So, this whole thing is maddening. There is no going back to a time before Trump, which is the time that led to Trump. There is only going through what Trump outed about America to something better, or something worse.
“Even when he was running,” insists Biden, “I don’t think anybody thought he would be as bad as he is.” Except that Hillary did, and literally during the election said as much, on television; and except that many of the people who most would be impacted by the policies of a man whose announcement was explicitly xenophobic did, and said as much; and except that I was posting mockups of the Sinclair Lewis novel Trump Can’t Happen Here as early as October of 2015.
Biden is admitting that as an old, white guy he couldn’t actually conceive of another old, white guy being a fascist, because this is America, where that doesn’t happen.
He’s also, although he seems unaware of it, exposing the fact that he is trapped by the idea that his perspective is the default perspective that thus is and was shared by everyone else. It’s the myopia of power and privilege, and I wonder if he really doesn’t realize that he just handed Kamala Harris her next axe.