. . . descends deeper into depravity by pushing for an unlikely candidate for the Vice President:
Joe Biden’s concern about the national-security impact of the coronavirus has led him to weigh picking the Obama-administration national security adviser Susan Rice as his running mate, according to several people who’ve spoken privately with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in recent weeks.
Rice is well known in Washington, but has a much lower national profile than most of the other women being considered, and comes with few conventional political upsides. She isn’t particularly likely to be selected, people inside the campaign say (some who have spoken about her with Biden see her as a more likely pick for secretary of defense or secretary of state), and Rice has told confidants that she knows that.
But the interest Biden has expressed in Rice reflects his concerns that the ongoing economic and public-health crisis the U.S. faces may require him to pick a strong national-security hand as his running mate.
Considering that Ms. Rice both accused Trump of treason and has admitted under oath that she had no reason to believe her charge, her VP possibility is, shall we say, an interesting choice.
Doubling down on treachery must be the new plan.
Rice has become a central figure in the investigation into the Russia Hoax, as Fox News calls the Democrats’ plan to oust Donald Trump on the basis of . . . lies, it looks like. Of course, most actual Democrats know nothing about this, since they are embubbled in their chosen media sources.
Behind all this? Russia vs. China and American attitudes to these two powers. Trump has been anti-China from the beginning; Hillary Clinton’s saber-rattlings towards the Putin regime were extreme and unsettling.
It is easy to understand Trump’s position: he is not part of the foreign policy establishment. He has formed his own opinions.
But what of the Democrats? Democrats’ foreign policy obsessions are . . . puzzling. Why hate on Russia but bend over backwards for China? Bill Clinton did this, too. Remember the China corruption scandal? (I barely do. But, still!)
Here is one theory: deep down, Democrats want to be communists. They cannot yet go full commie in America, of course. But with foreign policy? They can prefer the foreign power that still has “Communist” in the ruling party’s title. China did not repudiate socialism like Russia did. It developed a nuanced version of capitalism as run by the corrupt-by-definition Communist Party junta. The Democrats, who have fantasized about socialism for so long, reflexively make their allegiances. So China is aided, Russia is attacked.
I know. It is a stupid theory. I hope it is too stupid to be true. But this is American politics.
Democrats’ China love is all the more weird considering the nature of the current situation regarding the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic, especially the nearly global lockdown reaction. The virus did indeed come from China. And Democrats like China and hate Russia. This places them in a strange predicament. They are left calling Trump — or anyone else — identifying the contagion as “the China Virus” or “the Wuhan Flu” and the like as . . . [drum roll] . . . racist.
Lame, yes. But there is nothing about the Democrats that is not lame, these days. Brain dead . . . and running on the sheer inertia of power. Oh, and major media propaganda.
Now, a few months ago, as the panic was ramping up, I was laughing on Facebook:
Funny how the virus hailing from the last bastion of Communist Party operations has caused our politicians to fight it by shutting down capitalism.
The current quarantine is the biggest hit to market life since the days of Soviet Communism and Eastern Bloc subjugation.
The Law of Nemesis runs on a principle of a jesting Coyote. He laughs, and laughs, and laughs.
The point is not that China is communist. Or Communist™. China is a tyrannical Third Way nation pretending to care for socialist goals while actually running as a corrupt insider-based corporatism.
Which, frankly, is pretty much how Democrats rule, and prescribe. Just look at America’s Democrat-run cities. Just look at the corruption in the Democratic Party, with Biden and his son and the insane Ukraine business — that led to the dumbest impeachment proceedings in world history.
So what I am saying is this: I detect an affinity between America’s Democratic insiders and China’s faux-communist insiders. The affinity is that in both cases there is less of a Leader Cult and more of a Party cult, that both aim to run for the benefit of their insiders, not to the glorification of its living leaders (though of course that happens, Obamania being a real thing, but mostly they coast on the ghosts of Mao and FDR, respectively), while mouthing “Socialism with X Characteristics.”
What Democrats seem to want is a “Socialism with American Characteristics,” I mean, “Socialism with Scandinavian Characteristics.” But behind the scenes it is all corruption. The old Democracy — Martin Van Buren’s brain child — is now the party of “Tyranny with Chinese Characteristics.”
Laugh at this, or remain grim-faced?
The sheer bizarrerie of The Atlantic pushing the much-hated Rice — or, for that matter, any savvy, political Democrat pushing Rice — is hard to fathom. This woman is rightly and roundly hated by non-Democrats. She is vulnerable in political debate. Trump could take her down — even Pence could take her down in debate.
But debates almost certainly will not happen. There will be an excuse. The Democrats will insist on it, so long as Biden’s the candidate, but they will blame the Republicans — Trump in particular — for not agreeing to the reasonable terms of a debate.
This has been my prediction for months now, anyway.
The Atlantic, meanwhile, breezily rushes past Rice’s downside disadvantages:
Rice told me that she’s ready to be picked, if that’s where this process lands.
“I am honored, honestly, and I’m humbled that I might be being considered,” she said, “and I really truly care only about doing all I can to get Joe Biden elected and Donald Trump retired, because I truly deeply believe that the fate of our country depends on it.” She added, “I’ll help in whatever way I can and if that’s licking envelopes and raising money, that’s fine, and if it’s serving in a much more senior capacity, if that’s what Vice President Biden thinks makes sense, that’s fine, too.”
She declined to comment when I asked her how Trump’s “Obamagate” claims might factor into the running-mate selection process.
Quoting House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, The Atlantic seems to think that we are living in normal times:
Biden, like Rice, already has extensive foreign-relations, national-security, and institutional experience; he lacks some of the constituencies and skill sets that other potential running mates have.
“I want to make sure that wherever I speak to, whoever I have, has some qualities that I don’t possess, as well as is willing to, in fact, tell me the truth, but also do it in a way that is between the two of us—between her and me—so that they can, in fact, be completely candid with me,” Biden said at a fundraiser on Wednesday. “I want to have people around me that have strengths and capacities I don’t.”
Depending on how rough of a situation the country is likely to be in when and if he wins, and where Biden decides he wants to focus, doubling up may be appealing, Jim Clyburn told me.
“If Biden feels that he is the best person to restore the faith of the world community in the United States, then he may look to having a very strong domestic person as the VP,” Clyburn said, noting that that person could be Rice.
The main reason Donald Trump sits in the White House, and not a Democrat, is fairly simple: the Democrats chose the much-hated Hillary Clinton as their standard bearer.
Susan Rice is not much better. She does not make the Biden ticket more winnable, but less.
But paying attention to the Law of Nemesis is not something Democrats can do these days, apparently. They are all hubris now.
twv
Wirkman Comment 