CNN dug through the archives and found documents that explain Joe Biden’s unique ability to woo Trump voters — a series of never-before-published letters from Biden to some of the Senate’s most ardent segregationists, seeking support for a bill that would have limited court-ordered busing.
Mississippi Democratic Sen. James Eastland believed that desegregation would “mongrelize” the white race and had denounced the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, calling it a “monstrous crime.” In 1977, Biden, then a young senator from Delaware, wrote to Eastland seeking his support for a bill that would cut down on the practice of busing students between neighborhoods to integrate schools. Wrote Biden to Eastland: “My bill strikes at the heart of the injustice of court-ordered busing.”
This wasn’t a one-off thing. Biden campaigned on support for school desegregation in 1972, but when it came time to put his efforts where his mouth was, he turned tail and ran the other way, ultimately helping turn the Senate against it. He spewed the typical Biden bullshit in doing so — he still supported desegregation, just not by busing students out of their redlined neighborhoods. He offered no alternative methods.
Ultimately, this is my problem with Biden. Far from a straight shooter, he’s a prevaricator who will do whatever is most convenient for Biden. Better than Trump? Sure, because even rectal cancer is better than Trump. As a party, Democrats must do better than that for minorities and women, who after all are the bulwarks of the base.