In this upside-down world, change only happens when there’s a demand for it. Getting rid of President Trump doesn’t qualify. Nothing changes when he’s gone — income inequality will continue its upward trajectory, the bellicosity characterizing U.S. foreign policy will persist along with endless war, and the planet will continue to die. Will Joe Biden turn things around? Not without a big push from the voters. Remember when candidates Clinton and Obama rolled to victory claiming they would make the world a better place. Maybe we should have gotten it in writing. Millionaire and billionaire campaign contributors didn’t make the same mistake. Their donations were contingent on a (generous) return on their investment. Clinton was quick to relieve Wall Street moguls of those burdensome regulations that protected the people but stood in the way of the obscene profits the Street was accustomed to. Obama paid up by making the too-big-to fail banks even bigger and more failure-proof. There’s more of course, but you get the picture. It’s Biden’s turn now. While big donors will see a huge return on their investment, a different fate awaits the people. On all the issues they favor by large margins— Medicare-for-all, Green New Deal, free college, student debt jubilee, ending fracking —he’s already turned thumbs down. Trump may go but in the absence of substantive demands, business as usual will prevail. Let’s be clear, some promises Joe dare not leave on the table— the ones he made to his multi-million dollar donors (the pharmaceutical, fossil fuel, and finance industries and Wall Street). Read “Lost in Bidenland” for more of the ways the people lose when the oligarchs win.
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