It's Another One of Those Years Mates
Jan. 16th, 2024 08:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingContent warning for politics. TLDR: I'm rapidly losing faith in Joe Biden.
As someone who lives in Philadelphia, I kind of unironically supported Joe Biden. Of course I think we deserve better - of course I do! - but still. When a section of I-95 running through North Philadelphia collapsed back in June, he flew in with a helicopter and made sure the city had the resources to fix the damage within a week instead of three months. He goes out to working-class neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Baltimore to march with labor unions. He's been doing his best to bail public transportation systems out of bankruptcy, which is a not-insignificant exercise of the power he wields for social justice.
But now the local hero is directly facilitating indefensible war crimes, and he's offered no meaningful response to the gigantic pro-Palestinian march in Washington DC over the weekend. And I wonder how difficult it would be for Biden to just come out and make an appearance, and be like, "You know what, I hear you." I understand geopolitics are complicated, but what would the negative consequences of that be, exactly? Especially in an election year, he could be such a hero by just going outside, touching grass, and being like, "Genocide is bad."
Even in Israel, protestors are out blocking traffic and going on strike and handing out political pamphlets and gathering donations to help Palestinians. Even the families of the fucking hostages are standing up and speaking out against the violence. Why is it so hard for Joe Biden, who is almost dead anyway, to just be like, "It's wrong to kill kids." What does it matter to him?
Anyway, here's my confession:
This past November, I actually voted for the Republican candidate for Philadelphia mayor, David Oh. Aside from gun violence (Philadelphia just had its first mass shooting of the year on Sunday night), the major political issue in the city right now is whether to build a new sports arena on top of Chinatown. I don't want to get into it, but this is a terrible plan that benefits literally no one except for the capitalists funding the development and the politicians they buy to make it happen. I liked David Oh because he's been fighting against this since before the plan was announced. Basically, he ran solely on the platform to oppose the top-down dissolution of a long-standing minority community, which would set a bad precedent endangering other local communities.
So I voted Republican. I hate that we have a two-party system, but what can you do.
I've been hearing a bunch of Muslim people talk about how they won't vote for Joe Biden, and I get it. I mean personally, I think it's important for all the tens of thousands of Palestinian kids who live in Chicago and Cleveland and New Jersey to have funding for libraries and math teachers and art lessons and public swimming pools, so I'm not going full nihilist, but yeah. I'm just saying. I get it.
As someone who lives in Philadelphia, I kind of unironically supported Joe Biden. Of course I think we deserve better - of course I do! - but still. When a section of I-95 running through North Philadelphia collapsed back in June, he flew in with a helicopter and made sure the city had the resources to fix the damage within a week instead of three months. He goes out to working-class neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Baltimore to march with labor unions. He's been doing his best to bail public transportation systems out of bankruptcy, which is a not-insignificant exercise of the power he wields for social justice.
But now the local hero is directly facilitating indefensible war crimes, and he's offered no meaningful response to the gigantic pro-Palestinian march in Washington DC over the weekend. And I wonder how difficult it would be for Biden to just come out and make an appearance, and be like, "You know what, I hear you." I understand geopolitics are complicated, but what would the negative consequences of that be, exactly? Especially in an election year, he could be such a hero by just going outside, touching grass, and being like, "Genocide is bad."
Even in Israel, protestors are out blocking traffic and going on strike and handing out political pamphlets and gathering donations to help Palestinians. Even the families of the fucking hostages are standing up and speaking out against the violence. Why is it so hard for Joe Biden, who is almost dead anyway, to just be like, "It's wrong to kill kids." What does it matter to him?
Anyway, here's my confession:
This past November, I actually voted for the Republican candidate for Philadelphia mayor, David Oh. Aside from gun violence (Philadelphia just had its first mass shooting of the year on Sunday night), the major political issue in the city right now is whether to build a new sports arena on top of Chinatown. I don't want to get into it, but this is a terrible plan that benefits literally no one except for the capitalists funding the development and the politicians they buy to make it happen. I liked David Oh because he's been fighting against this since before the plan was announced. Basically, he ran solely on the platform to oppose the top-down dissolution of a long-standing minority community, which would set a bad precedent endangering other local communities.
So I voted Republican. I hate that we have a two-party system, but what can you do.
I've been hearing a bunch of Muslim people talk about how they won't vote for Joe Biden, and I get it. I mean personally, I think it's important for all the tens of thousands of Palestinian kids who live in Chicago and Cleveland and New Jersey to have funding for libraries and math teachers and art lessons and public swimming pools, so I'm not going full nihilist, but yeah. I'm just saying. I get it.
