Biden/Harris Campaign Slogan: No, We Can’t

W.J. Astore

Tacking to starboard, stuck in place, the USS America under Joe Biden is groaning in protest

In America’s two-color political universe, by which I mean blue versus red, whenever I criticize the blue team, I get accused of supporting the red team. But I believe in a multi-color world, not a bicolor one. Even green is an acceptable color! So, as I critique Joe Biden today, rest assured I never have voted, and never will vote, for the red guy, Donald Trump. I’m going green in 2024 with Cornel West.

With that longwinded prologue, I’d like to announce the Biden/Harris unofficial campaign slogan for 2024: No, we can’t.

It may sound familiar. Fifteen years ago, Barack Obama embraced the energy and optimism of “Yes, we can.” He also promoted “hope” and “change.” After eight years of Bush/Cheney, those simple slogans resonated with Americans, and Obama/Biden rode to victory in 2008 exuding confidence and a can-do spirit. (Of course, the results in office were, shall I say, disappointing.)

The good old days that never quite were.

But that was then, this is now, and when you go to JoeBiden.com, you get a message that suggests we reelect Joe to “finish the job.” Which job needs to be finished is unspecified. Vague words about protecting freedom and democracy and feel-good imagery is about all you get. Add it up and you get a de facto message of little hope and no change—just more of the same.

The Democrats think that a bland message of normalcy will be enough to prevail against Trump, who seems to be indicted now almost daily. Again, I’m no fan of Trump and won’t be voting for him. But why should I vote for Biden? What compelling reason or even message is there to convince me?

I haven’t heard one other than “Trump is very bad.”

A friend tells me Biden’s record as president is respectable and that he’s tilted left of center. I’m baffled by this claim. Biden/Harris have told me we can’t get Medicare for All; indeed, we can’t even get a public option. We can’t get significant student debt relief. We can’t get a $15 federal minimum wage. We can’t reduce the Pentagon budget and spending on wars and weapons. We can’t stop building more nuclear weapons. We can’t stop drilling in sensitive areas such as pristine wildernesses and offshore waters.

You see where I’m going here. When it comes to progressive agendas, “No, we can’t” is the true motto of Biden/Harris. Corporate Joe and his VP sidekick appear to have little empathy for the working classes and the hurting. Imagine a president coming back from vacation, as Biden recently did, and being asked about deadly wildfires in Hawaii and declaring that he had “no comment.” How hard is it for a president to muster words of sympathy for the suffering people of Hawaii while promising speedy federal aid?

For some reason I’m in a nautical frame of mind (forgive me, my Navy brethren).* As the USS Trump takes on water from multiple torpedo hits (indictments), the USS Biden sits dead in the water, having run aground on the shoals of incompetence and indifference. There is no Bernie Sanders this time around to rally the youthful crew to rock and re-float the boat. Perhaps Americans should search for a new ship to board?

A favorite book is “The Caine Mutiny” (please read it if you haven’t; it’s thrilling as well as hilarious in spots). The Caine was a tired old ship headed for the scrap heap after World War II and its commander, Queeg, was addled and (much worse) cowardly. The ship nearly sinks during a powerful storm that paralyzes Queeg; only a mutiny by its crew prevents disaster. America, our ship of state, faces storms of its own. Do we have confidence in captains like Trump or Biden to lead us through the tempest to calmer waters? Maybe it’s time we mutiny?

My friend believes Biden is a competent captain who’s making good headway even as he tacks to port. I see an increasingly tired and confused commander who’s furiously tacking to starboard even as the ship of state groans, making no progress as it’s battered on those aforementioned shoals.

*Feel free, Navy brethren, to offer your own nautical metaphors, which I’m betting will be better than mine.

12 thoughts on “Biden/Harris Campaign Slogan: No, We Can’t”

  1. Have to agree. Thinking we live in a BIZARRO WORLD. Sure wish that U.S. voters had a REAL CHOICE; not just between BLAND and EVIL. WE DESERVE BETTER… Ummm – maybe we do not!

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  2. I can’t disagree with your assessment, but I have reservations about your conclusion. There appears to be no realistic chance that a third party candidate like Cornell West will win. A vote for him will undermine Biden and potentially produce a Trump win. Do you think this is a tolerable consequence?. What do you see happening if Trump wins? Does it all have to fall apart in order to fix it? In general, why Is a vote for third party candidate worth the risk?

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    2. I like to keep things simple. I’m going to vote for the candidate who most closely aligns with my principles. I’m not going to worry about what might happen. I have no control over that. All I can control is my one vote, and I want it to go to the candidate who best represents what I believe in.

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  3. In my opinion a vote for Cornel West is a vote for Trump for any vote that splits the Democrats totals only helps the Republicans. To get a clearer perspective on today’s current affairs, here’s a book I’d recommend…A Legacy of Ashes–a History of the C.I.A.

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    1. A vote for West is a vote for West. If Biden is so pathetic that a single vote cast for a 3rd Party candidate gets Trump elected, well, I say, so be it. I say that as a loyal, hold-my-nose and vote Blue for the first 4 decades of my voting life- and having seen just where that got the nation and the world.

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      1. I agree wholeheartedly. The word “pathetic” absolutely describes the Republican Junior Varsity — a.k.a, the “Democrats” — for blaming anyone other than themselves for running a toxic snake-haired Medusa like Bill Clinton’s Other Half against even a political neophyte like Donald Trump in 2016. Then, of course, blaming “the Russians” for understanding the de-industrialized Midwest — courtesy of Bill Clinton’s NAFTA sell-out — better than the so-called American “Democrat” with the same poison name, goes even beyond “pathetic,” but for the life of me I can’t come up with a low-enough epithet to convey the depth of my contempt. I did, at least, give it a try though. Consider Clinton/Obama/Biden Democrat “principles” as:

        Always Moving to the Right (or, “Center”)

        Red-baiting without the reds,
        Dick Nixon without the dick,
        McCarthy went off her meds
        And tail-gunner Jane got sick.

        The Russians did something, but,
        No evidence proves a thing.
        The war witch got beat. So what?
        She wanted, and got, her fling:

        A last chance at breaking glass,
        The ceiling and not the floor,
        But fell on her ample ass
        And got booted out the door.

        She lost to a game-show host,
        A rookie on his first jaunt,
        A real-estate con at most,
        With money and wives to flaunt.

        More dollars she raised, then blew
        On pollsters who told her stuff,
        Except what they never knew:
        That people had said, “Enough!”

        They just wanted peace and jobs
        No NAFTA or TPP
        It hurt when she called them slobs
        Deploring their dignity.

        She campaigned as if by rote,
        Neglecting a few key states.
        The neophyte, he took note
        And trashed her in their debates

        The voters held up one hand.
        The finger to her they gave,
        Then sent (with a TV brand!)
        Her dreams to an early grave.

        She never did think to look
        How far from the Left she’d run.
        So seeing, the Right-guy took
        One step to the Left — and won.

        She then wrote a book (she said),
        Explaining (though in the dark),
        “What Happened” the title read
        But left out the question mark.

        Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2018

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  4. Biden’s domestic policies are not bad. His foreign policies are terrible. I tremble at the thought of what Trump might do as president. I won’t vote for either.

    But it’s unfair to criticize Biden for not getting Medicare for all or a $15/hour minimum wage through. Issue by issue, policy by policy, once even the best of ideas get to Washington they are Dead On Arrival. They can barely keep the lights on, although they will happily overspend on the military. Public policies get changed through undemocratic Judiciary rulings rather than legislation.

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  5. Time again for Sherman to crank up Mr Peabody’s Way-Back Machine for a little return visit (in verse) to The Land That Forgot Time (meaning, pretty much everything Americans ever knew about their lying, thieving Corporate-Captured Uni-Party (CCUP) and its two squabbling-for-wealth-and-power right-wing factions:

    Boobie Theory of the Seizure Class
    (from Fernando Po, U.S.A., America’s post-literate retreat to Plato’s Cave)

    The teenage clotheshorse maiden weeps
    Enduring further slights
    The boys won’t line up on the porch
    Or call on Thursday nights
    (The cool-kid-of-the-moment swears:
    “This mother really bites!”)

    The poor don’t fork out princely sums
    Or lay out table fare
    Esteemed by connoisseurs who make
    Of each meal an affair
    So who would dine with those of us
    Who find the cupboard bare?

    As Veblen said, the scholars yearn
    To do their master’s will
    Accustomed to a style of life
    Their incomes can’t fulfill
    And so they gravitate to wealth
    For which they gladly shill

    To motivate the lower class
    To do the filthy deed
    The Pet Press pundit scribes will pen
    A solipsistic screed
    A yellow plaque upon the fangs
    Which makes the gums recede

    The Boobie Seizure Class, it seems,
    On three crude strands depends:
    On emulation, dominance,
    And animism’s blends:
    Assorted spook religions that
    “Explain” why freedom ends

    No toxic cocktail ever brewed
    Can slake the bloody thirst
    Of those who wish to take their bad
    And have us do its worst
    To kill some hapless foreigners
    So that they’ll hate us “first”

    The Pet Press nanny sycophants
    Transcribe the boss’s views
    And put them into their own mouths
    Reporting them like news
    As “sacred” as the hymnals found
    In precinct churches’ pews

    Embedded for a byline they
    Write for the Army’s ease
    A splendid little war they think
    Needs just the proper tease
    “Support the troops” they now intone
    Just do it overseas

    The fanboy tough guys need a shield
    Behind which they can hide
    While jeering at the ones who choose
    Their time awhile to bide
    Refusing to approve a war
    For just the “winning” side

    Yet never has the Yellow Press
    Refused to praise the Lord
    If any chance they saw to add
    To their paymaster’s hoard
    And something for themselves as well
    If they just climb on board

    So tales of daring courage brave
    Must fill the printed page
    Until a mass hysteria
    Is all the roar and rage
    And symbol rulers ascertain
    That brains no thoughts engage

    The Sacred Symbol Soldier thus
    Appears to cloak the greed
    In made-up propaganda tales
    For those who on him feed
    He always wins the battles but
    No one his tale will heed

    The users of this symbol have
    No patriotic creed
    They love him for his usefulness
    But can’t abide his need
    The Symbol Soldier only serves
    When none can see him bleed

    One day his status changes to
    The veteran who knows
    Who won’t tell lies to cover up
    The crime of war that grows
    With each exalted croaking by
    A Seizure Class that crows

    Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2006

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  6. About that suffocating corporate duopoly — now more of a Uni-Party monopoly — and the pressing need for several more actual electoral choices — from Language in Thought and Action 5th edition, by S. I. Hayakawa (1992):

    Action resulting from two-valued orientations notoriously fails to achieve its objectives. … In short, the two-valued orientation increases combativeness but sharply diminishes the ability to evaluate the world accurately. When guided by it for any purpose other than fighting, we almost always achieve results opposite from those intended.
    . . .
    … the two-valued furor is a means of diverting public attention from urgent and practical issues. By making enough of an uproar about “reciting the Pledge of Allegiance,” “returning prayer to public schools,” or “who is to blame for the mess in Central America,” one can keep people from noticing what is going on in legislative lobbies “crowded,” as Winston Churchill once said, “with the touts of protected industries.”

    Sir Winston, if he lived today, would would have to update his language for those “touts of protected industries” (and privileged settler colonies like the nuclear-armed Apartheid Zionist Entity Occupying Palestine) have moved out of the “legislative lobbies” and into the Congressional offices themselves from which they write the laws that our “representatives” simply rubber-stamp before heading out for more endless fund-raising supplications, their primary activity.

    More and better choices most definitely required . . .

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  7. Pingback: Biden/Harris Campaign Slogan: No, We Can’t – Emma Olive

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