I'm a fan of the road less traveled.
In part, I assume, because I don't care for crowded anythings.
Or crowds, while we're at it.
Truth be told, any gathering of two or more and I start rehearsing exit lines in my hippocampus.
Asperger's?
Thanks, no. I'm already stocked up for life.
And because my inner GPS has me avoiding paths oft trod and beaten, I tend to discount, disregard or just flat out ignore garden variety "pundits".
"an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called on to give opinions about it to the public".
Okay. To both help clarify and save you the time of asking and/or researching, here's the answer to the question that surely springs to mind.
What's the difference between an expert and a pundit?
"Pundit" comes from the Hindi, "pandit".
Which is derived from the Sanskrit "pandita" which means "learned man or scholar"
So the case can be made that "expert" is a learned scholar.
And "pundit" is a learned scholar from India.
But we're actually talking about politics here.
And the difference has been more eloquently described as follows.
An expert knows and is learned.
A pundit knows how to take what they know and cash it in.
In other words, they get paid for their opinion.
No matter how 'learned'...or lacking....be that proffered and profitable opinion.
Nice work if you can get it.
All of this is by way of taking the long way around to offering that, when it comes to politics, especially politics, almost all "punditry" has an agenda. Especially since most all political punditry is being purchased.
So, I look elsewhere for my political perspective. Even if those I rely upon seemingly have nothing to do with politics.
Case in point.
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francuei.
A French novelist, memoirst and journalist who lived in the 1800's. One of the most popular writers of her time, as a matter of fact. More renowned than, among others, Victor Hugo and Balzac.
If that name, by the way, doesn't ring a literary bell, it's most likely because Ms. Dupin de Francuei was better known by her less than feminine non de plume.
George Sand.
Her life and times are actually quite fascinating and well worth a scroll, download and/or "save file as" when you can find the time.
And she was no shy flower when it came to political opinion and observation in her time.
But that's not why I've added her to this discussion.
What caught my eye was one particular, short, sharp and very potent insight as regards one of humanity's more lethal character traits.
"Vanity", the lady Sand offered, "...is the quicksand of reason".
Well, now.
You go, girl.
Put a pin in that pointed perception.
We'll revisit that shortly.
Here's a plot twist my conservative, ultra and otherwise, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, readers and listeners were almost certainly not expecting.
Joe Biden needs to go.
And while the aforementioned right wing favoring friends, acquaintances, colleagues, readers and listeners take a moment to clean up from the inevitable spit takes that just occurred, let me take a moment to offer some what and why.
First, a somewhat interesting "what".
What I just said about Joe is not breaking news, a sudden epiphany or a change of heart after witnessing his presidency for the last, going on, four years now.
I was never particularly a Biden supporter in the first place. And I said as much, repeatedly and frequently, as far back on the time line as the first Democratic presidential primaries.
Back in 2020.
For those ready to lock and load with an eye toward firing a blast accusation of "selective/revised memory" on my part, I would refer you to hours of available audio somewhere in the vault of the Delaware talk radio station where I did a Sunday night program for several years.
No, actually, I'm not going to offer up days, dates, times and station call letters. First of all, and (with my most heartfelt Ricky Bobby sincerity as it applies to the iconic phrase)"with all due respect", what you're reading here is an editorial essay of personal opinion. And (and here's where Ricky comes in handy) "with all due respect", I couldn't care less if you believe me or not. So there's absolutely no need for proof in the pudding because there's going to be no pudding.
Just opinion.
And (thanks to those of you who are wondering and getting ready to ask) I know that it's opinion and not punditry cause I ain't makin' no money here no how.
Meanwhile, back at the Biden.
I have nothing against Joe. I had nothing against him five years ago when he stepped up and, pretty much right away, became the presumptive favorite for the Democratic nomination. My read on the guy has always been, and continues to be, that he is a good and decent man ("good and decent" always graded on a curve when applied to career politicians, so, yo, you nice folks sputtering and choking in a gag reflex to spew your snark about "good and decent", do yourselves and your trachea/throats a favor and don't waste your spew or spittle).
I thought then, and he has done nothing but prove me correct, that he was committed to do what he could to serve his country, undeniably possessed of all the flaws we mere mortals all possess to one degree or another, but with honor and integrity and (look, choke if you gotta...it's your throat lining and no concern of mine)...and...wait for it....decent and good intentions.
And if you're one of those who simply cannot let it lay there....and you have to rant and rave and rumble about graft and greed and corruption and sniffing people and getting handsy and Hunter and/or all the other poisonous p-too-ing that politics brings out in the less enlightened, then I will waste no time trying to convince you otherwise.
Because if you were intellectually and emotionally equipped to actually listen to and hear possible alternatives to your read on things, then you wouldn't be believing any of that silly shit to begin with. And me trying to persuade you that you're wrong would be as futile an effort as trying to make you see that your continued support, celebration, even worship of that orange con man facing a couple of hundred years in prison makes you look about as stupid as it's possible to look.
Keeping in mind, of course, that I say all of this....every word.....
...with all due respect.
Meanwhile, back at the Biden.
My reason for not supporting Joe back then wasn't about his politics or his policies or his presentation or any other P word that might come to mind while I'm on this alliterative roll.
My issue with Joe and my wanting someone else to rise up and become the Democratic nominee for the office of President of the United States wasn't about a P word.
It was about three "D" words.
Dumbass.
Dictator.
Drugs.
(And that third D had/has nothing to do with Hunter, so, again, don't gag yourselves into a hemorrhage)
As 2020 approached, those who publicly admitted to being part of what passes these days as the "Republican" party fell into one of two, and only two, categories.
1) Hysterical adoration of, and unconditional loyalty to, the Great Orange Hope.
2) Looking the other way at everything he did and/or said and resigned to voting to re-elect him because the choice was, as it always is in the fubar known as the "two party" system, either Orange or Joe.
And for whatever reason (an ironic word, in the context), they convinced themselves that it was better to risk keeping a "President" who seemed hell bent and determined to, essentially, dismantle everything that the Founders constructed than to vote for anything or anyone having anything to do with the word "Democrat".
Meanwhile, everyone else of voting age in the U.S. of A. was four years and a thousand miles past having to be convinced that the number one priority on Election Day had to be, by any means necessary, to send the Orange Dismantler back to the comedy of a "career" from which he came....and the cheap gold plated escalator he rode in on....
There were a number of choices, in the early primary days, of Democratic candidates with hats energetically tossed into the ring.
Pretty much from the git go, though, it was obvious that when, in true Shirley Ellis fashion, it got "right down to the real nitty gritty", the consensus on the 'blue' side was concise in its three word simplicity.
Go. With. Joe.
Early on, on air, and in print, I made it clear that my two cents was we (any and all of us who were committed to that 'number one priority' dealio) should put our money (both literally and vote wise) on a new character in this re-boot of a very, very old theatrical production. At the time (and to this day) I believed (believe) that what was needed was freshening, invigorating, dynamic presentation, a come out of nowhere, "WOW the crowds" hunka hunka burning "new"....a JFK...or Barack.... even another Hillary....only this time one who was as good a campaigner as a 'policy wonk'.
Because history will bear out (and chokers/gaggers do what you gotta do) Hillary Clinton was, on paper, probably one of the top five most qualified candidates for President this country has seen in, at least, the past five or six generations, possibly even the 20th Century. Qualifications, of course, in the context of experience, maturity, depth of knowledge, et al.
Sadly, her weakest link was her savvy at sizzle.
And 2016 was the absolutely worst time, in at least a hundred years, for one of the two major candidates for President to be sizzle-less.
Because the other major candidate for President had taken the sizzle skill, saturated it with an unparalleled ability to lie like a rug and dazzle, literally, millions into seeing lies as truth through starry eyes assisted by orange colored glasses.
Loath as one might be (this writer is one among that number) to use the word "charisma" when describing "Orange Is The New Aaack", there is no reasonable denial that charisma is exactly what it was.
Come to think of it, the same level of charisma that caused, literally, millions to support, endorse, even celebrate and, certainly, follow another dazzler down the road to dismantling. All the way down the road to eventual, total destruction.
With stops along the way at now historically infamous stations... Bergen-Belsen..Buchenwald...Dachau.
Auschwitz.
For those put off by the comparison, it can only be offered that "that can't happen here" is the worst, and most lethal, form of naivete'.
Because nothing...N O T H I N G....ever happens.....ever....
Until it happens the first time.
Meanwhile, back at the Biden.
And a quick look see at the "D" words.
The first two are self explanatory and easily understood by anyone who has been not in a coma for the past three to seven years.
Dumbass. Dictator.
The first what he is. The second what he vows to be if given back the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania. (Assuming, foolishly, of course, that he didn't have at least a couple of dozen sets of keys made for himself, stashing them in a couple of those big boxes of "declassified papers" he keeps next to the TP in that orange cheap gold plated crap closet at Mar-La-Ego...)
That third "D"?
Drugs?
Again, not Hunter, chokin' gaggers (rhymes with cloak and dagger).
The drugs are part of a schpiel I concocted on air seven years ago when still trying (again, foolishly and futilely) to wave the determined red cappers back on the road to safety, sanity and a mantled society. (As opposed to dismantled....try to keep up....)
Resigned, my own self, by the prevailing winds of primary results that the Dems were gonna 'go with Joe', I offered a POV that was intended to serve primarily as a consolation to those who also wanted to see a fresh face on the blue posters, yard signs and bumper stickers.
"Joe Biden", I suggested, "....is methadone."
"Donald Trump", I added, "...is heroin."
"Neither one is the best case scenario of productive sobriety...but only one of those can, and most likely will, prove to be fatal. To us....not them."
"What needs to happen, here (then) and now (then) is we need to take the methadone in order to end the flow of heroin....and in a year or two (or four), we can get serious about getting off the methadone and getting our shit...and lives..and republic....back together".
But, now, here we are.
Less than one calendar year from "DECISION (echo echo echo) 2024."....
And 'heroin' is, in double digits, already the 'presumptive' nominee for the "GOP" nomination for the office of President of the United States.
And 'methadone'?
The opposition has him labeled, painted and tattooed as a doddering, demented, drooling ancient relic, incapable of walking without assistance or talking without needing a translator to interpret his doddering, demented, drooling discourses, dialogues and/or discussions.
Put in more concise terminology for the "everyday, farm bred, Midwest America American....
He ain't no spring chicken.
Joe doesn't really deserve that much of a tarring with that big a brush, but, the GOP needs something/anything to distract from the four indictments and 91 felony criminal charges covering their Orange Wonder Boy like the badly tinted, highly overdone spray tan he wears like generic, brand X Coppertone on a day at the beach.
And it's not unreasonable to include age, in general, as a topic of discussion/debate as the now almost four year old 2024 'presidential' campaign actually reaches a place on the time line where it's not profanely ridiculous to be talking about the 2024 'presidential' campaign.
After all, between Joe and O, we're talkin' 157 years of habitation on ol' Mama Earth.
And since the USA has never really fully appreciated, let alone respected, the concept of the 'wisdom of the tribal elders', it's worth mentioning that both candidates are, by any measure using the 'pretty much everything needs to be the new 30' scale of contemporary America, too old for the gig.
But it's not Biden's age that had me (then) and has me (now) unwilling to support and endorse him for another term.
At the same time, "old" is, in fact, the critical issue.
If you're confused or think that I've gone down the road marked "relic" myself, bear with me.
I think it isn't his "oldness" that's working against Joe.
I think it's his "old fashioned-ness"
And despite what your immediate thought/response might be...no, actually they are not the same thing.
There are plenty of young, even younger, people who proudly support, want, hell, even demand, old fashioned.
Ideas. Values. Policies. Moralities.
Some even go so far as to wish they could throw the societal stick shift into reverse at a hundred MPH and take 'Murica back to the 20th, 19th, even 18th Century.
They tend to own, if not constantly wear, a red cap. And think Donald Trump is a combination of Moses, Jesus and Dudley Do-Right.
As opposed to a combination of Sgt Bilko, Mr. Haney from "Green Acres" and Dudley Dursley, the pudgy, smug snarky brat cousin of Harry Potter who was sent every signal by his doofus ding dong set of parents that the world revolved around him.
And who karmically was (literally) pig tailed, uber tongued and nearly Demented to death, until Harry rescued his sorry spoiled ass and actually managed to convert Dudley from belligerent bully to damn near good guy.
If only the future of American politics could be put in the writing hand of J.K. Rowling.
Meanwhile, back at the Biden.
Joe has been a fixture in national American politics for fifty years. And given the volatile nature of politics, in general, and the population of everyday people who pull the curtain and flip levers/push buttons every two and/or four years to award politicians with office, it says something that Biden has succeeded (as always, especially in politics, a relative term) and survived (irrefutable expression because whatever else is, or is not, truth, "dog eat dog" defines politics as surely as 'unacceptable' defines (at this writing) the quality of American healthcare.
Again, for the complexity impaired, here's the thing.
In the business of politics as usual, Biden is a tribal elder and is as 'skilled and experienced' as skilled and experienced gets.
Under normal circumstances and during any other presidential campaign, that elder experience and those skills would be heavy artillery going into electoral battle.
But circumstances haven't been within a billion light years of "normal" since Election Night 2016.
And referring to it as a "presidential campaign" is like conflating a beer guzzling, hysterical mob screaming, folding chair throwing WWE Grudge Match, complete with Angle Slams,Batista Bombs, Ultimate Splashes and Van Daminators...to an intense, pin drop quiet, championship chess match.
"...In the right, far right, corner, wearing a made in China spewing Make America Great Again bullshit Red Cap, Orange Comb-over and admitting to weighing in at absolutely no more than 215 pounds....The Tippy Top Terminator!!!"
"....in the left corner, the highly skilled, but quiet, admittedly eccentric, Bobby Fischer...."
One needn't be a Grand Master to correctly predict who walks away with the belt here.
And one needn't be either an expert nor a pundit to predict what could very likely happen come November.
In fact, both expertise and punditry are, at that pesky heart of the matter, essentially useless this time around.
Because both experts and pundits are, like the Biden "campaign" itself, insisting on calculating, speculating, projecting, conjecturing and predicting what the morning after Election results will be....based on a protocol a billion light years away from in play.
With all due respect, I reiterate my three word POV.
Joe.
Gotta.
Go.
Because he is, from all past evidence and , now, all appearances so far, bound, damned and determined to fight the good fight, be the better man, appeal to the good sense and goodness of "the American people" and win another four years of Presidency with calm...maturity....electoral strategy...peacefully...elegantly....proudly.
A chess champion for the ages.
While folding chair at the ready.....hysterical, mouth drooling mob adoringly frenzied....
The Tippy Top Terminator can't wait to rumble.
"What are you prepared to do, Mr. Ness....how far are you willing to go? He pulls a knife, you pull a gun....he sends one of yours to the hospital...you send one of his to the morgue....THAT'S the Chicago way...."
Joe Biden is a decent guy who has spent his life in service to his country.
And he offers a wealth of experience and a skill set arguably without equal.
There's just one thing...one very critical thing....he cannot seem to be.
And that from now until November, he absolutely has to be.
He needs to be Sean Connery.
"Vanity", the lady Sand offered, "...is the quicksand of reason".
And while vanity need not necessarily be ego driven, it will most certainly play a major part in the outcome come November.
Because the current occupant of the White House is showing every sign of ignoring the idea that he needs to be an ass kicking, pistol packing, morgue sending, world weary Chicago beat cop who understands just exactly what game is being played and is fully prepared to play it.
He honestly believes it's enough....
to simply be Joe Biden.
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