Vote Blue No Matter Who?

A little over a year ago the citizens of the United States were strongly encouraged to vote for the Biden/Harris ticket. It was them or 45. What choice did we really have? In all honesty, none.

Fast forward a year. It is common to see letters to the editor, guest columns in newspapers, blog writings, and postings across the social media spectrum pronouncing how Build Back Better and other Biden initiatives are going to save us. Save us from what I’m not sure. This is incredibly disheartening because we cannot allow ourselves to be lulled into a false belief that this is a good thing. Because it is not. When policy/systems help parts of a society while intentionally harming others it is nothing short of moral bankruptcy. When the administration/government/ country/corporations that keep an inhumane, evil, and corrupt power structure and system in place than we cannot support a facet of the so called solution even if it makes our lives a tiny bit better. We can’t. It’s wrong. And that is what is happening.

Right now, December 2021, the Biden/Harris administration has in place more inhumane, corrupt immigration policies than the previous administration. And that is saying something. Yet, many who despised that previous man and all those he surrounded himself with are praising Biden and accepting these horrific actions. Why? Because he says them in a gentler/kinder way? We cannot again be lulled by that and allow ourselves to become complaisant to that dishonest image.

Under the previous administration, MPP (Migrant Protection Protocal/Remain in Mexico) was created and the harm it caused and continues to cause is far reaching and overwhelming. Then Biden became president and undid it. We rejoiced. That celebration was short lived as a Texas court said it needed to be reinstated. So we eagerly cast blame to the court. But yet Biden has expanded this policy to include the entire Western Hemisphere, far more that 45’s net captured. In the last days of the previous administration the population numbers in detention were the lowest they had been in a very long time. Covid played a part in that. Biden pledged that he would close private detention prisons yet he is creating new contracts. It appears he needs to fill those emptied beds so that the private detention companies, who support him and his party can increase the profits their stockholders benefit from. And the promise to end border wall construction? Well it’s still happening, in both old and new places.

So, is Biden better? Well it’s better than seeing and hearing that disgusting human 24/7 but that’s not saying much. If we think Joe Biden is a good man because nice photos are taken of him and his wife looking at pretty candles and Christmas decorations then we have fallen into the hands of the media. Not fake news per say but increasingly more powerful corporate media. We want so much to believe that good won. But good men do not harm other humans, especially humans that are so incredibly vulnerable. Good societies do not harm other humans, especially humans that are so incredibly vulnerable. Period. So Build Back Better is really a disheartening policy designed to placate the masses and encourage them to turn away from the pain caused by those harming others while giving us crumbs. It’s wrong. If the party running the country isn’t working to right the harms caused by centuries of ongoing structural white supremacy and all the pain and harm that has caused and continues to cause, well then it isn’t a party we should be proud of. It is clear that the systems in place in this country are in place to make some select people richer. That’s it. All the systems, structures, policies support that. Joe Biden and the power structure and leaders of the Democratic Party support that. They benefit from that. It goes without saying that the GOP is even more corrupt.

While we take time to relish the lights of this holiday season take time to shine light onto the darkness being caused. As difficult as it is, let us not turn away from the harms caused by the ongoing policies of this administration and those before it.

May we all continue to work for peace,

Mary