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No Country for Nice Guys [1]
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Date: 2022-12-04
Call it a Hail Mary. On the eve of the midterms, President Biden told ralliers at Maryland’s Bowie State University “We know that this is your moment to defend our democracy.”
Translation: ‘This is my time to get around to stressing how we’re under attack by what our very oaths of office curse as “enemies...domestic.” Like it or not, report it or not, we’re down to one non-despotic major party. I lead it. Don’t look now, but the other one deems storming our Capitol on false pretext “legitimate political discourse.” We must not fail to stop it.”’
Credit where due. By beating Donald Trump, Biden looks to have saved (for now) our democracy. But let it be said. If ever the old saw ‘not all at once, but one bite at a time eat an elephant’ rang true, it should have done so throughout Trump’s term of ceaseless deceit. Of emolument-grabbing kleptocracy. Of science-flouting climate sabotage. And of the overreach expressed in his 2019 claim that he could do, “as President….whatever” he might wish. (Including, as he howled a year later, “get[ting] rid of the ballots” that might not suit him.)
Let’s parse Biden’s fateful career in light of neuroscientist/strategist/psychologist/author Drew Westen’s observation (penned circa 2006) that the once-dominant Dems have morphed into a mild, “pliant….party of default” (rarely electable save in the face or in the wake of such misrule as Richard “Not A Crook” Nixon’s or George ‘WMD’ Bush’s).
Talk about timing. By the time Barack Obama (with Biden at his side) sought the White House, swing voters had grown fed up with the GOP’s folly-mongering, economy-wrecking, religiosity-wrapped plutocracy. In ‘08, John McCain and Sarah Palin had no real choice but to defend Bush’s execrable record- which oozed negatives to which Obama and Biden barely had to point, let alone add.
But GOP perfidy was not eternally self-evident. Starting with the Dems’ 2009 landslide loss to a Bush clone in Virginia, the blue team was in trouble. Quickly “shellacked” and well-nigh hapless, it at length made easy prey for an oddly orange, Vladimir Putin-canoodling ogre: to wit, the ‘unthinkable’ oxymoron, “President Trump.”
All along, Biden’s style/way/brand remained sweetness and light. But it had limits. In the 2020 debate, the 100th-or-so time Trump interrupted him, he told the raging incumbent to “shut up” and called him “a clown.”
Alas, the ex-veep couldn’t leave tough enough alone. A week later, at a town hall event, NBC’s Lester Holt scolded him for having gone so rough on poor Donnie. Easily and aptly, Biden could have shot back, ‘Lester, did you not notice how, practically every time I opened my mouth, Trump stuck his boot in it? Come on, now. Seriously. How would you have wanted any self-respecting person to respond to such a napalm-breathing dragon?’
Instead, Biden mewled to Holt, “I should have said ‘a clownish undertaking.’” Hmm. I’ve been to three rodeos. Ten circuses. Loads of Ronald-festooned McDonald’s. And a few “Killer Klowns” film festivals. Still, for the life of me, I have no clue what Biden’s tortured words may have meant.
But I digress. According to conventional wisdom, the midterms went fine. Still, let’s play angels’ advocates. From Mo “Kicking Ass” Brooks to Paul “Sedition Is Appropriate” Gosar, supporters of the cult Trump sent “to the Capitol….to take back our (sic) country” seized control of the US House.
Ouch. If that’s a propitious outcome, a Yugo’s a great car.
Here’s the thing. If we’re to build back a vote-legitimized America (with widespread liberty and justice), we’ll need to shelve some habitual pliancy. Politesse. And peachy sweetness. Don’t look now, but we may do well to battle back. As nicely as humanly possible. Of course.
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