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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   34137 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 29, 2024

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So do you think Biden deliberately picked the worst black woman available? Isn't it much more likely he thought/thinks she was the best on some measures?

Isn't it much more likely he thought/thinks she was the best on some measures?

I mean, given how broken his brain is, I can't rule it out.

But the vibes I always got is that he gave an on the spot pledge to pick a black woman as VP without thinking it through, and then when push came to shove picked the least threatening VP possible. Someone without the acumen or political capital to get "uppity". Because one of the things we've always heard about Biden was that he's controlling, and increasingly so in his old age, and doesn't have any patience for people questioning him, talking back, or having their own ideas. It's one of the most consistent behind the scenes characterizations of him we've had since he entered politics.

Even this, well, not exactly a steel man, but the only reason I give aside from "Biden's brain is broken", isn't very far off from "Yes, he picked her because she's a fucking idiot."

Now we have Kamala crowned his successor without anyone ever voting for her, despite her never having accomplished anything, and having a history of everything she ever touches turning to shit.

I think once you've locked yourself into picking a black woman it's entirely defensible to go with Harris over a Stacy Abrams or a Susan Rice. Harris was a US Senator, Abrams used to be a member of the Georgia legislature and lost the race for Governor, Rice thought about running against Susan Collins in Maine but decided not to.

There is also the option of going for someone thats not a politician, i suppose.

We don't need to speculate too much. We have most of the facts. We know he committed very early on to pick a woman (maybe I'm misremembering but the Black half of that I think came later?), and that's mostly due to the overall political environment and happens on both sides for at least a decade, and also to offset the fact that he's extremely white and also quite old, so having some counterbalance is mostly common sense. He has to uphold at least some of the Obama diversity legacy, after all.

But when I say we don't need to guess I mean it. We have some good quality reporting for example here and especially here that explains what the process looked like. Kamala specifically won the final round because of a mix of personal comfort and Biden liked her pitch on being loyal.

But the vibes I always got is that he picked the least threatening VP possible. Someone without the acumen or political capital to get "uppity". Because one of the things we've always heard about Biden was that he's controlling, and increasingly so in his old age, and doesn't have any patience for people questioning him, talking back, or having their own ideas.

...

Kamala specifically won the final round because of a mix of personal comfort and Biden liked her pitch on being loyal.

I think these points are extremely consonant.

I mean, basic reasoning/logic my friend, just because she's loyal and Biden valued loyalty doesn't actually mean she has a lack of other positive traits. At least, it doesn't necessarily follow. There's a stereotype of dumb but loyal sidekick, but it's just that, a trope, and each major politician needs to be evaluated on their own merits.

I think there's a decent chance she's actually somewhat dumb (or at least as dumb/deluded as someone who is eventually able to pass the bar exam can be) but I'm going to give her a month or so to demonstrate it one way or another. I really don't give much of a shit about DA records, I have zero confidence in my ability to distinguish an effective or good DA from a bad one, but her Senate record which I do keep an eye on looked pretty thin (although it's still worth noting that her entire time was squarely during the Trump years where they basically had little to no room to work with). But all of this is beside the point. You're trying to present her very selection as VP as evidence of her incompetence, but that's not actually evidence. Nor is "uppityness" a good proxy for effectiveness either (and I'd be hesitant to use that word anyways, because it actually does have a legit and documented history of racial and discriminatory use, so it's a little too close to a slur for comfort).

I think Biden picked her less because she's an idiot and more because she's a machine politician who does what she's told.

I feel like we can think of meritocracy and inclusion as two axes.

Is it dumb to only consider the inclusion axis?

Obviously, someone with negative merit would be a terrible choice.

But should we neglect the inclusion axis and only look at the merit axis?

I think that’s also a mistake when we’re speaking about a representative democracy with very different communities inside of it.

But that brings the question, what’s the relative importance that we should assign to the merit axis and to the inclusion axis?

This part is tricky and has been the source of missteps for the left which has lost them a lot of political and cultural capital.

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