Nothing Biden proposed last night was "radical."
It was an uncontroversial plan to modernize America after decades of intentional destruction on behalf of the wealthy and powerful.
We have to recognize how we've arrived at this point of crisis.
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jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/making-up-fo…
Biden's address is already being framed as "radical" and "socialist," but it was simply a reckoning with very real problems.
That it could be treated as dangerous is proof of just how far the Right has lost its grip on reality, and the purpose they serve.
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Let's be very clear.
The GOP's only purpose at this point is to obstruct progress, redistribute wealth from the poor to the wealthy, and convince Americans the government can never do anything to help them and then redirect their anger toward vulnerable populations.
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The GOP isn't actually a political party.
It's a PR front for the wealthy and powerful and is bankrolled explicitly to keep their taxes low and stonewall any potential reform.
They have no ideology beyond the pursuit of power and profit.
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jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/there-is-no-…
How we arrived here is a history Americans should know, because this moment of inequality, government powerlessness, and division was an intentional demolition.
That we're here, trying to make up for DECADES OF LOST TIME, is no accident.
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Ronald Reagan's legacy is that of a pitchman for a radical redistribution of wealth from the poor to the wealthy, a project that has completely hollowed out the country, created our current crisis, and has resulted in America falling behind in every possible way.
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Biden wasn't wrong. Trickle Down Economics never did work.
But it was never supposed to. It was half-baked economics that gave the Right legitimacy to completely turn our economy upside down and turn it into a cruel engine for growing inequality and governmental destruction.
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The era of hypercapitalism was ushered in by Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
It taught citizens to expect nothing from government and that if they fell behind it was their fault, that they were lacking, that they deserved it.
It was institutional abuse.
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Meanwhile, Reagan partnered with the Religious Right to grant this gross inequality and disgusting economic philosophy an air of religiosity, resulting in a white supremacist worship of power and wealth that has infected our culture and brought us to the brink of destruction.
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As Reagan and the Right funneled money away from social and human projects, it neglected to modernize us, prepare for the 21st century, even engage with the idea that human beings deserved even a modicum of dignity.
It collapsed society and unleashed terrible forces.
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This is why I saw Donald Trump was a symptom, not the disease.
He recognized the growing frustration resulting from hypercapitalism, and instead of trying to fix it he used it to make a buck and redirect anger from those responsible to his enemies and vulnerable peoples.
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To protect its redistributive project, the Right has continued to stoke white supremacy and white paranoia, leading to a moment in this country where declining material conditions produces radicalized violence.
These people are meant to protect the economic order.
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To keep their base in line, and protect the accumulation of wealth, the Right has sold Americans on the idea of "Replacement," or that people of color and "shadowy forces" are out to destroy them.
This redirects anger and creates protection.
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jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/replacement-…
What we have seen though is an intentional shredding of the social safety net and economic protections laid out by FDR in the wake of the Great Depression.
It was a radical departure concealed behind stars and stripes rhetoric and white nationalist appeals.
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If you want to know what "radical" is, look at FDR's proposed Second Bill of Rights.
Guaranteed work, home, education, and healthcare.
We could already be there if it wasn't for the Right. We could be addressing climate change and progressing. That we aren't is a crime.
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I understand the need some have to frame Biden as FDR, but the truth is that none of what he's talking about is radical.
It's modernizing. It's common sense.
Do not let the Right define the debate. It's one of the only things they're good at.
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Refuse this framing that Biden is pushing something outlandish or radical.
It's common-sense, noncontroversial stuff.
There shouldn't even be a debate. It's about recognizing reality as it is and as it has been.
It's about smashing through the Right's twisted propaganda.
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If we're going to avoid destruction, whether through fascism, climate change, or economic collapse, we have to start by understanding the Right intentionally destroyed government and redistributed wealth while delaying necessary modernization.
That's simply the truth.
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