In a rare public address, former president said US is experiencing ‘dark days’ and urged Americans to vote
Joe Biden has warned that his presidential successor, Donald Trump, will attempt to “steal” the midterm elections, in a rare public address.
Speaking in South Carolina, where he was being honored for his lifetime achievement in politics, Biden also asserted that the US is experiencing “dark days”, in a speech made hours before the Trump administration launched attacks on Iran.
Reprising a line from the 2020 campaign that saw him defeat Trump and end Trump’s first presidency, Biden told the crowd at the Columbia Museum of Art on Friday that the “battle for the soul of this nation is one that’s never really over”. He simultaneously criticized Trump’s plan to introduce potentially prohibitive voting requirements ahead of the midterms.
Federally funded elections. No donations. No fundraising. If you get more than 2.5% of the vote at the local level, you get federal funding of a specific set amount for future campaigns at the level you are at, and one level higher.
Also no lobbying, no superpacs, no tips, and no stock trading for any politician.
If politicians want to give themselves a raise, it is contingent upon them raising the minimum wage at the same time
You need to abolish capitalism if you want to get money out of politics. There is no way that you can have a system where people can hoard wealth and also have fair elections. Lobbying is legal now, but making it illegal would just drive it underground. The reward for cheating is basically infinite (control of the state) so it basically can’t be regulated away.
You’re not wrong, but I am reminded of the refrain, “it is easier for most people to imagine the end of the world, than the end of capitalism.” The only way I can see is getting to the point that we can abolish capitalists is to regulate them back into “reasonable” (<$50,000,000 total wealth) levels of financial power.
Human history is filled with changes which would have seemed impossible to people living in the world prior to those changes.
We had regulated capitalism in the past, and now we’re here. There’s no reason to think regulation would work next time around. We need to be bold, outspoken, and uncompromising. The future is ours for the taking. We just need to organize.