Wall Street Loves Biden: The Absurd Arena – Useful Idiots Discussion Board
For the Useful Idiots who think they can talk back to a podcast.
Hey Useful Idiots,
On last week’s Thursday Throwdown, we watched a clip of JP Morgan’s head of healthcare services Lisa Gill explain why Wall Street is banking on Joe Biden running for reelection:
“Joe Biden is a man of the working class,” she explains. “He’s coming through on his promises to give rail workers and nurses a living wage, to help students drowning in debt, to end the Social Security tax break for the rich, and to make healthcare a right for everyone.”
She continued, a tear forming in her eye, smile spreading across her face: “Investors are excited about this sharing of wealth; Wall Street is bullish for a brighter tomorrow. And Union Joe, as we lovingly call him at JP Morgan, is the man to lead us onward down this shining road to equality.”
At this point in the interview, Gill, now sobbing, gave a big hug to the interviewer, who it turns out was an orphan, and announced that JP Morgan would be paying for college for everyone at his orphanage. But hey, on Bloomberg News, that’s just what they call another regular Thursday.
Okay, so maybe that wasn’t quite how it went. It’s possible that she actually said they were banking on Biden running because a Democrat primary could mean discussion of Medicare for All, and even mentioning the idea of giving healthcare to the working class would scare away investors. But with Joe Biden, Wall Street execs need not fear: one promise he is keeping is prohibiting the working class from ever getting healthcare. So rest easy, Lisa Gill. And shut up, orphan.
One thing we’ve heard from people who choose not to vote for president is that if they believed a candidate would enact just one good policy, such as making healthcare affordable or raising the minimum wage, they would vote. However, those voters felt that neither Republican nor Democrat candidates had even one positive promise to come through on.
So on this Absurd Arena, we want to hear from you: If you vote, what is there that you hope to change? Are you voting for something good, or against a worse candidate? If you don’t, what would change your mind? What is better about silence than voting? And is voting between two corporate party candidates truly “having a say in democracy?”
As usual, the best comments and questions will be read on the show. Here’s the prompt:
If you vote: why? If you don’t: why not? Is voting actually a way to take part in democracy, or just a way for the powerful to make us feel like we have a voice? What questions do you have for Katie and Aaron?
I’ve been voting third party for President ever since Bill Clinton threw a million children off of Welfare. I would sometimes still vote Blue in local primaries but I have recently withdrawn Dem party membership. My state makes you choose a party for voter registration, so I chose the Bread and Roses party. How can anyone not be for Bread and Roses?
I felt sick after voting for Obama the second time, because I knew he was full of it.
I felt comfortable not voting for Hilary Clinton because I knew who she was and I wasn’t going to be responsible for her, even if it meant Trump winning. I am glad now because I think the neocons were ready to strike at Russia then. They were out of luck with Trump in the WH.
I wouldn’t have voted for Biden under any circumstance. I didn’t quite know all of the ugly story about him but I knew enough to be decisive, even if it meant another Trump term.
I vote third party just because when there’s an option, but that’s rare. And I show up at the ballot anyway in order not to vote. I wish we had an option on our ballots to vote no confidence or signify our disgust somehow. They get to pretend that it’s not about them because we don’t have a voice beyond the red one or the blue one.