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| Albrecht Dürer |
Just in time for my monthly deadline, I saw a Tweet today in my vicarious twitter wanderings* to the effect of, "Do you think the ppl who voted for Biden are regretting it?" I didn't see the context, but it's not hard to imagine it was occasioned by Biden's failure to extend a national moratorium on evictions in spite of an alarmingly high number of people -- "millions" by most accounts-- who are likely to be screwed by his passive permission of it, aided and abetted by a do-nothing congress, immediately upon the lapse of the current moratorium-- i.e., tomorrow. The most easily avoided and therefore excessively disappointing of a series of disappointments since January 20.
Predictably, the facetiously raised possibility of regret among Biden voters was met by a cynicism-affirming chorus of "not those heartless bastards" by followers of the account. It's clear based on the wording of the question that the tweeter did not seek or expect an honest appraisal from anyone willing to admit they had voted for Biden in November. I am, as I say, running out of time to meet my July quota, so I will volunteer. Mind you I am not a casual Biden voter, and I have never been a fan let alone a True Believer-- and I don't much care for the implication that the "Biden voter" is an identity that can be spoken for in the response to a tossed off rhetorical question.
Am I happy that Biden has moments that exceed the bad that I thought he was going to be? Of course not. Did I expect that he would when I voted for him? Absolutely. Do I regret voting for him then? No I do not. Regret implies an aching for an alternative. In the matter at hand, there was only one other possibility-- and no, I do not regret that Trump did not win re-election. Do I believe presidential politics matter in our broken system. Sadly I still do. (In line with the twitter user's question, it must somewhat matter or the voter would never have cause to regret their vote.) As for myself and the previous election, I still do believe the tiny margin of better for the vast majority of us and for the planet that we are getting from Biden compared to Trump-- or to put it more accurately, the margin of worse that we avoided by electing Biden matters. Both Trump and Biden are faux populists, Trump to a more sexily spectacular extent. Both are in fact perpetrators of the dreadful status quo who act primarily at the behest of the excessively rich and powerful (and in Trump's case, the self). Trump's politics are worse. Is Biden still bad? Yes. It's complicated. But on the question of regret, I have a long way to go to be convinced that Biden winning was of the two vastly more likely outcomes of the November election the regrettable one. I just don't buy it.
No question at all that presidential politics is a cesspool of pain, disappointment, irrelevance in material ways to most people. This is the nature of this sickening duopoly that we live under. But stewardship of this ridiculously over important office is perhaps the least anyone can do as long as we do not yet have a dictatorship of the proletariat.
I would not rise to the bait of this question if I weren't a bit irritated by how perfectly it illustrates the tattered state of the left since the end of the Bernie Sanders' campaign a year and a quarter ago. It's yet another example of some asshole on twitter purity trolling. My single vote did not elect Joe Biden (hence perhaps nothing to regret) but was done for my own mental health, in good conscience, with eyes fully open about the flaws of the candidate and in hopes that it would aid in an outcome that would not be regrettable. Disqualify me on that basis from participating in building an alternative to our debased system, but I am certain I'm not alone. Are we really going to require confessions and repentance from our brothers and sisters before we can accept their solidarity? Doesn't sound like a winning strategy to me. Then again, it's just Twitter.
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* I am not a member, but I latch onto twitter accounts for lols when I'm invited to.
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