(Yesterday at 12:47 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:Quote:WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden’s name wasn’t on the ballot, but history will likely remember Kamala Harris’ resounding defeat as his loss too.
As Democrats pick up the pieces after President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory, some of the vice president’s backers are expressing frustration that Biden’s decision to seek reelection until this summer — despite long-standing voter concerns about his age and unease about post-pandemic inflation as well as the U.S.-Mexico border — all but sealed his party’s surrender of the White House.
“The biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Harris’ unsuccessful run. “If he had stepped down in January instead of July, we may be in a very different place.”
Biden will leave office after leading the United States out of the worst pandemic in a century, galvanizing international support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and passing a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will affect communities for years to come.
But having run four years ago against Trump to “restore the soul of the country,” Biden will make way after just one term for his immediate predecessor, who overcame two impeachments, a felony conviction and an insurrection launched by his supporters. Trump has pledged to radically reshape the federal government and roll back many of Biden’s priorities.
“Maybe in 20 or 30 years, history will remember Biden for some of these achievements,” said Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. “But in the shorter term, I don’t know he escapes the legacy of being the president who beat Donald Trump only to usher in another Donald Trump administration four years later.”
https://apnews.com/article/biden-harris-...5db21291d2
When Biden first announced he was stepping down, my gut feeling was that Trump had just won. Then Kamala came with a message of hope and progress, and a ton of enthusiasm that I now think was driven more by relief than belief. I got caught up in that enthusiasm, truly believing that the US had learned it's lesson and would refuse to give the keys back to a clown. Watching the "blue wall" fall red, one after another, and realizing that not only had the electorate not learned anything from the past decade, but had indeed learned the wrong lesson was a harsh awakening.
I firmly believe that the nation has become too unwieldy and too divided to govern properly, for either side, and I no longer think reconciliation across that divide is even possible. Though there is some overlap, the divide between the haves and have-nots is far less important that the divide between the minority who want to build a brighter future and a majority that apparently wants nothing more than to roast marshmallows over the flaming remains of a once proud nation.
If anyone knows where a talented electrical designer may be able to be sponsored for a work visa, I'm more than ready to go!
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