It’s time to go, Joe
The next Presidential election is Nov 5th of next year, a little over a year away; 425 days to be exact. The two current front runners for the nomination of their respective parties are the same two dinosaurs that ran in 2020. America made their choice in that election, and that choice was overwhelmingly in the favor of the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden. Now, four years later, these two are coming back for the rematch that hardly anyone in America wants to see. A recent YouGov poll shows that nearly 60% of the voting populace wants to see someone other than Trump and Biden run. Trump will almost certainly be the republican nominee. Despite his disastrous term as President and his multiple felony indictments, the sycophantic Trump supporters would LOVE to see the Orange Phoenix rise from the ashes to reclaim the White House, and the lapdogs in the GOP don’t have the courage or the fortitude to stand up to him. Personally, I wouldn’t care if he ran again. He lost the popular vote by 3 million in 2016, and that lead expanded to 7 million in 2020. He’s done nothing to gain new voters and close that gap. The only way that he could win, is if apathetic voters stayed home. Enter Joe Biden
He came out of nowhere in the 2020 election cycle. After his first two attempts at the White House were left in a smoldering heap of 1% polling, Joe Biden decided that it was time to run again in 2020. His campaign started out in similar fashion to the previous two; a 4th place finish in Iowa, and a 5th place showing in New Hampshire. Then he managed a big win in South Carolina, which propelled him to a series of victories on Super Tuesday.
Then Covid hit.
The pandemic effectively ended the campaign season; everyone stayed home, and Joseph R. Biden rode his momentum to the nomination and eventually, the Presidency. Defeating an incumbent President, and disposing of the most divisive figure in American Politics should be enough to earn Joe Biden honorable mention for Man of the Century. But to the surprise of many, including me, he didn’t stop there. He managed to get a bi-partisan Covid rescue package passed, got the infrastructure bill passed, ended the Afghan War, all while navigating the country out of the worst pandemic in a century. In any other era, in any other country, Joe Biden would be hailed as a conquering hero.
But this is America, 2023 — where facts don’t matter, and lies are acceptable, as long as they come from their Dear Leader.
Someday, people will look back at the ruins of America and wonder, how did this happen?
It started in 2016. The democrats, fresh off of eight years of success under Barack Obama, felt that they had a chance to continue their run of achievement by nominating a woman for President. So they rigged their primary to vault Hillary Rodham Clinton to the nomination.
Hillary Clinton is without a doubt the most reviled, repulsive and underserving candidate ever to run for the US Presidency.
Enter Donald J. Trump.
Somehow, the Republicans managed to nominate a totally unqualified, failed businessman as their candidate for President.
This was the begining of the end.
I voted for Gary Johnson; a man who when asked, could not name one current world leader. He was still a better choice than either one of the major party candidates.
I wish I could have been in the hotel suite and heard the shrill screams of HRC when they told her that she lost the election. It might have been one of the most joyous moments of my life.
Except for one thing.
It meant that Trump had won.
This was the death-knell for America.
After four years of lies, scandals, and pure incompetence, America was ready for a new, young energetic leader to emerge and defeat the Orange Satan, and lead America back to prominence on the world stage.
What we got was a 76-year old man who spent his entire life in politics and who on his best day wasn’t fooling anyone. The only time he was the smartest person in the room when he was alone.
I proudly held my nose and voted for Joseph R. Biden, hoping that he would win and not fuck up things worse than they already were.
Evidently, 81 million other Americans felt the same way. Donald J Trump was handed a resounding defeat, despite his lame attempts to convince the world otherwise.
Much to my surprise, and to the surprise of much of the country, JB has actually done a pretty good job getting America back on its feet. Aside from the aforementioned accomplishments, he also got the Chips Act passed, as well some of the framework for his Build Back Better plan. Along the way, the economy has made the long, slow climb back from the Covid disaster. The stock market has recovered, inflation has dropped from 9% down to under 4%. We’ve managed to avoid a recession, and Americans have stayed employed, avoiding the mass layoffs that were predicted in 2021 when inflation was on the rise. Despite the claims of right-wing pundits, every economic indicator is moving in the right direction.
But still…
It’s time.
The last few months have been an endless series of gaffes and optical disasters that have given fuel to the right to spew their invective about Biden’s mental state, and well as the baseless inquiries about the business dealings of his wayward son.
Its time to move on from elderly white men who have dominated American politics for far too long. It’s time to be rid of the Grasserly’s and the McConnell’s and the Dick Durbin’s, and 80-year old Jim Risch of Idaho, whom I never heard of until I decided to write this piece,
(And Diane Feinstein as well, lets not ignore the ladies).
And it’s time to move on from Joe Biden.
At the very least, we should have an open primary process where younger, more dynamic voices can be heard, and then let the American voters decide who they want to lead them as the first quarter of the 21st century comes to a close.
This will never happen at the upper levels of the Democratic Political machine. No one would dare challenge a sitting president. Anyone who attempted it, would be run out of town in the trunk of a 1977 Ford Pinto. It has to come from the American populace. The voting public. This means you, the reader.
Use the power of social media to have your voice heard. Trust me, they are listening.
It’s time to go, Joe. Pass the baton.
