A weekly recap of worthwhile political opinion and social commentary.
Vol 1, No 8 ……… November 7th, 2020
THE WEEK JUST PASSED ~ What else is there to say about this past week, other than to note the collective sigh of relief that accompanied the news a few short hours ago of Joe Biden’s electoral college victory? There was minimal motivation for reading the opinion pieces that appeared this week, written as they were by commentators constrained by the same uncertainties as all of us were. Thus, the lone selection for this week’s edition is the following essay from the Editorial Board of the New York Times, published within the hour after the news of Biden’s win …
“Fortunately for America, Mr. Biden promises to be a president for both sides — a welcome shift from a leader who has spent his tenure dividing the electorate into perceived fans and enemies. While the coming weeks will most likely bring unexpected moves and more dangerous disinformation from Mr. Trump, it is worth taking this moment to raise a glass and breathe a sigh of relief. America gives its citizenry the ultimate responsibility for holding leaders accountable, for deciding what kind of nation this will be. The broad endorsement of Mr. Biden’s message of unity and healing is cause for celebration. Americans have embraced that optimism and Mr. Biden as their next president. Now the real work begins.”
THE WEEK AHEAD ~ We can expect plenty of information about the transition just beginning from Biden and his team, and plenty of misinformation about the campaign just ended from Trump and his enablers. The election may be over, but the polarization that characterized it, sadly, is not.
If you’d like a head start reading the articles that will be featured in next week’s Current Comment, and you have a Twitter account, please follow @LiberalBuddhist.
In the meantime, take good care of yourselves and stay well … Tom
The Liberal Buddhist 
I wonder how long we’ll have to wait in order to relax a bit…
Not that I’m unrelaxed in my inner being!
It’s just that the Third World War is marginally less likely now. 🙂
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Yes, Colin, a third World War is a little less likely, but a second Civil War is, I’m afraid, a little more likely 😦
But for now, I’m hoping for a better outcome. The next few months will tell …
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One can only hope 🙂 but as, what JBPriestley said he was, a ‘life-enhancing pessimist’; the ‘Socialist Worker’ Broadsheet to which I subscribe points out that:-
‘Demonstrations took place in cities across the country on Saturday as the news was announced. But Trump should have been crushed, not beaten in a precariously narrow result.
The Democrats lost seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate remains under Republican control. Democrats also failed to take state legislatures they had hoped to win in Texas, North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Michigan, and lost New Hampshire to the Republicans.
Biden will rule in the interests of imperialism and the corporate establishment. During his campaign Biden promised to support fracking, backed private medicine and got behind the police. And his foreign policy shows he is a warmonger. There can be no honeymoon for Biden…’
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Correction!
…a ‘life-enhancing pessimist’, I have to say that the ‘Socialist Worker’ Broadsheet…
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Good points you raise, Colin! All of us Biden-supporters are tempering our relief and our sense of hopefulness with the sobering recognition that nearly half the voters cast their ballot for the lying, delusional, corrupt, and incompetent Trump. So even with him gone from office, the spell he has cast over this large swath of the country remains. There is much work to be done. Biden, regardless of the flaws in some of his policies, provides us with some breathing room to get to that work. More than ever, it’s time to move “Onward”, and hopefully ward off an all-too-possible return to the dark ages in 2024.
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I wish us all well!
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