By Myles Hoenig
The entire United States is in panic mode. President Trump is creating fear, division, hatred and confusion throughout. He’s saying a Biden America will look as bad as his America, without accepting what he has created. He is separating most Americans from his racist, white supremacist, fascist loving police forces. He is giving mixed messages on everything from how to deal with the pandemic and the virus to encouraging voter fraud by voting more than once.
We have had very tumultuous periods in our history, from the Civil Rights era, Viet Nam War, Great Depression, and now recognition of institutionalized police brutality but in each case, for the most part, people knew where they stood on the issues. The ‘Confuser in Chief’ has made sure that so many people don’t have a clue what’s going on. That works for every demagogue and authoritarian.
So it is no surprise that Joe Biden is picking up so many endorsements, from the 81 former Nobel Prize winners (does that include the war criminal Kissinger?) to over 100 prominent Republicans. The Nobel Laureates all come from the field of science, who live for some kind of order in the universe. There are no social science laureates yet to sign on. The Republicans who support Biden do it to bring order back into our universe, and to bring us back to the status quo of controlled capitalism and consistency for Wall Street.
What Biden represents is a return to a state of normality before Trump. But that normality meant never ending war, tax breaks for the very wealthy, increasing homelessness, a health care system that precludes millions of Americans, an environment in a state of degradation, social injustice at extreme levels, and so on. That is not to say these don’t exist with Trump, or that he has even made things necessarily worse, but it is his obvious march to fascism and division that identifies this country now.
We are no longer admired, but pitied, something never in our history. Biden will restore the bluster of American exceptionalism in a way that is respected, as well as feared. As Biden has said to his billionaire donors, nothing will substantially change if he’s elected, regarding policies from before Trump.
Myles Hoenig is a political analyst in Baltimore, Maryland. He ran for Congress in 2016 as a Green Party candidate.