-days/index.html
For just one instance:
[ ” ….In Arizona last week, during speeches outdoors at Window Rock, the government seat of Navajo Nation and a picturesque natural stone formation, Biden, as she sat and listened, was handed a Native American-style blanket, patterned with brown, green and orange designs. One of the Navajo councilwomen helped wrap her in it, tucking it up to her chin and down to her ankles. The sun set, the wind picked up, the program went long — a trifecta of events that left the audience and the traveling press of 10 or so members of the media shivering with cold.
The next day, a staff member told CNN the first lady had seen the audience, press included, and felt badly that they were exposed to the elements while she had the blanket. The first thing the first lady said when she saw the media that day was, “Did you thaw out from last night?” It was an acknowledgment, though brief, that she was aware of the discomfort in the far back row of her event, in the same way she is aware of the discomfort of everyone she has visited with during her first 100 days as first lady in a country trying to reemerge from one of its most devastating periods.
To the students she spoke to at the school that day, Biden’s advice was to keep a journal.
“Just look at this time, don’t forget it, and think about: what did you learn about yourselves? Were you stronger than you thought? Were you, maybe it was harder than you thought? Did you change in some way? Did you find that you were kinder, or did you find that you, you know, maybe felt sad so many days? So, write this. Write it down,” she said.
“If you can pull out your journal. And remember how you felt, I think it’s going to be so important, and it’s actually going to be history for your family about what this time means.” ….” ]
@Sarah Marie: You’ve pointed out another good thing about the Biden administration: I had no idea who Ashley Biden was until you mentioned her just now.
Here’s to a president who’s family members stay out of the administration and the news.
@JustaTech:
Here here!
And here’s another one for first kids who remain first kids, qualified or not.
Also, I only know who they are because I’ve read both parents’ books.
Thanks, John. One correction: The Fox News douche bag is Peter Doocy, nepotistic son of Steve.
It feels so nice in the mornings to just see the road Biden is paving through the wilderness of the last administration.
Hopefully a lot will shake the foundation of the current GOP before 2022 and they can quit grasping at straws when they see that the party of no has no place in America’s future.
Keep it up, President Joe, make the GOP come to you. They will have to someday, when they run out of straws to grasp. It will happen because the orange straw man is going to be in big trouble soon.
@Chris “What I tend to notice is that the GOP basically breaks government and then blames government for being broken.”
That, and they privatize the pieces on the cheap to the enormous loss of the American taxpayer.
It seems plain to liberals like me that Biden has been a surprising effective president, but a huge chunk of the country is on the other side of the looking glass. I heard someone refer to him as the April Fool’s joke for America in 2021.
After the 365×4 Fool’s Days (+1 leap Fools Day) we just went through, I am cool with that.
“Uncle Tim?”
I have a bit of a problem with that.
IMO – He’s lying like a dog-faced pony soldier. He refuses to allow the killing of the filibuster so he has an excuse to never deliver on most of his promises and only deliver stripped down, almost worthless, versions of the rest. Intentionally. Status quo is his way of life and much of what he’s promising to get rid of or change are things he himself proudly put in place when in the senate. He made empty promises to get the nomination and this is him backing out of them.
@Susan YES! I’ve had that same experience! I’m so glad I’m not alone in that trauma. Though I’m sad that I’m not as well. It’s complicated.
Biden was the most realistic choice to win, I think, though ideally he wasn’t at the top of my list before the election. He has pleasantly exceeded my expectations since. I was still happy to vote for him. Note that I am in Idaho so it’s not like my vote counted for much beyond I LIVE HERE TOO, REPUBLICANS. AND I FUCKING VOTE.
@Just Sayin:
Funnily enough, so do millions upon millions of black and brown folks ;this includes those who’ve been harassed, assaulted or had the cops sicced on them for daring to irritate, exist near or stand up to a white person.
Among those same black folks are those who routinely attend or arrange home going ceremonies for loved ones who’ve died at the hands of folks who think like and vote for his party.
I have a problem with uncle Tim’s disingenuous ramblings about race relations in America, the worst among them being his insistence that those on the wrong end of white supremacy aren’t seeing or experiencing what they’re seeing or experiencing.
He dares to let fly with such a ridiculous and disrespectful talking point against the backdrop of a spike in racially motivated violence against people of color, a white supremacist tantrum at and inside of our nation’s capitol and a concerted effort on the part of status anxious, sore loser republican legislatures to codify the suppression of voters and protestors of color into law all across the country.
I should be more concerned about what will ultimately become of folks like him and Candace Owens when, not if, things really get ugly in this country, but there’s this thing about lying down with dogs and all.
The best that can be said for his little shucking and jiving routine is that he may not believe all of what he is saying.
If, in fact, he really does believe it, may his awakening not be as rude as it has been for others.
Hopefully, the “evil” MSM won’t be covering his home going celebration at some southern black church after some white supremacist “murican” (one who won’t give a damn who he is or how he votes) decides he needs killing.
Sorry, but a black man regurgitating rancid narratives of white victimhood is class A coonery, and I don’t owe it to anyone who agrees with his politics to surar coat what he’s done.
“sugar,” damn it!
Biden wasn’t my first (or second, or third) option either. But I do find people yelling “SOCIALIST!” about him to be pretty ignorant of his history. The guy was the Senator from the most corporate friendly state in the union, never met a corporate protection scheme he didn’t like, and literally launched his campaign from Comcast’s CEO’s house. He wasn’t my first (or second or third) choice because he wasn’t SOCIALIST! enough.
But he knows how the wheels of government work and has a clearly set agenda focusing on COVID and the economy which is nice, and as you state, is perfectly competent at it.
And I will take that all day long.
Also, I have to wonder if Mitch and the Treason Caucus aren’t regretting not putting Merick Garland on the bench where he can’t indict them all.
So the opposite to the old curse – “May you live in interesting times” is the blessing
“May you live through boring times”.
Not quite as catchy as “Live long and prosper” but it sounds good to me, hurrah for boring.
I had a feeling Biden was going to win it all last January when I saw the polling numbers from South Carolina. Throw in his compassion and his experience, and I saw nothing not to like.
Also? After the heart attack, Bernie Sanders should have withdrawn from the race. I was genuinely afraid he’d drop dead on the campaign trail.
Sarah Marie:
My problem with “Uncle Tim” is that it is a race based pejorative.
Casting a racial slur is ugly enough. Doing so because one believes a black man’s opinions and beliefs are inconsistent with what one thinks they should be based on the color of his skin is just openly racist.
I don’t understand how the recent usage of this term is acceptable by anyone, particularly among those who consider themselves racially sensitive or enlightened.
Yes. Boring is good. Competent is even better. Yes, I voted for him. I’m happy that I did. Alas, I’m in a red county in a very blue state, and would love to get rid of Rep. Calvert (QOP) stat. He thinks he only represents Rethugliecon white males.
I don’t miss the Velveeta Voldemort, the treasonweasel.
Don’t underestimate the competence part that goes along with the boring part. A good friend of mine is a senior civil servant in an important though not well known national security agency. He said that he is just now realizing how stressed he has been for the last four years at work. He said that his agency actually got off light because Trump and his people simply couldn’t grasp what it was they did. He didn’t brief Trump personally but he talked to the people who did and he did brief senior White House officials and they just didn’t understand what he was trying to tell them.
@Buzz79: “they just didn’t understand what he was trying to tell them”
Considering they committed massive crimes and were guilty of virtually every moral failing imaginable, that may be the single most damning statement I’ve ever seen about the Trump administration.
@ Just Sayin:
Well would you prefer white supremacist of color?
I love it when the sworn enemies of political correctness and racial sensitivity get butthurt when it comes to critics of folks who agree with them.
And “racially sensitive” is an…interesting term for black folks slapping a punitive label on one of their own for siding with the colonizer/master/overseer/hunter.
The white supremacy is bad enough coming from white folks, but it is especially terrible coming from someone who looks like us.
I’d explain further, but I have this thing about explaining things to white folks and/or their sympathizers that they either know well enough or can easily find out for themselves.
We get to call that out however we like and feel just as entitled to do so as those who have and continue to fight for the first-amendment right of white supremacists to say whatever they like to whomever they please on social media, on campus and at work.
It’s the same right to free-speech that allows conservative culture warriors to label anti-racist black folks as “urban”.
It’s the same right to free-speech that would allow these same conservative culture warriors to call Tim Scott a woke, race-bating SJW if he’d been speaking honestly about the Georgia Bill and the objective reality of America’s bone deep white supremacy.
It’s the same right to free-speech that Ron Johnson has when he declares that the white supremacist insurrectionists bent on knocking off the vice president and members of congress weren’t as threatening as BLM protesters would have been.
It’s the same fight to free speech that Marjorie Taylor Green has when she threatens to murder three congressmen of color and expresses fear of white erasure via “miscegenation.”
It’s the same right to free speech that conservative hero [RSHD] has when he does or says…anything.
I’m terribly sorry, really, I am, that black folks enjoying their constitutional right to be critical of a white supremacy apologist of color offends privileged sensivilities.
I’m even sorrier that the repugnant trick of trotting out their pet black senator fell flat, especially in the wake of a spike in racially motivated, Trump inspired violence against Asian Americans, a string of attempted and successful police exicutions of black folks and a monumental effort on the part of the republican party to force black folks to shut up and take their lumps.
I also think it rather cute that the same folks who are quick to slap “urban” on black folks who don’t share their views on race are outrage!, outraged! I tell you!,at the “racist” attack on their secret weapon.
Holding up tokens as tangible proof that conservatives and conservatism aren’t inherently racist is a tired tactic, one designed to undermine anti-racist arguments against the republican platform.
Rather than chiding black folks for calling out uncle Tim’s coonery, “outraged” conservative types ought to be dealing with the Marjorie Taylor Greens in their own tent.
I do wish that uncle Tim’s defenders were as outraged by Marjory Taylor Green’s racism as they are about ours.
They ought to keep that same energy when it times to vote on the George Floyd policing act and the John Lewis voting act.
They ought to use that same anti-racist ferver to callout Florida’s governor for his “knock’em down like uppity black bowling pins” anti-protest laws.
In the meantime, we’re going to continue to speak our minds about black folks who defend what she and other conservatives like to call “anglo saxson political traditions.”
“it’s time” and “saxon,” damn it!
I’ve really got to quit posting while irritated and take more time to proofread.
I’ll just leave this here.
Well, Joe Biden was my first choice precisely because I was counting on boring. I never want an exciting government. I want a competent one. One that makes sure the Huns won’t break down the gates and other similar catastrophes.
Though, I will say the one down side of boring competence was that until I got my vaccines, I was still stuck at home and had no clue what do with all the time I used to use for doomscrolling…
@ Sarah Marie:
“In the meantime, we’re going to continue to speak our minds about black folks who defend what she and other conservatives like to call “anglo saxson political traditions.””
I’ve always been mystified by white supremacists’ appeals to “anglo-saxon political tradition”. I suppose they mean the Vikings?
Equally confused by the use of openly ahistorical terms such as “Western culture” and “Judeo-Christian values”. Even well-meaning, non-bigoted folks trip up on these from time to time.
@Fatman:
I know what you mean.
I’ve seen examples of exactly what you’re talking about (I think one was here), and it never fails to announce itself as the white supremacist dogwhistle that it is.
Others are “”European social mores,” “Western ideals” and my all time favorite “traditional American values.”
They’re all code for “social , political and economic structures designed to empower and benefit straight white males and their descendents in perpetuity and to the detriment of anyone and everyone outside of these groups.”
Historical accuracy isn’t really a factor.
And why worry about diction errors when owning the libs?
And it’s safe to put white supremacists’ confused uses of those buzz-phrases down to the same kind of ignorance that informs their understanding of tyranny, communism and socialism.
Boring is the new exciting.
In all seriousness, I think most people who voted for Biden, and continue to to support him, know just how transformative this presidency really is.
His broad plans are not business as usual, they are going to change the country. Whether or not the rhetoric is “getting things back to normal”, I think everyone understand that we are in crisis times. We all know, in our bones, that fundamental changes needs to happen. Biden may or may not be the president for that change, but it’s going to happen some way.
With COVID-19, we could really use Medicare for All. Wish Joe favored it, but he has gotten some good stuff done so far anyway.
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