Joe Biden's History of Shilling for Powerful Interests

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Biden's political record as US senator and vice president since 1973 reflects virtually everything disturbing about dirty politics as usual in Washington.

The late Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke, the body's first African/American, called a racist amendment Biden supported "the greatest symbolic defeat for civil rights since 1964."

At the time, the Washington Post denounced it as "denying the possibility for equal educational opportunities to minority youngsters trapped in ill-equipped inner-city schools." 

Biden saw political gain from supporting humanly destructive war on drugs legislation and the burgeoning US gulag prison system, largely harming Blacks, Latinos, and other disadvantaged Americans — locking millions in cages for money, power, and control.

One of his staffers once remarked: "Whenever people hear the words 'drugs' and 'crime,' I want them to think Joe Biden," adding:

He directed his team "to think up excuses for new hearings on drugs and crime every week—any connection, no matter how remote. He wanted cops at every public meeting. You'd have thought he was running for chief of police."

He and Strom Thurmond co-sponsored the repressive 1984 Comprehensive Crime Control Act.

It abolished parole for federal prisoners convicted after November 1987, limiting how much time sentences could be reduced for good behavior, among other repressive provisions.

Biden and Thurmond championed the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act and a follow-up 1988 measure — mandating sentences for illicit drug possession. 

At the time, Biden boasted about legislation he supported that mandated a five year sentence, with no parole, for anyone caught with crack cocaine "no bigger than a quarter."

Racist contempt for people of color and the nation's most disadvantaged drove his repressive war on drugs and war on crime — most offenses targeted no greater than misdemeanors too minor to matter.

He called for "maintain(ing) crime as a (Dem party) initiative." The  1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act he championed led to the imprisonment of millions of Black and Latino Americans — largely for illicit drug possession and other nonviolent offenses.

Why would any US voter of color support a political figure hostile to their fundamental rights, welfare, and the rule of law the way it should be.

Years earlier, Biden argued that Roe v. Wade (a woman's right to choose, to maintain sovereignty over her own body) "went to far," adding:

"I don't think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body." He backed the notorious Hyde amendment, prohibiting federal funding for abortions.

His so-called "Biden Amendment" banned US foreign aid for abortion research.

He supported the corporate-friendly/anti-consumer 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.

It notably made federal and private student loan indebtedness non-dischargeable, debt bondage relief through bankruptcy unattainable.

As a Harvard law professor in 2002, Elizabeth Warren slammed Biden, saying:

"His energetic work on behalf of the credit card companies has earned him the affection of the banking industry and protected him from any well-funded challengers for his Senate seat."

He supported the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, repealing Glass-Steagall. The 1930s law separated commercial from investment banks and insurers, among other provisions, curbing speculation — unleashed by this deplorable legislation. 

He also backed the 2000 Commodities Futures Modernization Act — preventing regulatory oversight of derivatives and leveraging. It made Wall Street more of a casino, operating on only the house wins rules. 

He also supported Bush/Cheney's tax cuts for the rich. Earlier he turned truth on its head, calling himself the "most qualified person in the country to be president." 

He supported the Clinton co-presidency's rape of Yugoslavia, and all US post-9/11 wars of aggression, including against Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, along with backing Israeli wars on Gaza and other Palestinians.

He was involved in the Obama regime's toppling of Ukraine's democratically elected government, US-installed fascist tyranny replacing it.

He's hostile toward Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, and other countries on the US target list for regime change — along with longstanding contempt toward ordinary people everywhere, supporting US monied interests exclusively.

Yet the NYT shamefully called him "a levelheaded leader (able to) attract a broad cross-section of voters who want to move on from Mr. Trump," adding:

He's viewed as "capable of restoring the (Obama's) consensus-seeking liberalism (sic)." There's nothing liberal about US state terror on a global scale or serving privileged interests exclusively at the expense of the general welfare — what the Obama/Biden regime supported.

Separately, the Times shamefully claimed "Biden is trying to bridge reassurance to the wealthy with outreach to energized progressives."

His long history shows contempt for governance serving all Americans equitably.

The Times and other establishment media largely ignore his disturbing political record explained above — supporting a deplorable figure instead of denouncing his abuses of power.

Acting as his virtual press agent, a Times piece claimed "Biden is running as a normal guy…Normal is not having to worry about who's piloting the plane; it'll land. Uncle Joe is comfort food," adding:

"In the Trump era, a majority will choose avuncular (sic) over authoritarian any day…" (H)umanity (is) his most appealing side…Biden bleeds empathy."

The above makes painful reading. Characterizing him as "progressive" is like calling a cat a dog, or war-monger Biden a peacemaker. 

No responsible editor would permit the above remarks, reinventing Biden to be published.

The Times finds new ways to disgrace itself, repeatedly supporting what demands repudiation.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

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