Wednesday Walk: Feeling Gaslit
Thinking back on the Biden years and hoping for a Harris pivot
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
Every Wednesday, I offer a few short ideas that I hope will inspire you to do some more reading, thinking, and exploring. Let’s take a little walk together and see where the path leads…
Biden-Harris and What Comes Next
For a while now, I’ve wanted to write a bit about the Biden presidency and how it has just felt like gaslighting to me. Now that President Biden has chosen not to seek reelection, some of this may feel moot, but I feel like it’s worth discussing what’s been in my head over the last few months and how what the Biden campaign told us never lined up to what I’ve seen in reality.
The biggest talking point that I ever hear about Biden was what a decent and empathetic man he was. I used to see this in action at campaign events and in news coverage. His own personal tragedies seemed to inform how he spoke to the families of fallen veterans, the victims of gun violence, or any other number of people he met. He embraced people with warm hugs and held them in a knowing way.
But then October 7 happened and we saw the limits of Biden’s empathy. He didn’t care about the Palestinian men, women, and children that we all saw dying on our social media feeds everyday. He continued to supply billions of dollars in weapons to Israel after it became clear exactly how that money was being used. He has the deaths of somewhere between 40,000 and 200,000 people on his hands. It has not been talked about nearly as much as it should be in our national media, but I suspect history will not be kind on him for this.
The gaslighting has continued when I heard people describe him as one of the most progressive and accomplished presidents in their lifetime. We are living through a climate emergency, relief for which has been too little too late. We need massive, New Deal style changes to our economy, our lifestyles, and our energy grid to survive this, yet we are moving at a snail’s pace and allocating minuscule funds to make these changes.
We had a taste of what a cleaner world might look like at the height of the pandemic, when white collar workers stayed home, pollution dropped worldwide, and wild animals began roaming city streets. We were so close to staying in that beautiful new world, but then we went back to business as usual. We didn’t learn from that time or take any new ideas forward with us. And now it’s hotter than ever and forecasted to just get worse.
People tout the economy under Biden, but again, it just feels like gaslighting. The cost of groceries, the cost of gas, the cost of nearly everything has gone up for most of us over the last four years. Salaries have not risen accordingly. The stock portfolios of the richest Americans may be doing well, but average households are not.
Health care costs are bankrupting families, housing costs are through the roof. The Supreme Court has now ruled that homelessness is illegal, so if you can’t afford those higher costs, I guess you just get imprisoned?
Biden claims that he defeated the pandemic, yet he has spent the weekend in Delaware recovering from COVID. (He was also seen riding in his limo and boarding his plane after testing positive without a mask.)
Trump may have appointed the Supreme Court justices that overturned Roe vs Wade, but that ruling happened on Biden’s watch. Biden continued to dangle the carrot that he would codify abortion rights into law in a second term, conveniently ignoring the fact that he hasn’t done it yet as the literal sitting president.
More and more gaslighting.
And all of this before the disastrous debate performance. We all saw it. We all knew what it was. And we were told not to worry. It was all fine.
I don’t want to see another Trump presidency. Does that mean I’m all in for Harris? Not yet.
I am angry that we didn’t get a true Democratic primary this year to allow multiple candidates the opportunity to make their case to the American public, but am happy Biden made the decision to not seek re-election, even if it was late.
Harris has a lot to answer for as a key part of this current administration. She owns all of the grievances that I listed above, or at least can have them pinned on her by Republicans.
This moment presents a big opportunity for Harris though. I hope she will use it to run more to the left to attract younger voters and those disillusioned with Biden, rather than try to track center or center-right.
The biggest opportunity for Harris is to immediately change course in Palestine and cut off funding to Israel. If Harris truly wants to energize young people and turn out an entirely new coalition, she needs to be talking about this issue right now.
The Gaza Solidarity Encampments on college campuses this spring show that young people see the genocide in Palestine as a defining issue of their generation. They are willing to put their bodies, their educations, and their futures on the line to oppose the U.S. policies.
At 1:46pm on Sunday, the dynamics of the race shifted. Just last week, we had two old white guys who basically had identical platforms on Gaza. One has been actively leveling it and the other wanted to finish leveling it to build a hotel and golf course with his name on whatever comes after.
With Biden now gone, Harris can take a stance on Palestine that contrasts Trump. It becomes a clear delineation between the two candidates.
Will that happen? It’s tough to say.
Despite past ties to AIPAC, I am encouraged that Harris has opted to skip Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress today. According to The Daily Beast:
“Harris will instead meet one-on-one with Netanyahu another time, according to an aide close to Harris who spoke with the Wall Street Journal.
Harris will reportedly tell Netanyahu, ‘it is time for the war to end in a way where Israel is secure, all hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can enjoy their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination.’”
I don’t want to take any of this too seriously at this point, but it gives me more hope than I have had in the last nine months.
Beyond embracing the struggle for Palestinian liberation, I also hope that Harris will campaign on and enact real quality of life changes for average Americans. Our entire system is at a breaking point, and this could be the moment where we imagine and begin to build something better for housing, education, health care, and so much more.
Of course, hope doesn’t mean much without action. The Harris team needs to know what issues are of importance to all of us and we need to keep pushing the conversation in that direction.
There are massive corporate interests that want to push against the will of the people and that have the power to do that. Our ambivalence over the last several decades has allowed that to happen.
We need to get off the sidelines, make our voices heard, and demand the change that we want to see. And candidates need to know that our support, our money, our votes are conditional upon those changes being implemented quickly.
What do you think of the presidential race? How have the dynamics shifted since Sunday? Do you see Harris changing her mind on Palestine? Leave your comments- I’d love to hear what you’re all thinking!
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Other Wednesday Walks
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All well said, Heath. In fact, I heard just about the same from Jen yesterday. Yes, Kamala needs to step up on Palestine, climate change and she needs to win. Thanks for another good walk.