YESTERDAY’S MAN by Branco Marcetic

During his many years in the Senate, J.B was mindful of his conservative, suburban electorate and acted accordingly to stay in office, helping move his party to the right on several issues. Kamala Harris criticized J.B’s record on busing and teaming with segregationist Senators during the presidential debates. She was right. J.B voted much more against busing than for it. His 1977 bill, the Roth-Biden amendment to prevent Federal courts from ordering busing did not pass. The same year’s Eagleton-Biden amendment barring the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from using its funding for busing did pass. J.B voted along with southern segregationists on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee against 2 nominees because of their stance on busing. Even with his record of voting for almost every anti-busing bill in the Senate between 1975 – 1980, J.B insisted none of this hurt his relationship with the black community.

By J.B’s second term in office his donors changed to the powerful and wealthy, with a majority coming from outside of Delaware. He fought against the idea of National Health Insurance during Jimmy Carter’s administration and drifted further to the right during the Reagan years, voting for Reagan’s first budget and Reagan’s tax cut for the wealthy. Reagan’s budget cut back funding to social services, health and education programs which led to many public workers losing jobs, hundreds of thousands of families thrown off welfare and more than a million no longer eligible for unemployment benefits.

In the late 1970’s – 1980’s, outright racism and support of Jim Crow were politically offensive and segregationist congressmen easily transformed into tough-on-crime and drug warriors. These congressmen would become Biden’s most reliable allies in forming drug and crime bills, increasing US prison populations to the largest in the world, disproportionally with African Americans.

J.B began serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1977. Being on the Judiciary Committee made J.B an architect on crime legislation. He pushed for mandatory minimum prison sentences. One of J.B’s segregationist allies, Strom Thurmond, combined their efforts toward the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, which was signed into law October 1984, creating mandatory minimum and maximum terms, making prison populations balloon in the years to follow. By the time the guidelines of this law were declared unconstitutional in 2005 (1984 -2005, 21 years!), Biden and much of the political establishment would view this law with regret! (It’s great how they can do that; their regret, our misery and ruined lives)

The Anti-Drug Abuse Bill 1986, which J.B sponsored, poured funding into more drug agents, prosecutors and prisons, setting mandatory minimums for crack, creating a 100:1 sentencing ratio between crack to cocaine, again affecting mostly African Americans. Biden decades later would say that this legislation was a profound mistake after the political wind shifted on this issue.

One of J.B’s worst blemishes was during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing. He was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee at the time and agreed to Republican demands giving Thomas the advantage over Anita Hill. He also called no witnesses to collaborate Hill’s testimony – again, he was Chairman, this was his call. The fallout of this and other confirmation – Thomas, Scalia, Kennedy – led to unlimited money in elections, expansion of corporate power, lost protections for abortions and voting rights, limits on environmental regulations. Thanks to J.B’s compromises.

With the election of center-to-right, corporate-friendly, Bill Clinton in 1992, J.B tried repeatedly to pass a Balanced Budget Bill that many warned would lead to economic crisis and target programs like Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid for cuts. The bill continually failed. He voted for the trade bill first initiated by G.H.W. Bush, NAFTA, even though Unions feared that this would cause an exodus of jobs to Mexico. Biden thought this “theory” was flawed. He was wrong – a loss of hundreds of thousands of mostly manufacturing-sector jobs followed, weakening labor unions. “Middle-Class Joe” did not listen to labor unions or look out for the working class on this one.

Biden defended corporation’s and bank’s right to file bankruptcy but not individual Americans and voted for and championed the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (the name of bill tells you it does just the opposite). During his years in the Senate, J.B had conflicting ties to Delaware’s banking/credit card industry. Biden received donations from the credit card bank MBNA and sold his house for 2 times the value to an MBNA donor. His son Hunter got a lobbyist job out of college with MBNA and became a senior Vice President two years later!

In 2002, Biden as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, sat on this committee since 1975. Biden was very supportive of G.W Bush after 9/11. J.B was swept away with the panic – he voted for the USA Patriot Act – allowing the secret gathering of phone, computer, medical records, banking and credit histories and library and business records without a warrant/approval from a judge.

J.B became Bush’s advocate for this war. As Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, he held hearings stacked with pro-war voices and opened by warning the WMD’s must be removed from Iraq or Saddam Hussein, must be removed from power. So, for Biden to say, during the 2020 presidential debates that he did not know of Bush’s intent to go to war, just isn’t true. Biden voted to keep funding the war well into 2007 – he became Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008.

Under Obama, Biden’s reaching across the isle continued, as Vice President, Biden continually negotiated with McConnell, the Republican Senate Majority leader, to cut spending including proposing cuts to Medicare/Medicaid and changing the consumer price index to Social Security. In 2012, when Bush tax cuts were about expire, Senator Reid, the Democrat’s Minority Leader, wanted cuts to remain only for the middle class and the poor. McConnell contacted J.B who gave McConnell what he wanted – extended cuts for the rich – Reid told the W.H. not to let Biden negotiate with McConnell anymore! In 2014 with lobbying from Obama and Biden, another Republican friendly spending bill was passed. Biden says he wants to continue the Obama legacy – compromise and not protecting the middle class and poor?

Biden’s Senate votes on crime, terrorism, and immigration over the years enshrined mandatory and indefinite detention of immigrants convicted of even minor drug crimes, fast-tracked deportations and restrictions on government help for immigrants and broadened definitions that legal residents could be deported for. Obama used this machine that he inherited with Biden’s help – Biden supported all these policies after all. During Obama’s term in office, record-breaking numbers were deported and families separated.

During the 2020 presidential campaign and throughout the DNC Convention, Biden has been championed as an honest, decent, empathetic person. But, I mean, how can someone with a record like his be actually as they describe? Shaking a hand and being nice to you when he meets or speaks to you doesn’t help you long-term. His policy-making effects our lives long-term, for generations, as the above paragraphs show.

So yes, Biden does not have the best record; it sucks actually. He has a habit of swaying in the direction of what’s politically expedient at the time for him. However, times have changed; true reform is popular right now. Biden’s campaign has been swayed to a more progressive platform. Hey, this isn’t new to him right; he started out this way at the beginning of his career. Once in office, it is crucial to keep the pressure on. You know at least he can be swayed – he cares what people think, in my opinion. Cornell West said during an interview recently, “Biden is a neo-liberal nightmare but we have to push him over the finish line.”

Vote for Biden, yes, but be mindful of his record and keep the pressure on to hold him to his campaign promises. Reading Yesterday’s Man will seriously impose this on you!