Just as it feels great to play ball again after an injury heals, or breathe freely after a bad cold, Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, and Jacob Chansley have helped me appreciate being a U.S. citizen. Their vicious attacks on it remind me I kind of like our democracy, despite its flaws. People who normally ignore inaugurations found Joe Biden’s inauguration, replete with speeches, songs, prayers, and poetry, made them feel warm and grateful.
We’re recuperating from what historians will rank as the worst presidency in our history. To help that president, his supporters actually invaded and trashed the Capitol, something last done by the Brits in the War of 1812. For the first time, an outgoing president threw a hysterical tantrum and tried ugly and unlawful ways to overturn the people’s will. A sizeable minority of citizens supported those antidemocratic efforts.
If historians ever wonder, many people feel primarily relief right now. The constant, jarring noise has stopped. Governing the country may return to some rational norm. People may differ, in civil ways, over policies and ideas, without insulting opponents and their parents, wives, ethnicity and physical appearance. The fellow who departed Wednesday also threatened his own vice-president, his various hand-picked attorneys-general, political opponents, and Republican voting officials in Georgia and Pennsylvania, as well as Congress and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.
We feel relief, and cautious hope.
While I’m not predicting any politician will be entirely truthful, we’ll hear significantly more truth from this White House. And Joe Biden won’t endanger our national security on impulse, or in a fit of pique.
Joe wasn’t my first choice. My country has made a lot of mistakes, and Joe’s been part of some of them. He speaks more moderately than I might like about reversing our increasing economic inequality and confronting global warming; but as Mr. Barker once said of his son-in-law, “I wasn’t chairman of the selection committee.” Still, Joe may accomplish more toward those goals than someone less capable of bringing along those who don’t yet get it.
I think we got lucky. An older, white male, a centrist, a personally decent fellow who also knows how government works, Joe seems a damned good choice for the healing and transition we need. He and Dr. Jill are real folks. He’s suffered. Biden’s decades in public life have produced some gaffes and odd locutions, and arguably plagiarism. But mostly he’s tried to do good work for his country, while listening to others and forging compromises. (Yeah, while I honor his heroic son, Beau, I wish he could have better controlled his troubled son, Hunter; but Joe probably wishes that too.)
Joe was brought up (with love) by a regular guy, a hard-working father who taught him values other than “Whatever you can do to cheat anyone and everyone for a buck, do it!” He played high school football as a split-end. I like that while he was elected president of his 45-member class, the priests wouldn’t let him run for school president because he had too many demerits.
President Biden will struggle mightily, and thoughtfully, to help us surmount this pandemic and our deep economic and social troubles. Very tough rows to hoe, particularly in our rancorously divided nation.
As the Rolling Stones put it, “You can’t always get what you want, but . . . you might just get what you need.” Which looks pretty damned good, just now.
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[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 24 January 2021, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG’s website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7) and KTAL-LP. (101.5 – http://www.lccommunityradio.org/), and is available on demand on KRWG’s site.]
[A friend who read the column in the Sun-News vividly expresses a different point of view:
When compared with a hog pen, a slovenly kept shack might be a welcome relief. Trump, whom I first became aware of in the early 80s has been a blatant scoundrel for at least 40 years. Biden has been a mixed fellow; a fellow that is inclined to decency but not ethically wedded to it. His current roster indicates this duality. He will let Wall Street prevail but with less fireworks. What we have is a pause for Wall Street to prepare the next assault on the non billionaires in the world. It is a tactical move and nothing more.
So for me, the task remains to encourage our local community and government to empower local control over the necessities of life. To create a locally controlled full employment system, real estate and food systems. Wall Street has always thrived on monopoly power over the necessities of life to preserve the ancient evil of slavery. It’s the only way they can leverage their minuscule population into being slave owners. Those countries that are further along in this dilution of central power will be the prospering survivors.
So
I suggest we use a “Biden” moment to move quickly ahead with
establishing a thoroughly democratic local society. ]
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| Rio Grande Sunset - ©2020 Peter Goodman |
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