Biden was a natural-born Republican. He didn’t switch his party registration until he felt the need to suck up to his boss at the law firm he got a job at. And when he ran for office in Delaware he was, basically, a one-issue politician-- “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” in the words of another “Democrat” in Biden’s day. Biden always preferred working with Republicans than Democrats, especially progressive Democrats, who he always feared and hated. He used to brag how he was a conservative on almost everything-- and you could see that clearly in his long and putrid record. It was just a terrible Republican-oriented voting record for decades in the Senate, it was also his record of leadership and what he chose to push: wars (like Iraq), bad trade deals (like NAFTA), Wall Street legislation (from putative bankruptcy bills to bills that put millions of Americans into unsustainable college debt) and, of course, extreme social injustice, one of Biden's life-long specialties. Biden has always had an easier time working with Republicans-- and embracing their agenda-- than working with progressives, whose agenda he has always generally abhorred and mocked and worked to derail. He's always been that kind of Democrat. Obama didn't pick him as a running mate for any other reason than to balance the ticket-- basically, a black man and a publicly calmed-down racist.So it should have come as no surprise on Monday when ole Status Quo Joe told Democratic primary voters in Exeter, New Hampshire that he’s open to picking a Republican as a running mate.Remember, we’re talking about a 77 year old man who only appears healthy because of thousands of dollars in plastic surgery that he has deployed to deceive voters, someone who is clearly senile and getting worse by the week and someone who would be a not very healthy 78 when he occupied the White House. He wants a Republican ready to step in? Which one? He refused to say. A more moderate Ivanka Trump? Or a more fascist-leaning Don, Jr.? Moscow Mitch? Pence? Who’s he got in mind? Someone as anti-Choice and anti-gay and anti-Black as he always was until he found it politically expedient to claim otherwise? Of course!! I know exactly who he has in mind-- the perfect Biden Republican-- Paul Ryan... the two of them could gut Social Security together and live happily ever after, heroes of the one percent!The New York Times noted Monday that ”Biden has emphasized the need for a future Democratic president to work with Republicans, stressing the importance of consensus in order to get things done. That viewpoint has been criticized by some liberals who see it as an unacceptable embrace of the status quo and think Mr. Biden is naïve about trying to work with Republicans. But choosing a Republican to be his running mate would be a far more grievous act in the eyes of many Democrats, something many party officials and both liberal and moderate activists would oppose.”Martin Luther King, Jr., the kind of transformational leader Biden has never even aspired to be, had something to say about his kind of grubby, failed politics, which has never accomplished anything for people but has always keep the transpartisan donor class happy as pigs in shit. America will never celebrate a “Status Quo Joe Day, the way we celebrate Martin Luther King Day. One of King’s best known quotes is “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” Dan Oswald explained that to mean “that if we want to be leaders, we need to lead-- that is, we need to develop ideas and convince others of their merit. A leader doesn’t figure out where everyone is going and then jump to the front of the line. A leader chooses a destination, convinces others of the merits of taking the trip, shows them how they can get there, and then leads them on the journey.”
As a manager, it’s your job to have a vision and share it with those with whom you work. And as a leader, you must build consensus for that vision. If you stand around waiting to find consensus, then you’re not leading anyone. The leader is out in front of the pack determining the proper path. At times you’ll head the wrong way and need to reverse course. Other times, as the leader of the pack, you’ll be the first to step into danger. But as a leader, you must be willing to take calculated risks. That’s part of the job description.
Still plenty of time to vote over at Twitter, but we seem to have an early consensusSanders-- not Biden, not Buttigieg, not Bloomberg! We've had enough of the B-team from Democrats. It's time for a real super-star A Team kind of guy, a modern day FDR. And I don't even want to guess what an hideous concoction a Biden cabinet would look like-- not to mention his judicial nominations!
