Let’s strip away the personalities involved in the presidential election of 2024 for a moment and look at policy.
Perhaps the most reverberating fear I have, if I’m making this strictly personal, is potential loss of my health insurance and Social Security. That would be a disaster for an independent contractor in her 60s.
Widening the lens, what scares me most that no longer impacts me directly, is women’s lack of reproductive choice. Not just what’s been done so far because of Trump’s Supreme Court, but for what they – Republicans – have in the pipeline in this regard: no more birth control, IVF, abortion pills by mail.
There’s so much more cause for alarm – guns, immigration, climate, dismantling of systems because of a disrespect for expertise, disdain for authentic American history and replacing it with an alabaster Susie Sunshine version.
I’m not sure how so many of us are keeping it together in this terrifying landscape. Or are we?
I haven’t even gotten to the authoritarianism Trump is proudly proclaiming to bring, even as he tries to distance himself from the not-so-popular Project 2025 and his MAGA soldiers are buying it. Cheers, Vlad and Vik! They’re falling in line.
So I guess I’ve drifted off policy and now we’re on to personalities, which brings me to President Joe Biden. Should he stay or should he go?
Sigh.
If you are telling me that the recent debate is the first time you’ve heard buzz about Biden’s age, concern about possible decline and worse, welcome! That rock you were under must have been heavy and dense.
The rest of us have been listening to this for four-plus years. A legit question, for sure, for any candidate getting up there in age. It has put me at attention, vigorously scouting news reports, speeches and appearances to gauge the President’s condition for almost the entirety of his presidency. The fact that he’s a reformed stutterer who sometimes lapses makes it especially challenging to assess sometimes.
I waited with curiosity and a little nervousness for the State of the Union address and felt completely confident by the end that President Biden is doing the job. Just in the last few months, I have come across a few video clips of Biden on social media that made me gasp, only to realize the source was right wing. That sent me on a search for the original video, with context, and in each of these cases the so-called gaffe or sign of diminished capacity wasn’t that at all. It was doctored footage, edited to make him appear frail or not in control.
Most of the ‘addled’ talk the last four years has been coming from people who would never vote for him in the first place. The same media sources cutting and splicing footage to make Biden look ancient have also been compiling video of Vice President Kamala Harris’ laugh to make her seem unserious.
There’s a lot to sift through.
Now let’s add in the record. I mean, President Biden is doing pretty much everything I wanted him to do when I voted for him. I supported a ticket, by the way, so I am confident the Vice President is ready to step in if need be.
The highly principled GOP mob is already on their “she slept her way to the top” narrative. I’m related to someone who called her a whore, so none of this surprises me. They see no irony in their utter adoration for the felon who likes to grab women by the pussy because he’s famous and he can.
I reject the notion that questions about Biden’s health are new or have been hidden. If evidence surfaces to the contrary, I won’t hesitate to say I’m wrong. If his staff members step forward publicly and say he’s been sleeping while they made the important decisions, that he hasn’t been alert and aware when he’s abroad, that he blacks out regularly, I’ll be first in line to ask him to step aside.
I do have an important request of the President – please rethink that answer you gave George Stephanopoulos about how you’ll feel in January if you lose to Trump. Because, unlike t-ball, this is not one of those situations where doing your best is the ultimate goal. We need way more than your best, sir.
There needs to be some shark in you. We need ruthless, leave-nothing-on-the-table Joe. We need you to draw blood on that evil son of a bitch on the GOP ticket, who, incidentally, misspeaks and loses his way constantly. We need Dark Brandon, full-time, full stop.
Here we are, Mr. President. If you decide to stay, I support you. If you decide to go, I support your decision and I will proudly cast my vote for Vice President Harris.
To my fellow voters, feel free to disagree with my premise, but I invite you to go back to my original point. How’s your health insurance? Social Security? Reproductive freedom? Ready for some Christian nationalism?
OK then. Let’s do this.
[Editorial Note: This is my 25th installment in a series I began in order to give my writing some flow after being in a healing phase from knee surgeries for a year (2023-24).]
