I know that this is vitriol
No solution, spleen-venting
But I feel better having screamed
Don't you? — Michael Stipe, Ignoreland
This R.E.M. song, penned at the tail end of the George H.W. Bush era, is a fiery screed lamenting the damage the Reagan revolutionaries unleashed on America.
What I love about it is its unabashed embrace of irrational emotion. It is not a political polemic - it is very much a guttural exclamation of disgust, despair and disillusionment while lamenting the looming dystopian future. Michael Stipe himself self-effacingly called it “a barely adult reaction.”
In the aftermath of last week’s disastrous presidential debate, where a serial sexual assaulter, conman, racist, felon and serial liar humiliated an unprepared, barely cogent octogenarian with Democracy potentially at stake, I feel the same way Stipe did in 1992. Probably even worse, to be honest.
Several of my politically astute
colleagues - like Ed Tibbets, Robert Leonard and Barry Piatt - wrote thoughtful, measured, well-reasoned columns reacting to Joe Biden’s disastrous performance and the Democratic panic that ensued.This will not be any of those things. I’ve got some spleen-venting, solutionless screaming to do.
I am furious that faced with a widely unpopular, eminently beatable, extremist, two-time popular vote-losing GOP presidential candidate, the best the Democrats can come up with is a “Weekend at Bernies” stand in. It is a sad indictment on the Democratic Party that this is the best top-of-ticket option we have.
I admit I am not wise to the intricacies of insider party politics, which I guess is how America ended up in this mess. But it is confounding that a gaffe-prone senior citizen is all that's standing between us and FacismLite™.
At this point, I’m sure some of you reading this are grumbling about me being ageist, dismissive of Biden’s decades of public service and the successes of his first term which include passage of an infrastructure bill and navigating the pandemic-era economic downturn to a non-recessionary, soft landing.
To be clear, I am not a Biden hater. I've viewed him as pretty much a figurehead only - the lead cheerleader and spokesman for a team of technocrats and advisers that do the heavy lifting on creating and implementing policy. While not ideal leadership, it can be effective. But now Biden is at the point where merely articulating a coherent message is a major struggle, and that is unacceptable.
And the fact that inability may contribute to the re-election of a sexual-assaulting insurrectionist with a hunger for unlimited despotic power is downright maddening.
Am I calling for Biden to step down? I don’t know. I don’t know if it would even make a difference. I just know I’m furious this is even a relevant question that needs to be asked.
A post-debate story in The Atlantic noted that “Democrats might still stop him if they had a candidate who was not laboring under so many painfully apparent vulnerabilities of his own.”
Jill Biden is having none of that talk. Her response?
“What you saw last night on the debate stage was Joe Biden—a President with integrity and character, who told the truth and Donald Trump told lie after lie.”
Absolutely true, Jill.
But what the hell good does that do us or the country if Joe’s non-imaginary, very real cognitive and physical diminishment makes him unelectable?
In American politics, the projection of strength, dynamism and vigor has always mattered, for better or worse. Joe Biden is rapidly and significantly losing all three and there is no hiding it.
Maybe, it's true
But I'm resentful all the same
Someone's got to take the blame
Indeed, someone’s got to take the blame for this dire moment in the history of our Republic.
And I fear it is the collective “WE.”
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Biden had one job - Come across as normal, boring even. Do that, and the headlines would’ve covered Trump’s firehouse of bullshit. Instead, our Democracy is on the brink.
Be the Hero, Joe. Release the delegates. Let them choose between Kamala, Gavin and Big Gretch. Over 70% of voters want a choice other than Trump or Biden, there’s a winning ticket among those three.
You put your best foot forward and march. Sadly, it would seem that this is the Democrat's "best foot" and moving forward gets sidestepped by confusion at all levels. WE deserve better choices on both sides of the aisle. WE will seemingly be in a position to make the least worst choice.
Watch for the announcement of running mates. Presumably, that will determine the next "best foot" for both parties in 2028. May WE choose wisely.