today the washington post energy 202 reported that vice president and putative democratic nominee for president joe biden is “open to expanding his climate plan to win over young voters.” that pretty much tells you everything you need to know about joe biden.
he’s not expanding his climate plan because, um, the entire human habitat is in peril. he’s not expanding his climate plan because it doesn’t even begin to take bold enough action to address an existential threat. and he’s not even announcing that he’s expanding his climate plan. he’s musing that he’s “open to expanding his climate plan to win over young voters.” oh my, how exciting.
on the one hand, i suppose its refreshing to have politicians be so nakedly honest. actually, it’s the new normal right now. donald trump is pretty transparent himself much of the time. he pretty much tells you what his political reasons are for what he does. he says things like “i don’t want to get blamed for it.” and other stuff like that. although he rarely comes out and says, “i want this to happen because my family will make money off it.” trump sometimes hides that.
the old political way was the approach pete buttigieg took on the campaign trail, absurdly promising “medicare for all who want it.” last night my husband set lemon slices on the table next to the salmon pronouncing a policy of “lemon slices for all who want it,” which reminded me of this outrage. if biden were announcing a compromise medicare policy he might have said “i’m open to whatever can have the big corporate health industry not mad at me but seems like it will help regular people,” oops, he already did that, it’s called obamacare.
the best thing about joe biden is also the worst, he’s a politician through and through. this means that he is, has been and will continue to be perfectly comfortable transparently following the political wind in whatever direction it leads him. it is difficult to articulate what his closely held beliefs are other than he loves his family. which definitely is touching. it’s so rare to find someone who loves their family.
the only thing less likely to win over young voters than a bolder climate policy than you had yesterday is making it clear that you’re pandering to them and haven’t even changed your policy. at this point, i don’t know how likely it is that most of the young people’s enthusiasm for sanders can be harnessed into biden’s campaign at all but despite all my grousing about biden, there is no question in my mind that he needs to be elected. everyone that is even arguably in a swing state needs to vote for him. the supreme court, environmental and civil rights enforcement, the rule of law and common decency all demand that we rally around this very imperfect candidate.
but joe, help us out. please hire some advisers, develop a real climate action plan, send those advisers to talk to climate activists and in the mean time, sit down and shut up please.
