Learning to Hate a Good Man

For the first 6 years of the Obama Administration the Democrats held a majority in the US Senate. In that first year Ruth Bader Ginsburg was 76 years old. By the last year, and with a highly potential loss of Senate control projected by the Democrats, RBG was 82. She knew the nature of the Supreme Court, the far right conservative leanings of the majority, especially with Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and her friend Antonin Scalia. 

She was in very poor health contracting colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and coronary artery disease before or during Obama’s first 6 years. She was lobbied by Obama, the Democratic leadership, and incalculable numbers of the electorate to retire and let Obama nominate a center left judge. She wouldn’t do it. Why? 

She was not ambiguous. She wanted to carry out her duties for as long as she could. It is not unreasonable to assume she felt she could do a better job than any replacement. It is also quite reasonable to assume her desire to remain in office was more important to her than the future of the Nation. For example, her decision essentially caused the repeal of Roe v Wade to become reality. 

To say that RBG’s choices are analogous to Joe Biden’s is a given, only in Biden's case the consequences are far, far more dire. Just as with Ginsburg no one is saying that Biden has not performed his duties adequately. Those with even a modicum of intelligence and a willingness to open their eyes can argue that Biden, and the team around him, have done an excellent job of managing this monolithic ship of state we call America. Yet here we are. 

The moving essay in the New York Times by George Clooney encapsulates the dilemma those of us who are not neck deep in the MAGA cabal find ourselves in. At the beginning Clooney writes “I love Joe Biden.” He follows with all the tender accolades and advice that he might have said were he sitting across from Joe in a comfy library room. The problem is that Biden cannot hear him, except those words that outline his accomplishments. Like Ginsburg, he still sees himself more than capable in solving the issues of the next Presidency, the first one being the election. Amazingly and regrettably it appears Jill Biden is equally blind for reasons of her own. 

This flaw in Joe Biden - call it narcissism, call it ego, or call it dementia if you like – is not something to be admired, cushioned by his past. Certainly not with the risks we see impending. When we look at Trump’s behavior, his promises, the goals of his long time supporters to unravel our Democracy (think Project 2025), the sacking of Ukraine, and a super Conservative majority in the Supreme Court for decades, this intransigent position of Biden’s overshadows his entire career. In hindsight, I don’t think anyone lauded over the long, accomplished career of Captain Edward Smith after he sailed the Titanic into icy waters.

Joe Biden has been a good President, perhaps much better than good as history will decide. Still, I expected him for three years to announce that he was going to be a one-term President, a transitional President to a new generation, as he proclaimed in 2021. That appears clearly to not have been his intention. After all the primaries, I tuned into the “debate” apprehensive that my hopes he could carry off an election, and take his Party with him, were not just me being in denial. I learned I had to face the truth. 

Biden’s inability to respect the opinion of those around him and, by all accounts, a majority of the electorate irrevocably erases, at least in the near term, all the good a memory can provide. It draws into question not only his ability to get elected, but that of his Presidency as yet unfinished.  Frankly, I don’t want a President whose decisions can only be changed by the “Lord Almighty”. 

At this point I don’t like the 2024 Joe Biden, I don’t like him a bit. That’s a 180 for me from 2020. Now the question is can the Democratic Party and its leadership convince Biden to willingly free his delegates. Otherwise it's like taking a loved one, who has turned cognitively angry and belligerent, out of his home. There’s just sadness left, and sadness is the last thing the Democratic Party needs now.

Tell Us It Ain't So, Joe

Joe Biden has, with good justification, traded on personal integrity and, dare I say it regarding a politician, honesty. Not perfect, but not bad by Washington standards. On Friday after the first (and probably last) debate with D. Trump, he fired up his vocal cords at a small North Carolina rally of the faithful and proclaimed his honesty. “I know how to tell the truth” he forcefully read from a teleprompter to cheers and chants. But does he know the truth? If he doesn’t know it, how can he possibly tell it. 

His point was to draw contrast with Trump who, like any good clinical narcissist, has unabashedly concluded that anything that comes out of his mouth is truth. It doesn’t matter what. This works just fine for a mind-blowingly large number of Americans who view Trump as a symbolic bulwark, protecting them from a host of contrived Conservative fears. 

However, Biden wasn’t talking to the MAGA crowd then or at the Thursday night “debate”. Biden was talking to the rest of America, the part of America which will decide just what kind of direction this Country is heading.  At the “debate” Biden’s handlers were probably counting on Trump’s lies, mistruths, and hyperbole (among other bad behavior) to successfully move the needle in their candidate’s direction. The error of their judgment is frightening. 

Within the first 10 minutes of the face-off it didn’t matter what Trump said. He could have read and re-read Green Eggs and Ham. What Trump did say was no more informative (nor real) than if he had. At that point all I could see or hear was what I had been blindly hoping I would not see or hear: Biden is not just 81, he is an old 81. As this campaign deepens over the next 4 months this truth is not going to go away. 

Biden trying to exalt his record was meaningless, so was his trying to excoriate Trump’s record or lies. You can’t get to point ‘B’ bypassing point ‘A’ when point ‘A’ is physical and mental capability. His performance was indisputable and the reason for that performance was reality rearing its inescapable head. 

The spin makers began to throw out excuses even while the debate was in motion, like the alleged cold which seemed to magically disappear after the “debate”. Later they referenced Obama’s first debate in 2012 as analogous…oh please. Obama seemed flat because our expectations were so high. It wasn’t a disaster. Our expectations for Biden were nearly rock bottom but somehow he managed to slip beneath those. We were hoping for a President that could at least somewhat exceed low expectations, as he managed to do in his prepared remarks at the State of the Union. 

So what has happened in the days following this “debate”? Despite a deafening chorus of calls for him to release his delegates and drop from the race he expects us to ignore what we cannot un-see or un-hear, just as Trump expects with the regularity of a heartbeat. Only Biden does not inspire the number of voters, blind with naiveté and fear, that Trump does. We actually expect the truth from Joe, but if he doesn’t see it, we’re not going to get it. 

Biden’s delivery was not new. I started writing four years ago that if he was elected he needed to proclaim himself a one-term President (https://pennyfound.blogspot.com/2020/03/jill-biden-for-first-lady.html) . Instead he believes his truth that; he can campaign, win an election, and effectively govern for four strenuous years, exceeds the risks that a Trump Presidency creates…our senses be damned. 

This appears to be a watershed moment in American History; Representative Democracy vs. Representative Authoritarianism, the Supreme Court, Climate Change, International Relations, Woman’s rights, Ukraine, and wealth inequality et al, may all pivot on what truth Joe Biden is willing or able to see. It’s likely that he cannot be elected on only an anti-Trump vote. Enough non-MAGA voters have indicated they want someone to vote for. 

He cannot be replaced without his agreement. Like Narcissus, if Biden has looked in the water and can see only himself, it may be the one fatal commonality he has with Trump.