When Biden’s son Beau was dying, he had his weekly lunch with Obama and talked to him about his worries about his son and how he and Jill planned to take out a second mortgage on their house to help Beau and his family pay for their expenses. I know about this story because Obama (who made lots of money off books he published) offered financial support. It was a story of their friendship.
But another message of that story is that Joe Biden, after a lifetime as a Senator, would have to take a second mortgage out on his house to help his son. Indeed, Biden was always amongst the poorest of the people in the Senate (which still makes him better off financially than most Americans, to be clear). Why was he amongst the poorest? Well, one reason is that Joe Biden never tried to enrich himself by using his position.
That just isn’t who Joe is. He hates money in politics. He hates people who do things for their own benefit and not for the good of the country. It disgusts him.
What this means is that even when you disagree with Joe on an issue, you can be sure that he is supporting it not because some rich a-holes want him to, or because it will benefit him, or because he doesn’t care about the well-being of all Americans. He is supporting it because he thinks it is the best position for America. And there is something really important and wonderful about that.
For example: busing. Our wonderful Vice Presidential candidate brought up Joe’s position on busing in the debates. Bernie’s folks did too. And his position on busing in the 70s is one I, personally, don’t agree with.
in his own words
“You take people who aren’t racist, people who are good citizens, who believe in equal education and opportunity, and you stunt their children’s intellectual growth by busing them to an inferior school and you’re going to fill them with hatred,” he said in the interview.
“The new integration plans being offered are really just quota systems to assure a certain number of blacks, Chicanos or whatever in each school. That, to me, is the most racist concept you can come up with.
“What it says is, in order for your child with curly black hair, brown eyes and dark skin to be able to learn anything, he needs to sit next to my blond-haired, blue-eyed son. That’s racist! Who the hell do we think we are, that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?”
how were these views formed?
The idea of busing was quite unpopular among white voters in his small state, but also among some of the local black activists whose perspectives helped inform Biden.
Anti-busing views were not as prevalent in the black community, Coker {Bebe Coker, a Wilmington activist} said, but she and Smith {Richard “Mouse” Smith, a local NAACP official} found Biden sympathetic to their arguments that it was counterproductive to force children, in the name of desegregation, to wake up hours earlier to be sent to a white suburban school district. Biden has said over the years that he supported the overarching idea of desegregating schools, but not forced busing as a means to achieve it. He and his allies note how he favored programs to promote more equality in housing and improvements to existing schools and neighborhoods — measures they believe would have led to more organic integration.
Smith said recent attacks and reflections on Biden’s record bother him because “he ain’t a racist.”
“I’m probably more racist than he is,” Smith said. “He is not a taker. He’s a giver…. Do you think he could have my friendship if he was a racist?”
People tried — back then and now — to use Biden’s views on busing to argue that he is and was racist. Biden wrote in his memoir about how upset he was about this in the 70s. He had dedicated much of his senate career to fighting for civil rights and he was surprised and a bit heartbroken when people ignored all of the rest of what he did and just focused on busing.
Biden actually felt that forced busing was making racial tensions worse and that racial inequality was better addressed by programs that increased diversity in communities (ie made it easier for Black Americans to live in different neighborhoods) and increased the quality of all of the schools.
"I have become convinced that busing is a bankrupt concept that, in fact, does not bear any of the fruit for which it was designed," Biden said on the Senate floor Sept. 17, 1975. "If anything, it obfuscates the real issue today, which is whether or not there is equal opportunity within the educational field for all people within the United States."
Biden said that rather than busing, the Senate should focus on all areas of opportunity in housing, education, equal credit and voting rights to provide minorities with equal access.
And a view of his record finds that Biden has always supported local voluntary programs, like the one Kamala Harris was in
Biden pointed out that Harris benefited from a busing program run by local leaders in Berkeley who facilitated local support. It was not a federally mandated program. As Matthew Delmont has pointed out in The Atlantic, the fact that it was run by local officials is an important part of what made it successful: “Berkeley was able to craft a successful school-desegregation plan in this context because of strong local leadership and a sense of civic purpose...[Berkeley’s school superintendent, Neil] Sullivan understood the importance of making a strong case for school integration.”
federally mandated busing was extremely unpopular with whites and not particularly popular with African Americans either, so it’s no surprise that those programs didn’t last.
I am not writing this to make the argument that Biden was right about federally mandated busing. I am not sure that he was. I am writing it to make the argument that even when you disagree with Biden, you can be sure that his decisions are not motivated by racial animus or self-interest or not carefully thinking about an issue. Biden is a decent, smart, and kind man. Even when we disagree with him (and I am sure that, when he is president, we will do that) we can be sure that his heart is in the right place. We can be sure that he is making decisions based on what he genuinely thinks is best for all Americans. And I can’t think of much that is more important in a leader.
Joe Biden will be a great president
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This is Day 68 in my series 100 Days of Loving Joe Biden
Did you miss any of the 100 days? Here are links for all of them:
Day 1: Biden’s Tax Plan
Day 2: Biden and Gay Marriage
Day 3: Biden’s FDR Sized presidency
Day 4: Biden is a mensch
Day 5: Biden has a Covid-19 plan
Day 6: Biden ran the Obama economic recovery
Day 7: Biden’s Housing Plan
Day 8: Biden knows love and commitment
Day 9: Biden knows exactly who Republicans are
Day 10: Biden understands America
Day 11: Biden will bring smart, progressive policies to help Americans
Day 12: Biden has felt pain and found empathy
Day 13: Biden and the Violence Against Women Act
Day 14: Biden was endorsed by John Lewis
Day 15: Biden will protect teacher’s unions
Day 16: Biden will be a steady hand in the White House
Day 17: Biden cares about people in the dawn and twilight of life
Day 18 Biden has a great economic plan
Day 19: Biden would yank the Keystone XL Pipeline
Day 20: Biden has plans to help Americans with disabilities
Day 21: Biden sponsored the very first climate bill when in the senate
Day 22: Biden is a person of great character
Day 23: Biden has a great plan for saving the planet
Day 24: Biden has a great healthcare plan
Day 25: Biden will increase housing equality
Day 26: Biden loves dogs
Day 27: Biden has foreign policy swag
Day 28: Biden will work to increase the minimum wage to $15
Day 29: Biden will stand against gun violence
Day 30: Biden will protect, empower, and expand unions
Day 31: Biden knows commitment, love, and patience
Day 32: Biden is a person of faith
Day 33: Biden will listen to experts
Day 34: Biden will protect and expand social security
Day 35: Biden picked Kamala Harris
Day 36: Biden has an expansive plan to empower Latinos
Day 37: Biden will address income inequality in his economic agenda
Day 38: Biden will protect at risk communities from climate change
Day 39: Biden has great pro-worker plans for his presidency
Day 40: Biden was for civil rights before civil rights were cool
Day 41: Biden has a childcare plan to help parents and children
Day 42: Biden will reboot our foreign policy
Day 43: Biden is a genuinely kind man
Day 44: Biden takes the steps to help people
Day 45: Biden protected us from a SC justice Bork
Day 46: Biden is not afraid to take the side of good over evil
Day 47: Biden hates bullies
Day 48: Biden has a plan to protect veterans and their families
Day 49: Biden refuses to define others by their biggest mistakes
Day 50: Biden has a great infrastructure plan
Day 51: Biden will keep ALL Americans safe
Day 52: Biden will bring us first lady Jill Biden
Day 53: Biden’s age and experience gives him the perspective needed to handle the ups and downs of the White House
Day 54: Biden showed empathy, humility, and wisdom in Kenosha
Day 55: Biden supports the women and men who protect our country.
Day 56: Biden values family
Day 57: Biden’s No Malarkey Attitude will be great for foreign policy
Day 58: Biden knows how to get votes when we need them to pass important legislation. He did it as a Senator and as VP and he will do it as President.