A Teachable Moment – For Joe Biden

As readers of ‘Meditations’ know, I pretty much gave up on America and Americans years ago. But I still care about what happens in the nation of my nascency, especially in the context of the future of humanity. For the sake of humanity, and this country, Americans have to arrest our slide into fascism.

It was announced today that President Biden has contracted a mild case of Covid. Whether he got it from the maskless fist bump with MBS in Saudi, or going cheek-to-cheek with Israeli friends, we’ll never know.

Anyway, having been double vaxed and double boosted, and under treatment with the powerful antiviral Paxlovid, his symptoms are mild. The “sniffles” haven’t altered his busy schedule, his spokesperson said. They’re doing their best to convey the message, ‘President Biden is healthy, fit and competent.’

It was Biden’s brief appearance on the balcony of the White House that provided the truly ‘teachable moment’ however. Not for the large swath of Americans still resisting or refusing to get vaccinated, but for Joe himself – if he really plans to run for and win the presidency again.

Looking relaxed and dapper as he stood overlooking a long stretch of White House lawn, President Biden thanked people for their concern, and convincingly conveyed that he’s ok. He did something much more than that however: he inadvertently illuminated a path to victory for himself in 2024, and even for Democrats if he can quickly grow some coattails in the fast-approaching midterms in November.

Against the emerald background, with hints of an unusual glimpse of the White House in the foreground (the balcony looked like it was in the residence), President Biden appeared, in only one minute, like a completely different man than the physically and politically wobbly figure that Americans have grown accustomed to seeing.

He was relaxed, confident, open, approachable, honest, responsive, concise, sharp and classy. The only word above I would have used for him before is ‘open,’ and it could be applied pejoratively as much as positively.

Contrast this YouTube-ready snippet with the wretched habit Biden inherited from Trump of standing on the White House lawn shouting over the whirring blades of Chopper-1 as it waits to whisk him away to God knows where. Cut that crap out once and for all.

Of course, you can’t help but think of Donald Trump, wheezing like a fat emperor, after he climbed the portico steps on his return from the hospital following his pre-vaccine brush with Covid death. Desperate to project an image of strength, he managed to convey the truth of his pathetic buffoonery.

So here’s how you can win Joe. Do two of these short YouTube-suitable clips a week, each no more than two or three minutes long, in which some priority of your presidency, of the nation, is concisely and approachably addressed. Drop the “It’s no joke” aside and bonhomie, and speak simply and directly to the American people.

Biden and Pelosi may like the idea of running against Trump again, but neither America nor the world can handle another Trumpist candidacy. (Even if the autocrat-in-waiting doesn’t steal the election, or win by the complete failure of the hearts and minds of Americans.)

The fact that the sob that tried to violently overthrow the last election is the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party says everything that needs to be said, not just about the Republican Party, but about the United States itself.

The January 6th Committee has been doing a workmanlike job of presenting the scathing and scatological details of the last weeks of the Trump presidency. But it suffers under the same false premise that the mainstream media does: that a fully informed American citizenry will rise up in indignation at how close we came to losing what democracy we’ve known in this country.

The people either don’t care or don’t believe in the United States anymore. President Biden has to strum the chords of what decency remains, which may be enough, just enough, to save America from fascism.

Biden went into office with Rooseveltian ambitions, 90% of which have fallen into the DINO Manchin’s coal-black ditch. I don’t know what can be salvaged, but if the old boy still has some life left in him, he needs to update FDR’s ‘fireside chats.’

He showed himself how to do it today.

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