Political Norms Don’t Work for Dems
Joe Biden (and to be honest most Dems and all DC beltway types) still cleave to 1980’s political norms. So when a “scandal” breaks, its all “OH MY! HEADS MUST ROLL!”
Whereas Republicans operate on 2020 political norms. So when a “scandal” breaks (up to and including scandalously trying to overthrow the republic) they say “LOL. Nothing matters! Fuck You.” And presto! No scandal.
I know many Dems, even commenters here, feel good about themselves and believe that they are destine to live eternity in heaven because they have the right norms. That’s comforting, I suppose.
Would suggest Chris Coons “good friends” in the Republican party declared war on the rest of us long ago, and pissing on the “norms” of the past is just part of it. Will the Washington Dems wake up? Nope. Not unless we replace some of them and scare their widdle selves. Failed primaries for both Coons and Carper show how hard this can be.
So true. Imagine if crackhead, starving artist Hunter Biden were Trump’s son. He would get away with it I’m sure. Oh wait….never mind.
Get away with what? Name the crime, dearie.
In his memoir he admits to smoking crack “every 15 minutes”. Last I heard that is a crime. And it is sexist to call me “dearie”.
It is only illegal to possess. There is nothing illegal about admitting you smoked crack in the past. Also, if you care to recall, the leader of the republican party in Delaware, Lauren Witzke who ran against Coon’s for the Senate was quoted “I ended up in a situation that I never thought I’d find myself in: I was running drugs, actually, for the Mexican cartels,” Witzke said. ” Which is decidedly illegal and last time I checked counter to the remaining plank of the republican platform (anti-mexicanism).
I’m so sad you don’t like to be called dearie. OK, asshole, if someone else passes you the pipe with someone else’s crack in it, you haven’t possessed it.
You also can’t get prosecuted for possession unless you’re actually caught. Ever sped on the highway? You’re a criminal too if you have. Same deal. If they didn’t catch you, you got away with it, no special treatment required. They can’t go back in time and charge you with it, even if you admit doing it.
So what turned you into such as asshole? Were you an asshole before you were conservative, or did it come along with the rest of the starter kit?
Actually the cocaine addled son of Trump (Junior) has gotten’ away with his drug consumption and numerous frauds he’s perpetrated in concert with his racist, treasonous and hate-spewing excuse of a father.
Representative John Kowalko
Wendy is, or course, proving rather than refuting the point of the post. All of the crimes of the Trump family (up to and including trying to over-throw the republic) and compare all of those crimes to a guy who had an addiction and his family never gave up on him.
Which one is going to dominate the headlines and be regraded as “scandalous”?
No contest.
Actually he, she, or it seems to prove one point. Apparently “osmosis” works with degenerative stupidity. Her friends, co-conspiracy theorists, and other right-wing cultists espousing theories promoted and propagandized by FOX news(???), Info Wars, (local homeboy) Rick Jensen and other distorters of truth and reality seem to have infected her obviously already limited intellect. “Crack” might actually improve Wendy’s diminished capacity for logical thought.
Rep. Kowalko
Well, rep. If crack may actually improve logical thought we know for sure you’ve never smoked it. BTW, you assume a lot. Rick Jensen is not someone I would ever take advice from.
A further distinction: Hunter Biden has no public role (neither did Ashley, in case someone brings up her drug use), as opposed to the Trump spawn, who did.
And the “crime” of drug use is a crime only in the mind of authoritarians. Several members of the Biden family, and not just Joe’s children, have had substance abuse issues. These are, truth be told, political crimes — as John Haldeman admitted to Dan Baum in 1994. From Harper’s magazine:
So, basically, you have to be a conservative asshole to make a “scandal” out of a person’s drug use at this late date.
Do I think Hunter Biden is a good guy? No. I think he’s a jerk and an asshole, and I find his “art career” an insult to both art and careers. Truth be told, I don’t have a lot of good things to say about the Biden family in general. But I have even fewer good things to say about an asshole like Wendy.
Th reason people take such issue with Joe’s kids is that it shows absolutely poor parenting. Since these kids were born, Joe has had all the resources and money in the world to keep them out of trouble and squeaky clean. Each kid could have been assigned a round-the-clock minder. At the very least, he could solved the hunter and ashley questions the same way that the Kennedy’s took care of Rosemary.
Think about how this looks to a working class family who is affected by substance abuse and who /doesn’t/ have any resources. Seeing this kind of unchecked behavior is infuriating, because 1) Joes failure to take decisive action is tacit permission 2) the biden children aren’t living off tugboat checks in Joe’s basement, and 3) when the kids crash a car/OD/get into any form of trouble, there is an expansive safety net and a taxpayer funded babysitter in the form of an SS detail who can clean up the mess.
Trolls gotta troll.
Are you a parent? Do you have substance abuse issues? I’ll be extremely surprised if you answer yes to either of these questions, because your comment above shows a level of cluelessness about both that would be hard to reconcile with experience with either.
Not only an utter lack of knowledge on those topics, but a paucity of lived experiences in general. I haven’t been able to hold forth with such unearned confidence since I was 15 years old.
I have had to act as a parent in abstentia. Have you had to clean up the messes of an adult child who has rejected their medication in lieu of drugs? Do you know what its like to watch someone commit slow suicide without having any legal authority to stop them? Its brutal when a family member expresses the hope that their kid gets tangled up in the legal system for a non-violent offense, just so that they are locked up away from the booze for a period of time.
So yeah, I do have a chip on my shoulder. I’m not a parent and only have to deal with a fraction of the nightmare, but you don’t get to call me clueless. If I had a tenth of the resources that joe does, i could pay for the rehab and long-term sober living accommodations that would take the burden off my family.
I would respectfully submit that your experience has colored your view of these issues, but not in an accurate way.
Do you blame the parents of this person you had/have to take care of for his/her condition?
Do you really think that rehab is some magic solution to alcoholism or drug addiction? It’s not. The average for those who successfully kick their addictions is five trips through rehab. And you can’t force people into it unless you can prove them incompetent to handle their own affairs, as you apparently already know.
But your biggest mistake is thinking that money would somehow solve your problem. It wouldn’t. The number of rich dead addicts is enormous.
So OK, you’re not entirely clueless. You’ve been given some clues. But I don’t think you’re reaching a valid conclusion with them.
Alby,
To address you questions, in order:
1) I do not blame them. Any mistakes made after the initial mental health diagnoses were honest.
2) I believe rehab works for some people and not for others. But I see rehab as an alternative to prison and a period when a family does not have to worry so deeply about a loved ones welfare. I think it also is beneficial when the underlying issue is a treatable mental illness, which can’t be addressed in any real way when someone is using.
3) Money isn’t a cure, but it can go a long way in a creating a firewall of harm reduction between a person and their substance. Admittedly, its not sustainable for most people. I would say that “dead kids of rich people” is a more apt comparison.
So does this mean that the Bidens made dishonest mistakes in dealing with their children’s substance abuse? Because if you do I’d have to disagree.
Rehab seems to work best when the person involved is the one seeking the treatment. The underlying mental health problem makes that difficult.
The distinction between dead rich addicts and dead kid addicts of rich people is a rather fine one. I know examples of both. It might be a distinction without much of a difference.
While I sympathize with your situation, I also sympathize with the parents of kids who were merely thrill-seeking but ended up dead because they took something a lot more potent than booze. I know several of those, and while the end might come quicker, the result is just as devastating to the parents.
If I may, I think your mistake here is one of thinking you — or anyone — can control things you cannot. I have known several people with severe cases of bipolar disorder, and one of the common threads is that they think they’re “cured” and can do without their meds.
Does this person ever express remorse over his/her situation, or do they deny it? Because in my experience that makes a difference in outcomes.
Just to close out your final thoughts – i can’t speak to what mistakes were, or were not, made in the biden household. All I see is a lot more money and resources that would be incredibly beneficial for a working family trying to manage a substance use/mental health disorder. If we could, we would pay for rehab in perpetuity, just to know they are safe and sober.
So in conclusion, yes, my personal experience may have colored my views on this, but i’d be hard pressed to find a neutral third party who hasn’t had to deal with this in one way or another.
“If we could, we would pay for rehab in perpetuity, just to know they are safe and sober.”
So you would essentially keep the person in prison so that they’d stay alive. While I understand the emotion, I don’t think this is ever a viable solution.
People deserve agency. If they still want to drink themselves to death after multiple interventions, well, do we believe in giving people agency over their own lives or not?
“There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy.” Albert Camus.
Damn, you are certainly a clueless a-hole even for a troll. In your case it would seem “poor parenting” might be to blame for the fact that you exist and continue to cast a blemish on civilized society. I hope you find that “back-ward” you mention in another post so that you and your like-minded intellectual “monsters” can ensconce yourselves and share those voices in your heads.
Representative John Kowalko
I’ve yet to see you address my position on either topic with anything beyond a low-calorie word salad.
Nobody owes it to you to address anything you’ve said, because it’s incredibly boorish and wrongheaded to begin with.
Jason is showing uncommon restraint in allowing your trollery this long.