You have to feel sorry for Joe Biden.
As the Great White Hope for the Democrats to defeat Trump (most recent polling shows he’s in the lead to be the candidate but not necessarily defeat Trump), he’s not actually allowed to be that Great White Hope, because being white and acting white is a no-no in today’s Democrat party.
So expect him to start wearing heavy bling, brush up on his hop hop lyrics, and deny his love for tuna and mayonnaise on white bread sandwiches. It’s just hard being a moderate white Democrat these days, and a real balancing act to appear cool, hip and progressive, when you’re not that at all and therefore have to hide everything you actually are.
Which means shifting your politics further and further left than you might otherwise be inclined to.
Biden’s latest foray into taking on the The Dirty Two Dozen candidates against him (actually twenty three at this point but you just know another one or two will pop up any day now) is to promise housing for 100% of those who have done criminal time. Not housing for homeless veterans who risked their lives in defense of our country and haven’t so much as ever jaywalked…not housing for working people on the verge of losing their current housing… and not housing assistance for seniors living on fixed incomes.
His argument is that compared to the general population, the formerly incarcerated are almost 10 times as likely to be homeless, citing a recent report by the Prison Policy Initiative. (No, I’ve never heard of the PPI either, and even if I did, I wouldn’t trust their statistics.) However, Biden never mentions the more important counter-argument, that most of these ex-cons weren’t homeless when they committed their crimes in the first place, nor that maybe they deserve to sleep in a snowy Detroit alley in February, especially since they punched an 80-year-old widow in the head to steal her handbag.
Compassion is one thing. Stupidity another. Justice yet another.
What Biden is proposing is “Reparations Lite,” a comeback to some fellow Dem promises of a million bucks and trip to Hawaii for every black person in America, and due to our prison system’s disproportionate percentage of black and brown people compared to white. In other words, it’s Biden’s version of reparations, albeit milder and more acceptable to moderate Democrat voters.
But this is not just another Democrat example of something for nothing, it’s a twisted example of something for crime. Need a place to say? Just beat your wife, do a few months of time on a domestic violence charge, and your home-free (literally!), with electric, gas and cable included.
No doubt prison and sentencing policies can always be better reformed (because not all reform is better), but Trump has made more progress in these areas than any President in recent history. Need proof? There are dozens of press conferences in the Oval Office with Trump surrounded by black supporters applauding his actions to best help reform former cons reentering society. (These clips drive the Democrats crazy!)
So nice try Biden, but don’t promise free and subsidized housing to that sector of American society which least deserves it, and who will least benefit from it. They need to work like the rest of us to pay for their own housing.
But if his idea gains any traction, I have my eye on a little convenience store near me that I can knock over, on my way to that cute little oceanfront condo in Miami that I’ve been dreaming about for a long time.