Let's get real about this. Joe Biden should not run for President. If his advisors aren't saying so, he should get new ones.
It's obvious that now, in the midst of #MeToo, is not the time to run for the Democratic nomination if you happened to run the Anita Hill hearing.
It's obvious that now, in the midst of #MeToo, is not the time to run for the Democratic nomination if you happened to run the Anita Hill hearing.
2/ Some backgrounders on that, based on a very cursory Google search:
washingtonpost.com/news/retropoli…
washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/maga…
washingtonpost.com/news/retropoli…
washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/maga…
3/ It's also pretty well known that he sponsored and voted for the 1994 crime bill. @jbouie has a good rundown of his record on criminal justice here.
slate.com/news-and-polit…
slate.com/news-and-polit…
@jbouie 4/ But did you know that Biden not only voted for, not only sponsored, but *partially wrote* the bill that gave us the crack/cocaine sentencing disparity?
Well, he did.
Well, he did.
@jbouie 5/ Wonkier related point: did you know that he also sponsored and helped to write the 1984 bill that greatly expanded civil forfeiture (otherwise known as: police taking your property even if you're never convicted of a crime, and using the proceeds to fund their departments.)
6/ Seriously: so long as the police think your property represents the proceed of a crime, they can just take it. (WHAT WOULD GROVER NORQUIST SAY?)
That's Biden.
That's Biden.
7/ If you think that it would be a great idea to nominate the single Democratic Senator who was arguably most responsible for mass incarceration that disproportionately affects African-Americans, militarized policing and the expansion of the carceral state, he's your guy.
8/ Why anyone thinks that would be a winning formula now, of all times, is a mystery.
9/ And then there's the 2005 bankruptcy bill. It had many, many bad features, but I want to highlight just one: this was the bill that made it impossible to discharge student loans made by for profit entities during bankruptcy.
10/ It was already impossible to discharge loans made by government and non-profits, absent great hardship, but this was the bill that said: if you take out a student loan from e.g. a bank, and you then declare bankruptcy, that student loan will not be wiped out.
11/ Does anyone think that now is a good time to run someone who helped make student loans a much worse problem than they were before?
If so, get professional help.
If so, get professional help.
12/ Plus, being a Senator from Delaware, he's always looked out for credit card companies and the like.
If you think that now is a great time to run someone who has been cozy with big finance, again, seek professional help.
If you think that now is a great time to run someone who has been cozy with big finance, again, seek professional help.
13/ He's vulnerable on sexual harassment, mass incarceration, and debt, especially student debt.
And he helped write the bill that gave us the crack/cocaine disparity.
That's a record designed to be problematic for women, people of color, millennials, and, really, most Dems.
And he helped write the bill that gave us the crack/cocaine disparity.
That's a record designed to be problematic for women, people of color, millennials, and, really, most Dems.
14/ This particular moment might have been designed to be wrong for Joe Biden.
And yet, somehow, he seems to think that he alone can save us.
He should think harder.
/Fin.
And yet, somehow, he seems to think that he alone can save us.
He should think harder.
/Fin.
