My earliest memories of politics on the news was the 1988 election. Joe Biden was running in the Democratic primary among Mike Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, Paul Simon, Dick Gephardt, Gary Hart, Pat Schroeder, Al Gore and Joe Biden. What I remember from that race was Paul Simon’s bowtie and him not being the guy with Chevy Chase on VH1. I remember Jesse Jackson’s popularity. There was talk and jokes about Gary Hart sleeping around. This I recall from Mad magazine at the time. Al Gore would drop out early due to lack of name recognition. Mike Dukakis would run a losing campaign to George Bush Sr. It was a slaughter Lee Atwater would orchestrate the demolition of Dukakis’ character ad after ad. Before all this my mother’s favorite Joe Biden was force to drop out.

Joe Biden had done a speech that later came out as plagiarized a speech by a British politician. Also it came back that he lied about much of his past including involvement in the civil rights movement. Also some discrepancies in his educational background. So before the primaries began Joe Biden stepped down from the race. Joe would continue his career in the senate for many years to come. In that time a scandal would come up for a potential supreme court justice. Clarence Thomas was a choice of George Bush for the Supreme Court. Thomas had sexual harassment charges against him. Biden proceeded over the hearing and many complain of his work here. There’s fair criticism to be make. I’m not going to go there. It was a different time.

Fast forward 2003 George Bush Jr. is pushing for a war with Iraq. I’m watching and thinking “why?” Isn’t Bin Laden in Afghanistan? won’t this divert attention from that goal. I never bought the weapons of mass destruction story. Its not the best reasoning to be honest but I watched as France and Germany agreed thank the war was a terrible idea. Being a history major I knew one thing. France and Germany historically don’t agree on anything. Joe Biden didn’t just vote for the Iraq War he enthusiastically supported the war. There were many more Democrats like Biden pushing for the invasion alongside their Republican peers in bipartisan unity. In 2004 we had an election between two candidates in favor of continuing the war and I stayed home the first time since I was legally able to vote. However I probably would’ve voted for Nader again.

So 2007 Joe Biden runs for president again. He runs against Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and ten other opponents. I didn’t notice it at the time but the media didn’t handle Kucinich and Gravel equally to the other candidates that were more comfortable with the military industiral complex. Biden would drop out early in the race.

After it was decided who the nominee was Barack Obama chose Joe Biden as his running mate. Biden made Obama look safe for middle America in a when Fox “news” would regularly dog whistle racist tropes or infer he may be a terrorist. I voted for Obama. Biden was a compromise for me. Like “oh alright”. So they win the election and we have eight years of Obama and Biden. The wars continue, the patriot act quietly expands through the prism program, the NDAA is passed eroding more freedom. Also they don’t replace Scalia immediately giving the Republicans and extra Supreme court pick.

For the 2020 election Joe Biden gives another run at the presidency. On the plus he can claim Whitehouse experience. However on the negative this is not the same Joe we’ve known for decades. This is Muhamad Ali boxing in the eighties past his prime. When confronted on the campaign trail he would tell voters to vote for someone else. In a debate question about how his views on race have evolved he rambled incoherently about how parents should “play the record player so kids could hear words”. That was the red flag for me. This guy should not be the one to face Trump head to head. Out of twenty candidate fifteen I would’ve voted for. some reluctantly. Biden was one of the worst case scenarios with Mike Bloomberg.

The goal became obvious as the slogan “vote blue no matter who became more prevalent. Anyone but Trump was push until the day after the Nevada caucus. Bernie Sanders had officially had a good lead. The media took the gloves off and attacked Bernie with vitriol. Joy Reid asked passionately, “whats the DNC going to do about this?” She would also use a “body language expert” to attack him with pseudoscience. Chris Matthew spoke of a dystopian future that included executions in Central Park if Bernie won.

Joe Biden had all his chips in South Carolina and won it as expected by anyone paying attention. The media declared it “Joementum” as if it was a surprise comeback. Then the night before Super Tuesday all the corporate democrats dropped out and endorsed Joe. Biden would go on to, for all intents and purposes, get the nomination. During this time rape allegations would come out. I don’t know where I stand on the allegation but I am disgusted by the hypocrisy of those that have used such allegations in the past as a political weapon now are finding ways to discredit the victim in ways such as character assassination and gaslighting. In my heart I always felt I was a Democrat but the part left me.

I won’t vote for Joe Biden. His stand on the Iraq War disqualified him long ago. Today watching him speak (no its not a stutter) I know something is wrong. His stand on marijuana is trenched in “gateway drug” mythology from the Reagan era. His willingness to put social security on the table if austerity is pushed from the right makes him useless. Sure people will bring up the Supreme Court and to that I say get a better candidate. At least he’s not Trump, okay well get someone that can get my vote. This entitlement to votes attitude is how we continue to lose.

This isn’t personal for me. Joe Biden has not had an easy life. His biography is often tragic but that doesn’t give him a pass on policies that will affect the lives of millions of people. If the Democratic party continues on this track Donald Trump will be re-elected. When that happens the strategist that failed again will keep their jobs as will the pundits and opinion columnist that are professionally wrong. These millionaires will keep their Trump tax breaks while claiming to be apart of a resistance as they attack the most vulnerable for no bending the knee to the establishment.