Just Who is Joe Biden? Part 2
Hi, I'm back. Just took a break to look outside and make sure its still there. After the last week, that's no joke.
First of all, take everything I said earlier about how people should evaluate, validate, and prove their own opinions to themselves before voicing them to others, and just forget I said it, never mind. It was kind of Bullshit anyway, I take it back. I just had a strong feeling about something. Feelings are important. I'm sensing that a big transformation is underway, getting a strong vibe. Some people can do that, you know. Empaths, Clairvoyants, Psychics, National Weather Service, Marketwatch, etc. I've always felt I have a little bit of those things in me. It annoys the heck out of my Wife, who finds me exhausting because she is tired of knowing what's going to happen all the time. "Please, don't tell me, let me be suprised for fucks sake" she'll often say to me. This is why we get along so well. I digress.
I'm feeling that Joe Biden is not the same person he was last year. That he is going through an enormous character and Identity transformation. This is my Empath side kicking in, bear with me. And please, humor me for a minute, I'm homing in on some very powerful messages.
Imagine you are him. You are in his house, sheltering in place with your wife, on the phone continuously, giving and receiving briefings, talking to campaign guys, policy wonks, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, Media and your search team looking for your VP Candidate. You have seen how everything has unfolded. The Economic System is in Collapse phase, Covid-19 is still killing our people, and we are losing our alliances with our closest traditional allies, embroiled in Trade War and petty disputes with our former partners. You see the President of the United States, acting like an insane lunatic, unable to respond to a crisis that does not personally affect him. He sees himself as President of his base of White Christians, not the United States. And last but not least, Trump has for the last year been trying to use Government agencies to put Joe's son Hunter in Jail. Then you get a call, "Joe, put on CNN, you gotta see this". And what he sees literally devastates his consciousness, the video of the Murder of George Floyd. Joe, like any decent but flawed Human Being who saw this, or is in a position of responsibility, feels like something broke inside of him, that life as he knew it has changed. He is angry, because he has represented African Americans in large numbers, served as VP to President Obama with loyalty, and is shocked at the injustice which is worse than anything he has seen. Also scared, because he knows what the immediate consequences of this will be, and can see the flames and the rubble in the back of his mind. He knows it will be on him to fix this, and feels overwhelmed. Then, Trump calls for shooting the protestors on Twitter. He pulls his stunt with the Governors demanding they "dominate" and use force or he will, calls them weak and jerks if they don't. Then he announces he is going with the 1807 Insurrection Act, planning to use the US Millitary domestically to stop the rioting by force. We are on the brink of Civil War. The leaders of the Mlitary, active and retired are in revolt. You are Joe Biden, and you are watching the potential death of the Constitutional System, and you know, that the entirety of the hopes and fears and future of the American People depend on you not fucking up.
You are Joe Biden, and you are now in the same position, roughly where John F. Kennedy was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, because we have a Fascist President, backed by a Fascist Movement, and our Nation could disintegrate, cease to exist. Your own view of what you are about, what you hoped to accomplish with your Presidency, what your policy would be, what kind of leadership you need to give to the people, has just been turned on its head. A career based on pragmatism, dealing, compromise, now offers not a whit of room for any of that. You are isolated in your house, feeling like the lonliest guy in the world, because you are the one that everyone is counting on to fix it. Your stomach is doing flip flops, its hard to eat, you've just seen George Floyd die and your hands are shaking. You feel as though the full weight of the Atmosphere and the force of Gravity are pushing and crushing you into the floor, and you can't sleep.
I'm going out on a limb I guess, asserting without proof that Joe is a Human Being, though imperfect. If I'm right,, then why would anyone think he wouldn't be affected like you and I were by this?
Why not assume that in these circumstances, he knows he cannot handle this alone, and will reach out to all of the candidates and other leaders, including Republicans who are not insane Trumpsters, and draw upon them for the best of the ideas they have to offer.
Why not assume that in these circumstances, he knows he cannot handle this alone, and will reach out to all of the candidates and other leaders, including Republicans who are not insane Trumpsters, and draw upon them for the best of the ideas they have to offer.
So, why not take a flier on the idea that now, at this moment, he could be a different person, going through a change, and is accessible and open minded enough that we and other concerned citizens can make him into the President we want him to be. I will make the case that this is possible, in the same way that President Franklin D. Roosevelt went through a transformation after contracting and recovering from Polio. He changed, from an arrogant, rich, entitled, indifferent and manipulative Playboy, to becoming a man, who with the intervention of his Wife and others, became someone who could empathize with the poor, the oppressed, and the suffering people, and though he couldn't support his own weight, lifted the entire Nation on his shoulders, helped us overcome the Depression, Fascism, and World War. He had looked into the Gates of Hell and saw that the enemy of us all was Fear.
Why not, for the sake of our Nation, operate as if this were true? We actually have no other choice, unless someone out there has a plan that is better. We will not survive unless Joe Biden becomes President, and Trump along with everything he represents is swept away. That is simply reality. If you were an injured person lying in the road, and someone out of an impulse to help you stops to offer assistance, you don't ask him how he votes. You don't insist he apologize for getting drunk 20 years ago and running over a Dog. You don't demand that he apologize and account for everything wrong he has done in his lifetime. He's offering his hand, and you can either allow yourself to trust, this one time, or, you can lie there and bleed out, self victimized yet proud that you are going to die ideologically pure and uncompromised by accepting help from someone who once did some things wrong. There is wrong, and then there is wrongful intent. Knowing the difference between the two is how you know who to trust.
But, I understand that it will be difficult for people in talking with others to say, "work with me to elect Joe Biden". Part 3 will be addressing that. How can we reach out to young people, who are losing hope and faith in our Political system, to get rid of Trump, to reestablish Justice, address the multiple crises that we have, and not make it all about voting for Joe Biden? How can we have useful discussions with Moderate Republicans who don't like Trump but feel they are selling their soul by supporting Biden? How can we engage people, not just on issues per se, but in combat with the Institutional Evils which we have been witness to in the recent period. What are the Structures, Institutions, and Symbols of that system, which by destroying them, can free our people from pessimism, despair, cynicism, and the sickness which affects far too many? We have to reach people in their heart of hearts, before they trust us enough to listen to our solutions. We need to represent Hope, not a man, or a campaign, or a position on an issue. Thats how you make Revolutions, and that's why we need to move the youth as quickly and far as we can in this period.
I have some ideas on this, that might make sense, or even make you happy. Be back in a little while with Part 3.
Postscript, the Liberal "Atlantic" has reached a similar conclusion as I, that the change with Old Joe is real. Read this, and for a minute, let yourself believe.
