The wizards representing the mediacrazy believe I should be a firm Trumpkin: I am 65 years old, live in a rural county in the Ozarks, and send my opinionated missals to a smalltown newspaper every week. Except — I don’t fit their demographic profile: my wife and I have college degrees, we are not churchgoers, we don’t own guns, we are happy to stay home and read books, watch birds, and enjoy the springtime garden (the fruits of our labor).
For the last several days, I pondered the Joe Biden situation, but it is too big to approach in a weekly column. This morning I read two New York Times columns, one stating that the Democratic Party needs to think about Plan B, and the other, written by two guys who helped Obama win the White House, advising a tech-savvy Biden path to victory.
Last fall, my wife and friends and I considered the attributes of the 25-plus candidates begging for the Democratic nomination. Like many Americans, I believe it is time to have a woman in the Oval Office, and I liked California Senator Kamala Harris, mostly because I thought she would stand up to the bully of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. My wife liked New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, because his brains are matched by his heart. We watched all the televised debates and agreed Joe Biden was our least favorite. We thought Michael Bloomberg was a dangerous anachronism — Trump with brains.
Yet somehow, Joe Biden became the default opponent to the White House virus. Senator Warren says she supports Biden because he can listen (recall Trump’s nomination acceptance speech wherein he stated “I alone can fix it”). Nancy Pelosi says Biden’s empathy, governmental and international experience qualify him. We can go with old the fuddy-duddy, whom the current president calls “Sleepy Joe,” or we can re-elect the monstrosity whose non-followers call “Cheeto.”
Sleepy Joe will listen to advisors rather than fire them. He will appoint them into government positions for which they are qualified. He will attempt to work with Congress to promote policies that move us forward.
The whole “Make America Great Again” campaign signified a return to the 1950s: Negroes moved off the sidewalks when whites walked by, queers hid in the closet, Jews were funnymen on tell-a-vision but otherwise identified as the secret Illuminati. A-rabs, chinks, gooks, stayed in their own neighborhoods and kowtowed to their white superiors. Mrs. Cleaver in her petticoats presented her husband with a cocktail and a beef roast when he returned from a day at the office. (Mary Tyler Moore had to fight for the right to wear sweatpants on The Dick Van Dyke show.)
In my lifetime, that has changed. Obviously white men still run the country, but women are occasionally recognized as equals, as are African Americans, personified by the Obama family. Gays, modeled by Pete Buttigieg, are permitted to represent in the official governmental sphere. From coast to coast people are elected to judgeships and legislative positions based, as Dr. King state, “not by the color of their skin but the content of their character.” Add gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc.
So how did we get this charlatan, living-in-the-past president? I know honorable persons who voted for him, for a variety of reasons. Some regret that vote.
So it is with Sleepy Joe. Should the official Democratic Party choose an alternative, that person must be a clear alternative to the current president: they must have morals, common sense, experience, and the ability to listen to informed advisors who represent the nation at large.
I learned a new word this year, writing these columns: kakistocracy, meaning a government by incompetents. Sleepy Joe was not my candidate. I understand he will have a difficult time fighting the kakistocracy because their propaganda is so effective to uninformed persons. Drink some bleach! Go to a movie! Wear your gun to the statehouse! Build a wall!
Our Arkansas governor has been cautious, citing medical experts but not inciting — so far — any crazies to attack the state capitol. People with common sense are likewise careful.
Kirk Ashworth