President Joe Biden has officially announced that he’s running for re-election as president (video above). There will be an onslaught of often vile attacks from the Right—and probably some from the Left, too—but one thought occurred to me: If the USA’s politics now mostly seems to be populated by a bunch of six-year-olds, maybe a real grandfather is exactly what the country needs, if only to buy a little more time for the nation to grow the f**k up.
I absolutely hate US politics: Calm dialogue between supporters of the two parties is often utterly impossible, but Red Hat Cult members can’t even tolerate the rational members of their own party, attacking them as “enemies”. For the USA, and increasingly in English-speaking democracies around the world, politics is a zero-sum game in which one’s opponents must not only be defeated, they must be utterly destroyed—and some of them mean that quite literally. Increasingly, it’s not a contest of ideas and ideals, it’s how outraged the Right can be at any given moment.
I mention all that because my views of US politics are no longer subtle or patient. I’m sick of the extremes dictating how we all much think and behave, but I’m especially hostile to the far right because of that whole wanting to take away my human rights and criminalise my life thing. Yeah, they can just FO.
That out of the way, I have a mostly practical, utilitarian view of the announcement.
First, there’re the obvious, the refrains, that Biden is too old, and that he’s unpopular, however, both are also true of the presumed Republican nominee, the party’s failed 2020 nominee. In fact, the Republican candidate is in far worse shape because FAR more people hate him (usually literally) than literally hate President Biden. People may not exactly love Biden, but the other guy—well, let’s just say that for normal people, he’s about as popular as an overflowing sewer after an outbreak of norovirus.
We’ve seen this reality played out in every federal election beginning in 2018—especially among younger and women voters—delivering Democrats completely “unexpected” victories, and, most notably, even in years Republicans should’ve cleaned up, like in the 2022 Midterms. We’ve also seen voters in Deep Red Kansas reject outlawing abortions, we saw a Democratic Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate win a landslide election, all of which shows an unmistakable message: Voters don’t like the likely Republican nominee, nor his avowed policies, nor his closely aligned candidates. This means that they’re unlikely to think any more positively about a certain state governor with a fetish for banning books, attacking the vulnerable, and picking petty fights with a major corporation in his state. In sum, the USA has already endured a toxic, extremist, narcissistic wannabe authoritarian dictator, and that wasn’t exactly a positive experience for the majority of US voters.
Seeing all that, plenty of people sigh, “yeah, but are those two really the best candidates that the USA can find?!” For the Democrats, probably not, for the Republicans, it makes no difference: Their politicians are all playing christofascists on TV, regardless of whatever it is they actually think or believe (and express in private). Are they the best possible candidates? No. But of the two parties, only the Democrats will actually have a candidate that the majority of voters don’t hate.
I think that Biden has actually done a good job, and not just because he’s not a narcissistic grifter and con man like his predecessor. I feel much safer with Biden dealing with Russian aggression after the disaster the former guy had proven himself to be (and who would’ve made things even worse if his coup attempt had succeeded in installing him in the office he’d lost). Steady, sane, hands are needed to steer the ship of state through perilous international waters, and that’s something that the self-dealing con-man former guy could never, ever, be.
When Democrats controlled Congress, they enacted laws and programmes that actually helped the American people, things they overwhelmingly supported. Since the loons, goons, and cartoons took over the US House, it’s been nothing but idiotic partisan stunts, grandstanding, and self-fellating in order to get their few seconds of coverage on Fox “News”. If Democrats can regain control of the US Congress in 2024, then the USA can start moving forward again, just as it did 2020-22.
As for me, I would prefer a younger, more left-leaning Democrat. I think that 50-ish probably ought to be the upper limit for any presidential candidate of any party, but the reality is that both parties will have candidates who are quite old. Between the two, there’s only one rational choice, and that’s voting to re-elect President Biden.
There are plenty of valid criticisms of President Biden, and they’d often offered by both the Left and the Right, but, in my opinion, that doesn’t change one essential truth: The presumptive Republican nominee should never be allowed anywhere near Washington, DC, let alone the White House. Joe Biden is far from perfect, but he is what he is, and he’s one thing more: The polar opposite of the narcissistic con-man and grifter the Republicans will nominate for a third time. Biden has often said we shouldn’t compare him to “the almighty”, but to the alternative. President Biden is far, far better than the alternative.
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