Who’s on First?

Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered

Elvis left the building on 16 Aug 1977. He was 42—a musical icon alive and dead. Joe Biden went into hiding on 21 July 2024. He was 82—an unwelcome shadow across his party’s fall from grace in Election 2024.

Credit: Tetra Images/Robert Harding

Since 05 Nov 24, Joe has been a dead man walking politically. From casual remove, it appears that Joe has allowed Donald J. Trump to become the de facto head of our nation state.

Appearances can deceive.

A plague of anticipatory obedience to the incoming Tyrant in Chief has swept across the land and its institutions. The heads of other nations are cautious during the interactions which Mr. Big inflicts upon them. The only little hitch in Trump’s program of world domination is Mr. Bigger, Elon Musk.

As Trump tramples law and custom before even taking office for a second term, Biden makes no significant public comment. He does not launch a folksy charm counteroffensive. Much less use any of the considerable powers still available to him as the sitting president to criticize or discipline the interloper.

Pundits are beginning to comment. Here are the two views of the situation as of 21 Dec 24.

1. Joe is a sham. Write him off.

Credit: Walll Stree Journal

On 20 Dec 24, Jim Geraghty, writing for National Review—a conservative editorial magazine founded by William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955--penned an article entitled “We’re Already Talking about Joe Biden in the Past Tense.”

“Nobody’s even asking, ‘What does Biden think?’ We’ve all just accepted that Biden isn’t really running his own White House, that he’s now just a mumbling geriatric who communicates through issued statements…..You can make a strong argument that the ongoing effort to (poorly) hide the president’s senility is the biggest, worst, and most consequential presidential scandal of all time…….’For four years, we have had a ghost for a president' (attribute Jeff Blehar, also National Review).

“The first and most important detail is that Biden was in rough shape from the start of his presidency…The American President was too tired and too unable to focus to have meetings with national-security officials some days.”

Charles C. W. Cooke (NR senior editor)— “This seems to have been going on since 2021. This was a conspiracy. It was a cover-up. It was a scandal…. If one half of the details in this story are true, the duty of everyone involved was to tell the public, to tell the cabinet, to ask Congress to invoke the 25^th Amendment.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Review

Has Joe, in fact, become too feeble or demoralized to continue his famous “defense of democracy?” Is he no longer capable or willing to help "America…choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_of_Joe_Biden_from_the_2024_United_States_presidential_election#:~:text=On%20July%2021%2C%20Biden's%20official,a%20letter%20announcing%20his%20withdrawal.

If so, his is a tragic tale indeed.

But the hand of facts may be writing still on the cave wall of history. Time will reveal the truths behind the appearances. For now, consider the following possibility.

2. Joe is a very great man. Honor him in the breach.

The Hill was formed in 1994 and operates as a digital newspaper when Congress is in session. Its 20 Dec 24 editorial gave a different perspective on Joe Biden and his administration.

“Biden has been a historically transformative president. His landmark domestic accomplishments are comparable to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. A 2023 survey of 154 political scientists and other presidential experts ranked Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and George Washington as America’s three greatest presidents, in that order. Biden ranked No. 14. Donald Trump, who will become president again on Jan. 20, ranked No. 45 — last on the list. I’m confident Biden’s ranking will rise in the years ahead.

“Biden’s accomplishments include:

· Winning congressional approval for $4.6 trillion in investments to end the coronavirus pandemic with free vaccinations and treatments;

· Stimulus checks of up to $1,400 for individuals, and other programs;

· Creating more than 16 million jobs and cutting the unemployment rate from 6.3 percent when he took office to 4.2 percent in November;

· Reducing health insurance and prescription drug costs for millions of Americans;

· Combatting dangerous climate change while creating clean-energy jobs and manufacturing jobs; and

· Cutting taxes for middle-class and working-class families and some businesses, while imposing a minimum tax on multibillion-dollar corporations and cracking down on wealthy tax cheats. 

“Biden also signed a bill into law approving $1.2 trillion in investments to improve America’s roads, bridges, mass transit, rail, airports, ports, waterways and energy systems, and create good jobs.

“Biden administration policies have reduced illegal crossings on our southern border below the level that prevailed when Trump left office, with apprehensions of unauthorized migrants on the border falling by about 75 percent in the last 12 months.

“In addition, Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law to invest $53 billion to create semiconductor manufacturing jobs in the U.S., dramatically increased health care benefits for veterans, issued an executive order to protect access to reproductive health care and appointed 233 federal judges confirmed by the Senate, including Kentanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

“Biden also enacted the most significant gun safety reforms in 30 years and improved the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and other health programs.

“On criminal justice, he issued an executive order mandating reforms to improve police accountability and reduce police use of excessive force.

“He was praised by unions as the most pro-union president in U.S. history.

“He sought to cancel college student loan debt for millions of people, although some of his efforts were blocked by the courts.” https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5048539-biden-presidency-transformative/

Well, if not Joe (according to National Review), then who or what group envisioned and accomplished the domestic programs enumerated above? The public works initiative alone is a stunning role reversal. Notice that both lists do not mention the mending of international alliances and strengthening of NATO commitments that Joe accomplished in his too-brief time in office. Or, hey! the “soft landing” of a dicey post-pandemic economy.

When we manage to tear our attention away from the sound and fury of Mump, we find quiet voices noticing a very focused effort to deny Trump an easy Day One and to impede Project 2025 objectives.

Credit: Medium.

Approved funds are being pushed out the door before Mump can claw them back. The number of federal bench vacancies that Mump can influence has been reduced by 235 appointments. Executive orders are being issued that will be in force until such time as noticed and modified or eliminated.

Trump has bragged that his first administration was one “without war” due to his warm personal relationship with autocrats and his incomparable transactional skills. He meant hardware--bullets, drones, missiles, tanks, aircraft, and the like. He caused a lot of software conflict—tariffs, shutting down the US government for 35 days in 2018, and the like. He returns to office with dangerous military brush fires in full bloom across the globe. Joe has managed to defend democracy abroad until Trump can take the helm and defuse underlying antagonisms as old as recorded time—Far and Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa.

Credit: Adobe Stock

So, I have the temerity to suggest--Joe was forced to withdraw his bid for a second term in office. He has not left the building. He (assisted by some mystery cabal) is standing on home plate. Never mind who is on first.

If, as I posit, Joe is doing his job, then, in these last precious days before Mump returns to control of all three branches of our government, it is incumbent on We the People to use the power still available to us to good purpose. Identify each other. Regroup. Reenergize. Rededicate. Resolve. And move forward a determination to retake some good measure of control over our individual lives, inalienable liberties, and common pursuits of happiness.

For today--Use your voice. Demand full and faithful representation of your opinions and best interests.

For tomorrow--Plan your next vote. From the depths of despair, summon forth success. Identify and support fresh, strong leadership dedicated to the proposition “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln, 19 Nov 1863

Don’t just survive.

Prevail.