DISAPPOINTING DECISION FOR AMERICAN VOTERS
A vote for Joe Biden will be a vote for someone who embraces what had been the American ideal
Joe Biden is like an old shoe in your closet. He’s familiar, worn-in and comfortable, but will he still be intact after a four-year walk through hell.
Biden’s campaign platform essentially comes down to this stump speech: “Fellow Americans, I’m not President Donald Trump, I used to be Vice President of this country, and former President Barack Obama still supports me.” Biden has the audacity to hope this will be enough to get him back in the White House.
A vote for Biden in November is a vote against Trump, similar to how Trump got elected into office in 2016. Remember how tens of millions of Americans voted for anyone but Hillary Clinton, even if that opposing candidate was a pompous, clueless reality TV star who embodied the worst version of America. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, will have the same status-quo backlash in his favor in November, when he turns 78.
Yeah, Biden’s age also is a factor to me. Trump’s age (74), too. Call me biased or prejudiced. Call it ageism. I call ‘em like I see ‘em. Their age is a legitimate factor in my judgment how both will serve as president for the next four years. This is why Biden’s choice of running mate is so crucial to our country’s future.
In a nation of 350 million people,
these are the two Americans we’re stuck with for president on Election Day – Trump versus Biden? When I mentioned this disappointing appraisal in a previous column, readers from both camps took offense.
“Trump is everything this country needs right now,” wrote Amy F. of Merrillville. “How dare you call him disappointing.”
Trump has been disappointing since he began seriously campaigning for president before the 2016 election. I also find it disappointing that he has stated more outright, ridiculous lies than any president before him. Not only expected, predictable, political lies, such as he cares about all Americans. But lies that are even beneath a 6-yearold boy with crumbs on his face who insists he didn’t eat that pie in the window.
Stupid lies. Maniacal lies. Obvious lies. It’s embarrassing. For our country.
Trump kicks sand in our faces and blames the wind. His arrogance convinces him that his beached supporters won’t care as long as the sand doesn’t hit them directly in the face. If they have to brush off some of his sins, they’ll dutifully do it, blaming his critics for noticing.
Trump has created a delusional version of America. Too many Americans have bought into his delusion, labeling factual news as fake news. If it wasn’t labeled as such, it would mean Trump is a habitual liar. No one wants to vote for such a loser.
Trump uses feigned outrage to rally his supporters, then uses supporters to rally genuine outrage. He treats facts like beliefs. If you disagree with his, yours are wrong.
“Honest work was never demanded of him, and no matter how badly he failed, he was rewarded in ways that are almost unfathomable,” writes Mary Trump, the daughter of the president’s eldest brother, Fred, in her new book.
The book, “Too Much and Never Enough,” is scheduled to be published July 14, two weeks earlier than originally planned because of what the publisher describes as intense demand. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times obtained a copy.
President Trump is the product of a deeply dysfunctional family that makes him a uniquely destructive and unstable leader for the country, his niece writes in her book.
“He continues to be protected from his own disasters in the White House. But now the stakes are far higher than they’ve ever been before; they are literally life and death. Unlike any previous time in his life, Donald’s failings cannot be hidden or ignored because they threaten us all,” she writes.
Truth be told (a phrase never attributed to Trump), anyone’s niece could have written this published indictment against our president. He’s still being rewarded for his obvious failings. Obvious to most Americans who’ll vote for anyone but him. While bicycling through Valparaiso I pedaled past a red, white and true campaign sign stating, “For the love of God… ANYONE BUT TRUMP, 2020.” I had to stop and take a photo of it.
“I would cast a vote for my long deceased beloved cat before I would ever vote for Donald Trump or any of his fans or enablers,” a female voter from Hobart told me after reading about my disappointment with both candidates.
“Joe can be the intelligent, comforting unifying voice the country so sadly needs,” she told me. “His track record and life experiences speak to that. I do not (care) if he fumbles the English language at times. It speaks volumes that when Biden, who does live with lifelong stuttering, trips on a word, it’s the first thing people bring up.”
Biden has been a capable public servant through the decades. He has also been conspicuously quiet these past few weeks, a smart move for a consummate politician who too often publicly says things that maybe he shouldn’t.
Eventually, as the general election nears, Biden will have to come out of the shadows of Trump’s failings and take on the president face to face. It won’t be pretty. It won’t reflect the best version of America. It will be a verbal fistfight that will feel like it could break out into a physical fistfight on the national stage.
Biden’s campaign website repeatedly refers to him as “Joe” to amplify his Regular Joe image that he will need to defeat Trump, an elitist who has no idea what it’s like to be regular or average. “Joe starts a family… Joe speaks up for marriage equality… Joe sticks up for the little guy – and never stops.”
A vote for Joe will be a vote for someone who just happens to fit comfortably in the shoes of an American ideal that’s been kicked to the back of our closet.