So of course you disagree with some of what Biden did.
But here is what I can tell you with great certainty — everything Biden has done, he has done with his heart in the right place. He did it because he thought it was right for our country and right for the world. You may disagree, but on that, I am certain.
That just isn’t who Joe is. He hates money in politics. He hates people who do things for their own benefit and not for the good of the country. It disgusts him.
What this means is that even when you disagree with Joe on an issue, you can be sure that he is supporting it not because some rich a-holes want him to, or because it will benefit him, or because he doesn’t care about the well-being of all Americans. He is supporting it because he thinks it is the best position for America. And there is something really important and wonderful about that.
For example: busing. His position on busing in the 70s is one I, personally, don’t agree with.
But here are his own words about why he took that position. From the New York Times:
You take people who aren’t racist, people who are good citizens, who believe in equal education and opportunity, and you stunt their children’s intellectual growth by busing them to an inferior school and you’re going to fill them with hatred [ . . . ]
The new integration plans being offered are really just quota systems to assure a certain number of blacks, Chicanos or whatever in each school. That, to me, is the most racist concept you can come up with.
What it says is, in order for your child with curly black hair, brown eyes and dark skin to be able to learn anything, he needs to sit next to my blond-haired, blue-eyed son. That’s racist! Who the hell do we think we are, that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?
How were these views formed? BuzzFeed recalls:
The idea of busing was quite unpopular among white voters in his small state, but also among some of the local black activists whose perspectives helped inform Biden.
Anti-busing views were not as prevalent in the black community, Coker [Bebe Coker, a Wilmington activist] said, but she and Smith [Richard “Mouse” Smith, a local NAACP official] found Biden sympathetic to their arguments that it was counterproductive to force children, in the name of desegregation, to wake up hours earlier to be sent to a white suburban school district.
Biden has said over the years that he supported the overarching idea of desegregating schools, but not forced busing as a means to achieve it. He and his allies note how he favored programs to promote more equality in housing and improvements to existing schools and neighborhoods — measures they believe would have led to more organic integration.
Smith said recent attacks and reflections on Biden’s record bother him because “he ain’t a racist.”
“I’m probably more racist than he is,” Smith said. “He is not a taker. He’s a giver[. . . . ] Do you think he could have my friendship if he was a racist?”
People tried — back then and now — to use Biden’s views on busing to argue that he is racist. Biden wrote in his memoir about how upset he was about this in the 70s. He had dedicated much of his Senate career to fighting for civil rights, and he was surprised and a bit heartbroken when people ignored all of the rest of what he did and just focused on busing.
Biden actually felt that forced busing was making racial tensions worse. He believed that racial inequality was better addressed by programs that increased diversity in communities (i.e., made it easier for Black Americans to live in different neighborhoods) and that increased the quality of all of the schools. Politifact reports:
"I have become convinced that busing is a bankrupt concept that, in fact, does not bear any of the fruit for which it was designed," Biden said on the Senate floor Sept. 17, 1975. "If anything, it obfuscates the real issue today, which is whether or not there is equal opportunity within the educational field for all people within the United States."
Biden said that rather than busing, the Senate should focus on all areas of opportunity in housing, education, equal credit and voting rights to provide minorities with equal access.
And a look at his record finds that Biden has always supported voluntary local programs, like the one Kamala Harris was in. Here’s Forbes:
Biden pointed out that Harris benefited from a busing program run by local leaders in Berkeley who facilitated local support. It was not a federally mandated program. As Matthew Delmont has pointed out in The Atlantic, the fact that it was run by local officials is an important part of what made it successful: “Berkeley was able to craft a successful school-desegregation plan in this context because of strong local leadership and a sense of civic purpose. . . . [Berkeley’s school superintendent, Neil] Sullivan understood the importance of making a strong case for school integration.”
Federally mandated busing was extremely unpopular with whites and not particularly popular with African Americans either, so it’s no surprise that those programs didn’t last.
I am not writing this to make the argument that Biden was right about federally mandated busing. I am not sure that he was. I am writing it to make the argument that even when you disagree with Biden, you can be sure that his decisions are not caused by racial animus or self-interest or not carefully thinking about an issue.
Biden is a decent, smart, and kind man. Even when we disagree with him, we can be sure that his heart is in the right place. We can be sure that he is making decisions based on what he genuinely thinks is best for all Americans. And I can’t think of much that is more important in a leader.
Is there still more work to be done in his presidency? 100%! Lots more work. But Biden has done so much more than many people guessed could be done. He deserves a lot of credit. AND he deserves to be re-elected.
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This is an entry in my ongoing series Boosting Biden.
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These posts are written by Goodnewsroundup (Goodie),
edited by Matilda Briggs, supported by 2thanks and WolverineForTJatAW,
and reinforced by several other notable Kossacks!
As with all good things, it takes a village.