By David Harsanyi
Friday, May 22, 2020
Here is presumptive Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden
after being challenged by The Breakfast Club co-host Charlamagne tha God
on his political record on race.
Biden: “I’ll tell ya, if you have a
problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
Charlamagne tha God: “It don’t have
nothing to do with Trump. It has to do with the fact I want something for my
community.”
Biden: “Take a look at my record,
man . . .”
Okay.
I’m not under the impression that a Biden gaffe on race
is going to affect the 2020 presidential race in any substantial way, or that
he’s a racist. When launching his failed 2008 campaign, Biden referred to
Barack Obama as the “first mainstream African-American who is articulate and
bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” and he was still given the vice
presidency. This too will soon be forgotten.
It’s a mystery, though, why Biden keeps demanding
everyone to look at his “record” on race, which is terrible.
As a freshman, Senator Biden, by his own account, formed
friendly, sometimes obsequious, relationships with segregationists within the
Democratic Party. It was Biden who sought out J. William Fulbright and Jim
Eastland, who in turn assigned him seats on the powerful judicial and
foreign-relations committees. The Delaware freshman, who had lucked into a
post-Watergate seat, had absolutely no relevant experience for the latter and
little for the former. Yet Biden benefited in ways that other younger
Democrats, less inclined to ally themselves with racists, did not.
Biden is on
record praising George Wallace on numerous occasions. Biden is on the
record flattering Strom Thurmond — his “closest
friend” — on numerous occasions, as well, and in ways that would have ended
the career of any Republican. Just ask Trent Lott.
Biden might have later claimed to have “marched in the
civil-rights movement” (he
didn’t) and to have represented Black Panthers (he almost surely didn’t),
but in reality he was one of the leading voices in the Democratic Party
opposing busing reforms. Now, we can debate the usefulness of busing, but there
is no debate over whether Biden said that without “orderly integration” his
children would be growing up “in a racial jungle.”
Biden also led a decades-long legislative effort to pass
tough-on-crime laws that culminated in his co-writing the 1994 crime bill.
Critics, mostly contemporary Democrats, argue that the law helped create a
mass-incarceration regime that disproportionately affects African Americans. We
can debate the effectiveness of the policy, but Biden can’t claim he didn’t brag
that the bill does “everything but hang people for jaywalking.” The future vice
president was calling it the “Biden Crime Law” on his 2008 presidential
campaign website.
Has there been any presidential candidate in memory who so
openly took the black vote for granted? I doubt it. I’m starting to think Biden
might be confusing his record with Obama’s record. Or at least, that’s what he
wants voters to do. Still, the central argument for the Biden candidacy — other
than that his name isn’t Trump — is that his 45-year record makes him uniquely
positioned for the job. And yet, there is almost no position or view that Biden
can point to that holds up over those years. That includes race.
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