Biden and Harris: They Know Our Names

For the past 24 hours I’ve had an endless loop of the late Marvin Gaye’s Dancing in the Streets (as sung, of course, by the legendary “Martha and the Vandellas”) pounding out a beat in my head. And to make matters even better, most cable and network stations are showing people doing precisely that: “Dancing in the Streets.” The lyrics and televised actualities are in perfect sync:

They're dancing in Chicago (dancing in the street)
Down in New Orleans (dancing in the street)
In New York City (dancing in the street)

All we need is music, sweet music
There'll be music everywhere
There'll be swinging, swaying, and records playing
Dancing in the street . . .

It's an invitation across the nation
A chance for folks to meet
There'll be laughing, singing, and music swinging
Dancing in the street

Philadelphia, PA (dancing in the street)
Baltimore and D.C. now (dancing in the street)
Can't forget the Motor City (dancing in the street)

All we need is music, sweet music (sweet music)
There'll be music everywhere (everywhere)
There'll be swinging, swaying, and records playing
Dancing in the street

And of course, all the ‘dancing and singing’ is because of Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’ victory in the presidential race. As I write this, Biden and Harris have 279 electoral votes to Trump and Pence’s 214. It seems likely that the Democratic ticket will wind up with 306 votes in the Electoral College; precisely the same number that Trump/Pence scored in 2016. Of course, 4 years ago, Donald Trump declared that those 306 votes represented “a landslide victory of historic proportions.” One wonders if the soon to become former POTUS will ever accord the Biden/Harris ticket the same accolade? Will it be of any consolation that he did wind up receiving the 2nd largest number of votes in American history? Probably not; coming in second is simply not part of his psychological make-up.

Whether or not the GOP ran the nastiest, least truthful campaign in American history should best be left to the historians. Ever since Joe Biden became the official Democratic Party nominee, the opposition has accused him of being the “most corrupt, least successful of all presidential candidates.” They have accused both him and Senator Harris of being “Socialists” and “Communists” who have made vast fortunes for themselves and their families. I even read a piece which flatly stated that the former Vice President and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, have squirreled away so much money that today, they own “the biggest mansion in Delaware.” This is of course so much twaddle. Upon reading this scurrilous bit of bilge, I wrote the author a brief reply: “Are you aware that Delaware has long been home to the du Pont family, and that among their many, many mansions within that state one finds Nemours Mansions and Gardens? It is a 47,000 sq. ft., 110 room estate sitting on more than 300 acres with a jardin à la française formal garden? By comparison, Joe and Dr. Jill’s main residence is a 6,850-square-foot home in an upscale suburb of Wilmington, the land for which they purchased in 1996. Whatever wealth he possesses (c. $9 million as of this year) has been earned since he left public office in 2017 - mostly from lectures and a book contract . . .

So far as I recall, at no time during the brutal 2020 election, did the former Vice President attack the President or his children for making vast sums by trading in on his name and connections. It is interesting to note that the total amount of money Hunter Biden has been accused of making during his several years with Burisma (for which he was slammed for not knowing anything about the oil industry) equals approximately 1 month’s earnings for Ivanka and Jared Kushner. And at no time, so far as I recall, did the former V.P. attack them for the absolute lack of knowledge or experience they brought to their many advisory positions in the Trump administration.

So what is it that not only caused more than 75,000,000 people to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but largely reject every charge laid against him/them by Trump and Pence?

First, there were the obvious differences in personal presentations: Trump is an angry man who only uses that one one-letter pronoun: “I.” By comparison, Joe Biden fully understands that our nation’s most important, most compelling document begins in the plural . . . “WE the people.” Joe Biden, although certainly no shrinking violet, is, by and large, a gentleman who embodies civility, empathy and a commoner’s sense of what is right and what is wrong . . . unlike Donald Trump, who comes off as some sort of multi-generational aristocrat. Remember all those times Trump claimed that Biden had “abandoned” Scranton, Pennsylvania and likely didn’t remember thing one about it?

In one campaign speech in Scranton, Trump, speaking before a largely unmasked crowd said “"And don't forget Biden deserted you. He's not from Pennsylvania. I guess he was born here, but he left you, folks. He left you for another state. Remember that, please. I meant to say that. This guy talks about oh, I know Scranton . . . . Well, I know the places better. He left you for another state and he didn't take care of you because he didn't take care of your jobs." Do remember: Joe Biden is the fellow who took the train every morning and night from Wilmington to Washington, D.C., so that he could tuck his children in every night and make their breakfast every morning. He was, like all the other commuters . . . just a guy with a job. By comparison, Donald Trump never mentioned his family roots in Jamaica Estates Queens . . . he would have us believe that he was always a man from 5th Avenue.

Much has been made about all the toil, trouble and tragedy Joe Biden has gone through in his life:

The death his first wife and daughter as well as the serious injuring of his two sons in a car crash on the very day he was originally scheduled to take the oath of office as a newly-elected United States Senator (he had to wait because at the time of his election he was only 29 years old, and the Constitution requires a senator to be a minimum of 30 years old);
In 1988 he suffered two life-threatening brain aneurisms, barely escaping death;
The death of his beloved son Beau (who served 2 terms as Delaware Attorney General), from brain cancer (Glioblastoma) at age 46. (n.b. With the assistance of then-President Obama, Joe Biden turned the ashes of this tragedy into a blaze of hopefulness: the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative, “An Act to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of 21st century cures.” I am honored to be a part of the board which reviews the ethical standards by which the various clinical trials are undertaken. We are making progress!).

From all these tragedies - which would lead most people down into the pit of destruction and despair - Joe Biden has learned and grown. Mostly, he claims by relying on his faith (he is only the 2nd Catholic to be elected {POTUS) and an indomitable spirit which makes him board that train every morning and every evening in order to continue doing the work of the people.

But most importantly of all, I think the main reason why more than 75,000,000 people voted for him is that they see themselves in this kid from Scranton.

At the passing of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in April 1945, tens of millions of Americans gathered along the railroad tracks which took his body from Warm Springs, Georgia back to Washington, D.C. FDR, easily the most aristocratic, “blue blooded,” of all American presidents was first and foremost, a man of the people. The story is told by political historian Judah Ginsberg about that final trek:

In Washington’s Union Station, a reporter asked a mourner, “Why are you here? Did you know Franklin Roosevelt?” The mourner replied: “No, I did not know President Roosevelt, but he knew me.”

“He knew me.” The squire of Hudson Valley, the closet thing this nation has had to an aristocracy, knew the mourner at Union Station and the thousands who stood for hours in the rain, watching for the train to go by.

This was the secret of FDR’s political success. He knew, he understood, the hopes and fears, the aspirations, worries, and concerns of the common man. More than any particular policies of the New Deal, most of which did not work anyhow, Roosevelt eased the trauma of the Great Depression by conveying that he cared, that he understood the suffering of Americans in those dark days.

In so many ways, the same can be said of both President Elect Joe Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris: they know our names just as we know theirs.

May G-d bless them and keep them . . .

It's an invitation across the nation
A chance for folks to meet
There'll be laughing, singing, and music swinging
Dancing in the street…

And I am now honored to finally, finally be able to end a weekly essay with these words: 73 days until the Inauguration of the next POTUS.