Joe Biden Doesn’t Think Daily Human Misery Is a ‘Crisis’

Matthew John
3 min readMar 16, 2020
Senator Bernie Sanders and his wife Jane with Vice President Joe Biden in 2013 (Wikimedia Commons)

With a nationwide panic underway due to the spread of COVID-19 and the unveiling of our evidently unreliable neoliberal infrastructure that commodifies basic human needs, I kicked back to watch the 11th Democratic debate of the 2020 campaign season: Biden vs. Sanders.

As the battle began, I wondered how these current realities would impact the dynamics of the debate. For instance, Sanders advocates unconditional coverage for all Americans through Medicare for All, while Biden’s plan would leave around 10 million uninsured, resulting in at least 125,000 unnecessary deaths in the first decade. Would Biden change his rhetoric — if not his actual policy — regarding healthcare as a human right?

In all, the debate turned out to be captivating, frustrating, stress-inducing, and even entertaining.

But what was I actually surprised about regarding this debate? I wasn’t surprised that Biden constantly lied about his decades of pro-war, anti-worker legislation, or his opposition to reproductive rights. I wasn’t surprised he used right-wing lies to discredit Medicare for All. Joe Biden lies all the time. He has even been caught plagiarizing!

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