Hail Caesar!...er, Joe!

 (c) by Mark Dempsey

My friends and neighbors, even my Latina mother-in-law, are all "muy contento" with Joe Biden. They're happy, as though the end of Trump means the end of tyranny, racism, xenophobia and all things bad in public policy. I disagree, and say the fixation on Trump is a mistake.

Yet I don't have the heart to disabuse them of such innocent optimism. It's charming. It's fun to dance in the end zone! Let the wild rumpus begin!

Meanwhile, back here on planet earth, Joe Biden is at least a questionable choice. He voted to go to war in Iraq, perhaps the worst foreign policy decision in U.S. history. The "Global War on Terror" that it initiated has reportedly killed 27 million to date--that's four-and-a-half times the holocaust. Even Trump thought Iraq was a mistake. 

Also--as a favor to the banks and credit card companies--the "Senator from MBNA" (Biden) voted to tighten the bankruptcy law just before a big economic downturn. We're still garnishing Social Security checks to pay student loans because bankruptcy can no longer retire them.

Biden has also signaled he'll continue persecuting dissenters from the American empire in our hemisphere. Rather than recognize the democratically elected government in Venezuela, he's announced support for a usurper (Guaido) there. The mob that invaded congress was trivial compared to the regime overthrow attempted in Venezuela, which still suffers U.S. sanctions, and is moving ever more into China's sphere of influence. 

Venezuela is not alone, either. U.S. coups overthrowing elections in Bolivia, and a military coup blessed by then-Secretary-of-State Clinton in Honduras are just the most recent examples of imperialist foreign policy from which neither Trump nor Biden have strayed. This is a long tradition; between 1798 and 1994, the U.S. is responsible for 41 changes of government south of its borders. It's apparently our empire's manifest destiny to straighten out those "crazy" Latin Americans.

In the wake of NAFTA, Mexican median real income declined 34%. So a constant stream of economic, military and political refugees comes north...where, adding insult to injury, Americans persecute and cage them. The U.S. is simply shameless, like Trump. 

All Biden's "diversity" and "intersectional" appointments are, I'm sure, a tremendous consolation to our colonies and peons. "At last! A trans woman is ordering the drone strikes!" they'll say.

The libertarian Cato institute sponsored a study that discovered voters have more allegiance to their party than any objective standard of judgment. Voters deplore policies initiated by the opposition, but if they are told those same policies come from their own "team," why then they're OK!

I'd suggest the sooner we stop treating elections as a sporting event, the better. Policies succeed or fail on their own, no matter who initiates them. The idea that the team excuses bad behavior is really ridiculous.