“Every generation of Americans has had to fight to protect some aspect of our democracy in one way or another. Now's our time.” — President Joe Biden.
It is all a matter of perspective.
Talk to any astronaut. Hell, talk to the original Captain Kirk— William Shatner, who became a rocket man: Until you see the big blue marble in space, you don’t really have the perspective that we’re all in this together.
But once that is seen, I’m told, you can’t unsee it.
I can only imagine it.
But I understand it. Many politicians don’t get it.
America is sick of them.
Don’t take my word for it. Get out of the D.C. bubble. Visit America. For the first time, Time Magazine has named someone who is primarily an entertainer as their “Person of the Year”: Taylor Swift. Even Time is done with politicians. Better yet, if you need more evidence, go to a comedy club, a PTA meeting, a church gathering; any place where people gather and just listen. No matter the issue, the political tastes or the venue, after more than two decades of growing divisiveness, people are tired of politics and most politicians.
Granted, we’ve elected them and that’s a different issue, but neither the Democrats, who mean well, nor the strange MAGA Republicans, who only worship greed, get it. America has had enough — and, incidentally, so have some of the politicians. Just ask Kevin McCarthy, who threw in the towel Wednesday, or any other member of Congress who has recently retired. American politics has all the appeal of dog vomit on hot asphalt in the steamiest part of August.
Even President Joe Biden seems sick of politics.
Tuesday night, while speaking at a fundraiser in Boston, he said the main reason he’s running for president is because Trump is — and he is determined not to let Trump win. Of course, Wednesday morning in the White House Roosevelt Room, Biden also said there are “probably 50” other Democrats who could beat Donald Trump next year. That’s only funny because recent polls show Biden isn’t one of them.
Everyone wants to keep Trump out of the White House, except Trump, and that’s because recapturing the White House is Trump’s only, slim, chance of staying out of the big house. He knows it and has vowed to prosecute politicians and the press who remind people of that fact.
But maybe there’s a better reason to run for president. Maybe it really is about the future.
On the campaign trail in early March 2020, Biden said, “Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,” as he campaigned with Cory Booker, Gretchen Whitmer and future Vice President Kamala Harris on a stage in Detroit. “There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”
Apparently, the future meant 2028, because he’s not standing down in 2024, despite his acknowledgment that others could beat Trump. And, of course, there are the polls that show his approval rating sagging. Reuters reported Monday that it is still hovering around 40 percent.
Biden’s trouble is that people still want to saddle him with high gas prices and inflation. Some even want to blame him for rising unemployment, though employment is around 3.9 percent — historically low and, in the past, a number that would have triggered the term “full employment.” Gone are the days of my youth when employment surged to around nine percent.
Still, Biden can’t get a break. At an appearance in Boston this week, he tried to outline his successes at a fundraiser. “The biggest investment of rebuilding America's infrastructure since President Eisenhower's rebuilding of the roads and highways and bridges and with the interstate highway system. And we've done the same now delivering clean water, high-speed Internet to every American, and cheaply,” Biden explained. There is no doubt Biden has done a lot in four years. There’s also no doubt he’s having trouble getting people to listen and agree with him — even though he’s helped them.
Biden defends his re-election efforts (he famously did not confirm on the campaign trail in 2020 that he would commit to such a campaign) by saying “America is back” and that he’s rebuilt alliances damaged internationally by Donald Trump. He’s quoted former Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, in saying that we are “the essential nation.” Frequently he’s claimed “It’s not hyperbole” but that America’s future is “literally” at risk, “Because this time we’re running against an election denier-in-chief.”
Biden is determined to beat Trump one more time — and there’s a good reason for it. Trump is determined to destroy American democracy. You only have to listen to Trump’s words to understand the severity of the challenge.
Trump has sent emails to supporters and shouted from stages across the country that “2024 is the final battle,” and he claims that he is “your retribution” while also saying we are a failing nation. He’s called his opponents “vermin” and has said “the blood of our country is being poisoned.” That’s a deep dive into language familiar to anyone who is a student of history; It’s straight from Nazi Germany.
Of course, Biden is correct. Listening to Trump is to listen to a soul-scourging scream from the deepest, demented depths of Dante’s Inferno; a weak cry of a Vampire staked to a post and left in an empty field during a severe thunderstorm; a death-rattling threat from a cornered New York sewer rat; a man who only cares about himself and has convinced millions of those he’s fleeced that he is the sole source of salvation.
But is Biden the man to lead the country? Part of the appeal for younger voters, in 2020, was his stop-gap approach. The idea that he was a “bridge to the future” meant that younger leaders would step up. But Biden’s re-election bid has quashed the efforts of many of those potential leaders as Biden doubles down on taking out Trump again.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, debating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Fox News last week, even made light of this in one of the night’s most entertaining putdowns. “Neither one of us will be the nominee of our party” in 2024, Newsom said.
Meanwhile, in the House, the MAGATS are busy trying to lay the groundwork for a new Donny presidency. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for the release of all Capitol surveillance footage from Jan. 6 and the creation of what one congressman called a “January 6 revenge committee” to go after those who prosecuted the insurrectionists. House Speaker Mike Johnson is fine with that, as long as the faces of the insurrectionists are blurred so they cannot be identified.
In the past, the MAGATS said the January 6 insurrection was a Black Lives Matter fiasco, or an “Antifa stunt” or even an FBI “false flag” operation. If that’s the case, then why blur the faces? Wouldn’t you want to know who they were and prosecute them?
Julie Farnam, the former Capitol Police Department assistant intelligence chief whose book “Domestic Darkness” comes out in January called out Congress for the move and said that Trump “doesn’t care about anybody but himself.”
That is a big reason that while in Boston, President Biden said, “If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running.”
America has a problem. It is apparently tired of both Trump and Biden — but for different reasons.
Even as Biden positions himself as the bridge to the future, there are those who want the future now. Don’t take it from me.
Last week at a comedy show in beautiful downtown Burbank (apologies to Johnny Carson), Arsenio Hall appeared on stage at Flappers comedy club and said “Biden is old . . .” and followed it with a joke about the president’s gait and speech. It got a great round of applause in suburban Los Angeles, among a crowd as diverse as America. That doesn’t mean Arsenio is a Trump fan. “I can’t vote for Orange Satan,” he said. “I was an Apprentice. That man is the devil.”
Arsenio mused about winning “Celebrity Apprentice.” And said, “I was already a celebrity. It’s like a demotion.” Yeah, the white guy still runs the show.
Jay Leno, appearing on stage following Arsenio, said he’s tired of the division in this country. He said people are feeling alone and isolated. “If you’re lonely, you’re not alone,” he said to a room that responded with laughter. He even told a non-partisan political joke that went over well. But it’s obvious — the country is tired. Tired of it all.
Comedian Bill Burr went even further. Recently appearing on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, Burr said, “I want somebody in their 40s, somebody that’s gonna have to live with their decisions.” He continued: “With any luck, they’ll both die of natural causes before the election and maybe you could get somebody that still has something to live for.”
Burr drew a lot of heat for that comment, but it’s obvious many people have similar thoughts. While they also understand that Biden is right, this election is important. They want more than someone who is the same age as Trump running against the brigand.
The country needs and wants an infusion of John F. Kennedy-style hope. Kennedy challenged us with just 17 simple words: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
No president in peacetime had ever so challenged the citizenry to raise expectations and envision new possibilities. Kennedy, the youngest elected president, did that and ushered in an era that gave the world a much-needed lift.
It needs the same thing today.
Donald Trump cannot deliver that lift. He’s too busy tearing things down. And it appears people do not currently believe Biden can do it either.
But the person who delivers hope will save American democracy. It’s that simple.
