Before the Democratic primaries and caucuses began,
there was a loud and persistent warning coming from the Progressive wing of the
Democratic Party. The warning was (and still is) that nominating a Moderate
would mean four more years of Donald Trump.
The reasoning behind this warning goes
like this:
Hillary was a Moderate and that is why
she lost in 2016.
Democrats and Independents will not
turnout in winning numbers, in November, without a candidate that generates real
excitement.
To successfully generate real
excitement, the Democratic nominee would have to be a candidate who offers real
structural change, not just restoration and improvement of Obama’s policies.
In other words, the Democratic Party needs to wake
up to the reality that only Bernie can beat Trump.
The small but very vocal gang of “Absolutely Nobody But
Bernie” (which no longer includes Bernie) are angry because Bernie − who was
never a Democrat − was denied the nomination by the Democratic Party. In 2016,
Bernie got screwed by the Hillary wing, and now he is being screwed by the
Biden wing.
So, to right this wrong, the gang members believe it
to be totally acceptable to throw mud and muddy logic at Joe Biden, the
president-in-waiting, with the hope that he will be forced to step aside,
making way for Bernie to take his place.
They do their best to convince the most gullible
among us that there is no daylight between Donald Trump and Joe Biden − that
they are both totally owned by big business, both cognitively impaired, and both
sexual predators.
They do their best to scare us with the threat that,
because there is no real difference between these two men, they will happily go
to the polls and punish the corrupt Democratic Party by casting their votes for
Donald Trump.
Perhaps they are bluffing, but I take them at their
word. They are every bit as angry and single-minded as hardcore MAGAs. They do,
however, have a right to be disappointed. With Bernie's momentum coming out of the
Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, and Biden finishing as
an “also ran,” the Bernie gang could taste the nomination.
Not only could they taste it, but so could Donald
Trump, the king of branding, who licked his chops at the prospect of running
against a Socialist.
After those early contests, the eulogies for Joe
Biden’s political career filled cable news shows and the opinion pages. A
good man, who served us well, but not what the times so desperately demand.
Pundits suggested that, like it or not, Bernie’s
time had finally arrived. He needed only to outlast Pete, Amy, and “traitor”
Liz, and then deal with another faux Democrat, billionaire Bloomberg. Because
of so much delegate splitting, it just might go all the way to a brokered
convention, where Bernie, the fundraising maestro, would arrive flush with cash
and delegates, and demand the nomination which of course would rightfully be
his.
Meanwhile, the pundits rushed to explain Joe’s
spectacular reversal of fortune:
Biden’s longtime position at the top of the national
polls, they said, was due to millions of likely voters temporarily “parking”
their votes with him until one of the other candidates proved his or her
ability to beat Trump. Biden’s support was a mile wide, but an inch deep. The Biden
campaign’s archaic fundraising machine would be flat broke before Super Tuesday,
and unable to successfully compete for that delegate-rich jackpot.
After a long accomplished career, culminating with
his successful vice-presidency under Barack Obama, the time had come to present
Uncle Joe with a gold watch, thank him for his years of service, and focus attention on the truly viable contenders.
But, not so fast!
To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of Biden’s death
were greatly exaggerated.
One small problem was awaiting every primary
candidate not named Biden: The Black vote. No Democratic candidate can win the
nomination without it, and from the very beginning, the Black vote stayed loyal
to Biden.
And it never budged.
We will never know for sure if South Carolina would
have gone as big for Biden, had it not been for Jim Clyburn’s wholehearted
endorsement. But Joe’s humble and gracious victory speech, standing next to
Clyburn, and acknowledging that he (Jim) “carried this campaign on his
shoulders” gave us a revealing glimpse into the character of those two friends.
And while still facing the daunting challenge of the
Super Tuesday primaries, to have his two middle lane opponents, Pete Buttigieg
and Amy Klobuchar unexpectedly and unselfishly suspend their campaigns and so
passionately endorse the man who had just recently been given up for dead, spoke
volumes.
I don’t know about you, but the powerful messaging
of these dramatic endorsements, from former rivals − contenders for the prize − was nothing like any that I can remember. What stood out was Joe’s genuineness − gratitude, humility, and sincere praise for the quality of their campaigns
and deep understanding of the sacrifice each was making.
With just the hint of a tear in his eye, Joe made it
perfectly clear: They are the future. He was the bridge.
What a strange spectacle in the age of Trump! How
incomprehensible it must have been to our narcissistic sociopath! How
demoralizing to the Bernie Bros who were counting on the overcrowding of the Moderate lane to clear the way for their guy!
Not to be left out of the lovefest, Beto O’Rourke
showed up and gave his own rousing endorsement. It was the kind of straight from
the gut speech that helped bring longshot Beto painfully close to replacing Ted
Cruz in the U.S Senate.
You might think to yourself: Well this is all quite heartwarming,
but with so much at stake, are such displays of softness really what we need to
slay the monster? To which, my answer would be a resounding YES. This is
precisely the kind of monster-slayer that the times demand − a warrior who
does not constantly need to beat his chest, pump his fist, or take a bow, and who is unafraid
to reveal his soul.
Speaking of bridges to the future:
For Donald Trump and his MAGAs, the only acceptable
bridge is one that leads to four more years of his disastrous, sociopathic
presidency.
For the desperate Bernie zealots, the only acceptable
bridge means destroying Biden and demanding that he be replaced by Bernie − just
in time for the election. Of course, Trump will do everything possible to pit
Progressives against Moderates with his own Bernie Got Screwed campaign.
For the moment, the objectives of those two gangs
are in perfect alignment. Their mud throwing will be relentless. You can count
on it!
Thankfully, enough voters have already made up their
minds − especially important in the states where it matters most.
The Great Trump Death Toll and the Great Trump
Depression will not be confined to New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and
other deep blue states. Massive death and job loss are finding their way to
families, communities, and districts in and around small-town America − formerly referred to as Trump Country.
The guy they have always trusted to level with them,
look out for them, listen to them, and understand them is Regular Joe − an old
school politician, of the best kind, whose nature is to always speak to
them, not at them.
Donald Trump knows deep in his bones that he is a
phony and that Joe is the real deal. He flies into a rage when his own pollsters
have the unenviable job of walking into the oval office to deliver the news
that “Sleepy Joe” beats him in the battleground states.
Donald Trump has committed a long list of critical
mistakes which singularly or collectively should have ended his presidency. But
there was one mistake which, I believe, will prove most fatal − a mistake that
was unavoidable, because of an essential quality that he does not possess and
cannot comprehend.
Donald Trump is devoid of humanity, and because he
has successfully banned it from his administration, he believes that Americans
don’t miss it and don’t yearn for it.
Seeing his presidency slip sliding away, Trump
continues to come unglued. Did he really suggest drinking or injecting bleach?
Of course he did. My own amateur diagnosis is Biden Derangement Syndrome − for
which there is currently no known cure.
The moment he is sworn in as president, Joe Biden
will begin presiding over the greatest national rescue mission of our lifetime.
To succeed, he will need to put country before party, accomplishment before
ego, expertise before cronyism, and team before self.
Fortunately, the job description and the man are a perfect
fit.
For now, let’s all do our best to ignore the ugliness,
which is sure to get worse. We will hear a steady chorus of Joe is this and Joe
did that and Bernie got screwed and it was Obama’s fault and the mounting death
toll is actually a great victory and Trump will restore the economy and make it
even better than it was and…well you get the drift.
So, for now, stay strong, stay focused, and try to spread
some realistic optimism. For all of us, surviving Trump has never been harder.
Someone out there might need you to carry them over the finish line.
Bruce Coltin
Surviving Trump Two Minutes at a Time
