Joe's Running Again!!

Ugh

The way I see it, almost nobody wants Joe Biden to run for president again. Maybe Joe himself doesn’t even want to do it. Why would he? He’s old. He’s tired. The only thing keeping him upright at all right now is free ice cream.

The problem is that there’s nobody else out there who has enough credibility/trust among the general population to run and win. Yes, you can throw out all the rising stars on the left you want, but I have yet to hear of a challenger that can beat whatever nut job the right throws at us in the upcoming election.

Elizabeth Warren: unelectable (and old). Bernie Sanders: unelectable (and ancient). Pete Buttigieg (sp? not gonna look it up): most likely unelectable if for no other reason than his sexuality would probably tip the election for the other guy (but at least he’s young). Who else is there? Who else can compete against - most likely - Trump for name recognition and fundraising? Who else is there?

So we’re stuck with Grampy Joe, a competent and decent American doing a competent and decent job. Which is good enough, especially when compared with absolute lunacy of the Republican party. Even if the GOP manages to nominate somebody other than Trump, that person will be utterly beholden to the kooks who got him the nomination. And yes, it will be a him. Sorry, Nikki Haley.

There is something lyrical, I suppose, about the presidential contest coming down to another contest between sclerotic senior citizens; after all, our country increasingly feels like a sclerotic senior citizen itself. We are stumbling and slow and forever turning out foggy eyes to some blinkered notion of our golden-hued past.

When people refer to America as a “shining city on a hill,” I used to take it to mean that the United States is a nation others can look at for hope and inspiration, a place open to all who set sail for its shores. Lest you think that’s just some pansy-ass lib talking, here’s Ronald Reagan in 1989:

         I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

Are we still that place? Or have we closed our doors and barred them against all intruders? Because that’s how America feels to me right now. We’re hammering shut the windows and putting dogs out in the yard to protect ourselves - from ourselves. The light shining from our hilltop feels less like a beacon to the world and more like the Bat Signal desperately seeking help.

So, yeah, I’ll take Joe Biden. He’s good enough for now. But we’ve got to do better. I don’t know how. I’m not sure I even believe that we can do better. Maybe we’re just shuffling off to the retirement home like so many great nations before us. I’m in one right now. Italy. Once the center of the entire world. Now a place people come to look at statues and eat gelato. Which gives me a little hope. No matter what happens, at least there will be still be ice cream. That should keep us upright.