#998: The Patriot
From time to time I have had to put a nearly completed blog post into cold storage because history beckons. Such is the case this week. This week’s essay-that-was, The Theology of Ecology, may or may not be revived in the coming weeks or months. Obviously, President Joe Biden’s announcement that he is no longer running in 2024 and instead, wholeheartedly endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, is an event of epic proportions that must, of necessity, put anything else on the back burner. In thumbing through my mental files, I find that Biden’s selfless act - putting country and party above himself - finds but a single parallel in all American political history: G. Washington’s decision not to run for a third term . . . which was his for the asking. (Indeed, one of the truly inspired documents in all American history is Washington’s Farewell Address, a letter to the people co-written by Washington, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.)
Like President Biden, the “Father of his country” decided that running for reelection (in Washington’s case, a third term) would simply not be the right and proper thing to do; it would set an undemocratic precedent. Unlike George Washington, of course, President Biden’s reelection was anything but a sure thing. Similar to Washington, Biden decided that what is best for democracy and the country’s future is Donald Trump’s not winning the 2024 election. After more than half a century serving the American people as a Senator, Vice President, and President, Biden is both an idealist and a realist - a man who can read the tea leaves. Once again, he has shown himself to be a class act. It could not have been an easy thing to do. He has long been both a leader of consequence and a man whose faith is apparent not so much through his words, as by his deeds.
The differences between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in both temperament and personal makeup are about as stark and bipolar as any two people who have ever occupied the American political stage. Biden is as he has always been: a gentleman who was likely the first to call the former president upon hearing that he had been shot. Trump, on the other hand, shortly after learning that Biden was ending his re-election campaign, posted on social media a forceful attack denouncing his rival, calling him ignorant, mentally unfit, and the “very worst president in the history of the United States.” Over the next hours, he posted several more. And just this morning the FPOTUS wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, “It’s a new day and Joe Biden doesn’t remember quitting the race yesterday!” Who could ask for anything less?
Although Joe Biden is going to continue his presidency until noon, January 20, 2025 (despite virtually every Republican urging that he resign today) I firmly believe that his place in history is assured; future historians will be very kind to him, his administration, and what he was able to accomplish in an era of bullies and bitter partisanship.
During his 3 ½ years as Chief Executive, Biden has revived the American economy to where it is the envy of the world. He has passed the most significant infrastructure legislation since the New Deal and a climate-change package that is unparalleled. Our energy production is at an all-time high and we are, for the first time in G-d knows when, a net exporter of oil. This is not to say that he has accomplished everything he set out to do; far from it. Part of the blame rests on the shoulders of the MAGA maniacs in Congress who, following their cult leader’s command, refuse to give Joe Biden any victories lest he and the Democrats be given credit in the next election.
As I near the end of this brief post, Vice President Kamala Harris has just arrived in Delaware for her first visit to the national headquarters for what, until yesterday, was the Biden-Harris campaign. In the first 24 hours since Joe Biden endorsed V.P. Harris for the Democratic nomination, dozens upon dozens of leading Democrats have also endorsed her (one notable exception: Barack Obama, who has a history of not issuing endorsements). In those first 24 hours, the Harris campaign has raised more than $80 million. Precisely what Donald Trump and his staff think about Harris becoming their opponent is anyone’s guess. What we do know is that even before President Joe Biden’s long-speculated withdrawal from the presidential race, Trump floated the possibility of suing to block Democrats from having anyone other than Biden on the ballot in November. But election administration and legal experts said the timing of Biden’s exit on Sunday makes it unlikely that any Republican ballot access challenges will succeed, with some calling the idea “ridiculous” and “frivolous.” I have to wonder if the second debate will ever take place. Imagine the scene: a former District Attorney and Attorney General debating a convicted felon . . .
I doff my cap to Joe Biden for all he has accomplished; for significantly lowering the decibel level of public life and above all, for showing people from Maine to California what it means to be both a gentleman and a true patriot.
Copyright©2024 Kurt Franklin Stone