A Corpse Can Give Birth

"Can a Corpse Give Birth?" was the title of an unsigned editorial that appeared yesterday in the national edition of The New York Times. The opinion piece describes the expansion of anti-abortion legislation in numerous states to the point that the rights of the fetus supersede the rights of the mother. In 2013 a Texas woman suffered a pulmonary embolism while 14-weeks pregnant. She was declared brain-dead. Despite clear "do-not-resuscitate" orders from the family, the hospital refused to pull the plug:

Larry Thompson, a lawyer for the hospital, maintained that the state’s end-of-life law did apply, noting that the Texas Penal Code’s definition of a human being had been updated in 2003 to include an “unborn child at every stage of gestation” — therefore, it could be criminal homicide to cause the death of a fetus.

The family of the brain-dead woman had to go to court and get a judge to order the hospital to end life support. Doctors had already determined that the fetus was not viable.

"Can a Corpse Give Birth?" strikes me as the perfect question for the present age, one that we can easily answer in the affirmative. The corpse gave birth to Trump; that's the corpse's baby.

The next corpse fetus trying to find its way to sunlight is Joe Biden. Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin, "Biden in 2020? Allies Say He Sees Himself as Democrats’ Best Hope," make it sound like Biden is going to run this time around. Big donors are still upset at Biden's pussyfooting in 2016, it being perceived as somehow undermining the cadaverous Hillary; so they want the Obama VP to announce by the end of the month.

Biden's pitch, and it's weak, is that he's the only one in the robust Democratic field of presidential aspirants who can beat Trump. I'd say it's the exact opposite: Biden is the only Democrat candidate, assuming Hillary doesn't run, who Trump could beat.

Burns and Martin do a decent job fleshing out Biden's many shortcomings: he conducted the hearings that pilloried Anita Hill in 1991; he was an author of the controversial 1994 crime bill; he's old, 76, white, and buddies with Mitch McConnell; and his is loathed by the party's youthful activist base. If you can get a dismissive quote from fence-sitting congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, that should tell you something:

“We are at a time when we have a combative racist and often unhinged person in the White House, and that’s not going to be answered with somebody who says: Let’s come together and let’s heal and let’s all be gentle souls,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who supported Senator Bernie Sanders for president in 2016.

Biden was bounced out of the 1988 presidential race for plagiarizing a Neil Kinnock speech; that'll get dredged up. But I don't think any of it matters because Biden, despite what he says, is not in it to win it. He's in the race to block the other old white guy who has been around forever, Bernie Sanders.

White working-class men like Bernie. We are told they adore Joe Biden. I'm not so sure though. I think the same precinct chairs and low-level party apparatchiks, many of whom are white working men, the same ones who backed Hillary, adore Biden, but he doesn't offer any special attraction to the casual voter.

Biden would be a powerful force on the plantation that is Super Tuesday. But my sense is that the big donors are pining for Kamala Harris, a solid Obama neoliberal.