By Request: A Positive Case For Joe Biden (vs. Anti-Trump)

The Omnivore takes requests and in this case the question is why would we want a President Biden? What could possibly be good about that? It's really not too hard to make a case of harm-reduction in Biden-vs-Trump but that's not what The Omnivore was asked for. So here goes.

1. He's now Pro-Pot.

Huh?? That might seem like a weird thing to lead with--but (a) The Omnivore's readers will almost certainly agree with the position and (b) the more strategically inclined will acknowledge that it's a winner.

Can we trust him to do it? Sure. Why not? It's not like having a preference for the entire (and retroactive!) decriminalization of pot would be a political nuke (unlike M4A). In fact, it would be the softest of soft-balls. Unless Biden was a staunchly anti-Pot crusader (which he used to be--but is emphatic he isn't right now) this doesn't seem a stretch of a position.

NOTE: he cannot just "enact this" anyway--but his position on it would help get it done for sure.

NOTE: BUT HE HAS SOME NUANCE. Tough, kid. The headline is what matters here. After Congress gets through with it the bill will be that you can only buy from a licensed accredited pot dealer with a certification process or some shit.

Maybe he'll require the post office to deliver pot. That'd save the USPS too.

2. He Will Improve Health Care For Millions Of People

Having a Public Option for the ACA is a great thing that will help millions of people. It's insurance without the profit overhead. It isn't the magic M4A--but it could actually pass. So if you want to help people with medical care, Joe is your man.

If you won't help some people unless you help all people (M4A! #BernieOrBust!!) then you are not willing to fight for someone you don't know (and you don't actually care about the people who would get helped by Biden but won't under Trump--fuck them, right?)

3. He Will Choose A Historic VP
No one cares about the VP, says the political conventional wisdom--but The Omnivore points out that a woman VP would still be a first and will, in, yes, an incremental fashion, add "cracks" to a glass ceiling almost no one really thinks should exist in the first place.

4. He's Not A Horrible Choice
Team Sanders has a laundry list of reasons Biden must NEVER be president. Such as: (a) he is suffering late stage dementia, (b) he is, maybe, dead, (c) He is a tool of the Corporatist Democratic Machine that cheated Bernie out of a rightful win, (d) he is a credibly accused rapist.

We saw in the Sanders-Biden debate that he's not a drooling dementia patient who has no idea where he is.

We discovered that Team Bernie saying he was dead was just, you know, a second lie.

The spectrum of DNC cheating runs from Obama threatening Arkancide if the other Dems didn't drop out to fixing votes (the "exit polls!! The margin of error!! It's PROOF!!") to just feeling that Bernie should have won and didn't.

The rape allegation deserves its own post and should not be treated flippantly. The Omnivore will say that being told "I CANNOT VOTE FOR A RAPIST" by people who have already said they couldn't vote for Biden because of [other bullshit] isn't quite the point the people think they are making.

This doesn't mean the allegations are fake or should not be looked at seriously--but it means that much of the conversation around this issue shouldn't be taken as a real #MeToo issue and more as an attack on a candidate: if the person pushing the conversation is #NeverBiden then the argument, prima facie, isn't in good faith.

5. Biden--The Best For Repair. One of the issues with Sanders is that November would not be the time for a revolution--even if he won. Why not? There's no time like the present for enacting a broad swath of sweeping changes, right?

Well, wrong. If Trump doesn't win again, whoever lands in the top spot will have their first and foremost job being repair. Repair the military, restore the state department, fix the CDC, the list goes on. None of this is quick or easy and it will require the touch of someone who cares about those institutions.

That person is clearly Joe Biden--of all the candidates, he is the one who actually experienced working government from the executive suite on the inside. He is therefore most likely the person who can put them back together.

Conclusions
Biden is a good candidate--he's not everything everyone wanted, sure--but no one ever is. You should vote for him for the good he will do (if you can't get past voting for him because of the incredible harm he will prevent).