1 I
immediately after Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race two weeks ago (bit.ly/3WMJV4d), liberal commentators – many of whom had previously been adamant that, despite signs of clear mental and physical decline, he should remain the Democratic nominee heading into the November election (bit.ly/3A5zIqR)–, they began to praise him for his decency
, modesty
his selfless decision
(bit.ly/3YtDnJ7) and the willingness to sacrifice his political career for the good of the country
(bit.ly/46xEJV7).
2. Historian Timothy Snyder −one of the leading “late warriors of the cold War and critics of the so-called new authoritarianism
– he insisted, for example, that what the president did was humanly magnificent
, morally extraordinary
and spectacularly strategic
. Years from now, historians will be searching for words to describe Biden’s blessing
wrote (bit.ly/3yr6ceL).
3. Not only did Biden not deserve any of this praise, but this kind of bombastic, cloying, and – most importantly – completely unrealistic narrative drastically reduced our ability to understand politics and the present. It demonstrated that the cult of the Leader is also something inherent to liberalism, not just Trumpism and/or The new authoritarianism
. And it was part – consciously or unconsciously – of an entire operation of damage control
calculated to cover up the fact that in the four weeks after the presidential debate debacle, Biden, the decent man
he behaved in a quintessentially Trumpian manner (bit.ly/3SyL2lw), attacking any kind of criticism or suggestion that he do, for the good of all, precisely what he has finally been forced to do.
4. From there it is important to clarify what had happened here: after the fraud calculated to hide his true condition from the outside world was revealed and after Biden was insisting on continuing with the campaign until literally the last day, what made him change his mind was the definitive loss of support from the big donors (so far the greatness
of American democracy) and the leadership of his party that have left him with a choice to do it the easy way or to do it the hard way
.
5. As reported by Seymour Hersh, the dean of American journalism, Biden – much against his will – has been forced to resign under threat of being impeached. It was clear to the Democratic bosses that his obstinacy and selfishness threatened the interests of the party. According to Hersh, in the morning, before issuing his statement (bit.ly/3SA31Z4), Barack Obama called Biden to tell him, no more and no less, who had Kamala’s support [Harris] (sic) to invoke the 25th amendment
(which stipulates the transition process in the event of the death or disqualification of the president) and that they were waiting for his response (bit.ly/3WO7RUQ).
6. So, there was nothing wrong with his decision noble
, moral
, disinterested
and much less strategic
(Earlier this year Biden forced his candidacy through the primaries and has now left it to the Democrats to decide his replacement in a climate of emergency or, indeed, a coup d’état.) In his sudden beatification by liberal commentators such as Snyder or Paul Krugman – who also called him a good man
that did the right thing
(bit.ly/4dmoKeM)–, there was only the desire to cover up the true moving spirits of politics in the United States (money) and the deep emptiness of the liberal democratic project (bit.ly/3LLCXq6).
7. Proof of this is also the fact that the entire narrative of good man
It originally emerged after the disastrous presidential debate to salvage what could be done and convince voters that Biden, while perhaps unable to express himself intelligibly, but unlike Trump, At least he was a decent person
(bit.ly/4c9Mimc). And it persisted until it became unsustainable only to be resurrected in another context, despite being equally at the antipodes of the truth.
8. Is it a decent man
one who, after having campaigned criticizing Trump’s cruel immigration policies (the wall, children in cages, separation of families), reproduced and even radicalized them (denial of asylum)? Is it a good man
One who, after having introduced in the 1990s an extremely punitive anti-drug legislation aimed at consumers, always protected his addicted son and today even seems to consider pardoning him – for a recent drug-related conviction – at the end of his mandate (bit.ly/3WKXSjo)?
9. Is it a good man
one who blatantly lied about The 40 babies beheaded by Hamas
(bit.ly/3A5S62R), repeating the Israeli propaganda invented to justify the genocide in Gaza (bit.ly/3LP5GKx)? It’s a decent man
one who supported and financed this genocide and has never found in his heart an ounce of empathy towards thousands of Palestinian children – real – killed in its course (bit.ly/3LRyOAW)?
10. Snyder was right about one thing (who, for his part, also used a sea of ink to talk about the genocide in Ukraine
but he did not spill a drop to talk about Gaza): historians will still be searching for words to describe Biden: his presidency, his decision to withdraw from the race (based on real events, not liberal fables), his personality. Ecpathy
–voluntary mental process of excluding feelings, attitudes, thoughts and motivations induced by others–, the opposite of empathy, could be one. Cruelty
could be another.
