gracchusdixit

On an April day in 1653, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and the man who led a Puritan rebellion culminating in the execution of King Charles I, rose to address the so-called “Rump Parliament”.  Cromwell was furious, frustrated that its members had been unable to agree upon a new constitution. Before summoning his soldiers to eject these recalcitrant or reluctant politicians from the House of Commons, Cromwell roared:  “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately.  Depart, I say; and let us have done with you.  In the name of God, go!”

It is high time that someone said as much to Joe Biden—albeit with a bit more courtesy.

Biden is an immensely likable man, who, over the course of a long political career, has served our country well, having spent many years in the Senate and as Barack Obama’s vice president.  For all this, he deserves our respect and our gratitude.

This does not mean, however, that he deserves to become the next presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.  On the contrary, if Biden adds his name to an already long list of Democratic contenders and goes on to win the nomination, it is all but certain that Donald Trump will be reelected.  

Many of Biden’s supporters point to dozens of polls that put him at the top of the list of prospective Democratic nominees.  These polls count for nothing, because Biden’s lead is an artifact of his widespread familiarity.  As the 2020 election grows nearer, as other candidates become more familiar, Biden’s lead will diminish, if not disappear entirely.  I say this with more than the usual degree of certainty, because, as likable and seasoned as Joe Biden undoubtedly is,  he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Our country has been longing for a new direction and fundamental change ever since Barack Obama came out of nowhere to win the White House in 2008.  That Obama failed to bring about such change—or was prevented from doing so—was one reason Donald Trump was able to take his place eight years later.  There is nothing in Joe Biden’s political record to suggest that he can satisfy this unfulfilled longing or that he even wants to.  Whatever else he may be, whatever else he may offer, he cannot give the country a new, invigorating vision of its future.  Like it or not, Joe Biden is yesterday’s news.

I do not say this, because Biden is chronologically “old”.  He would, of course, be 78 were he to take the oath of office, 82 at the end of his first term, and 86 at the end of his second.  But Bernie Sanders is a year older, Donald Trump is already a grotesque and flabby 73, and even the irrepressibly energetic Elizabeth Warren will be celebrating her 70th birthday in a couple of months.  

Chronological age is not the issue.  The issue is that Joe Biden is simply out of touch with the age in which we live.

Nothing illustrated this more dramatically than the tone-deaf way he dealt with recent complaints from a number of women that his physical contacts over the years have been overly and uncomfortably familiar.  These women did not accuse Joe Biden of sexual predation; they did not suggest that he did anything even remotely as revolting as the serial sexual misbehavior of Donald Trump.  They merely said that his actions were inappropriate and unprofessional, not only as viewed through the lens of “Me Too” but also at the time they occurred.  

Biden’s defenders can say all they want about his good heart, his affectionate nature, and his demonstrative manner.  The simple truth is, he should have known better.  And to put the matter to rest, all he had to do was to admit to that truth and apologize.  Instead, he sought to split hairs by expressing regret for giving offense but defending the innocence of his intentions.  This was the reflexive dodge of anyone caught in the crosshairs of unacceptable social behavior.  

Biden quickly made matters worse by cracking jokes about his behavior at a convention of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a trade union populated by aging and out-of-touch white men—so out of touch that they continue to call themselves a “brotherhood,” as if women weren’t capable of telling the difference between the two ends of a light switch.   These cultural dinosaurs guffawed at Biden’s jokes and gave him a round of applause, thereby embarrassing not only Biden but themselves.

This episode exposes the flawed logic underpinning Biden’s candidacy.  He presents himself as a man who can win over the middle of the country by addressing the anxieties of the white working class.  But he never stops to ask whether those anxieties merit addressing in the first place, particularly if the price to be paid is pandering to sexism, misogyny, and racial prejudice.  

All of which is compounded by the shameful role he played in the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court 20 years ago.  Biden then presided over the committee that had it in its power to stop the Thomas nomination in its tracks.  Instead of challenging Clarence Thomas, Joe Biden chose to undermine the motives of his accuser, Anita Hill by, among other things, refusing to allow other victims of Thomas’ predations to testify and corroborate her story. 

Even if one were prepared to dismiss all this as cultural cluelessness rather than malign intent, which I for one am prepared to do, being tone-deaf is far from being Biden’s only problem.

Joe Biden spent more than 30 years in the Senate representing the State of Delaware, which is a notorious haven for corporate tax avoidance, described by some as a wholly-owned subsidiary of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the giant chemical conglomerate that has dominated the political and economic life of the state since the days of the American Revolution.  Transparency International, a non-profit watchdog group, recently described Delaware as “a place where extreme corporate secrecy enables corrupt people, shady companies, drug traffickers, and fraudsters to cover their tracks”.   This is not to suggest that Joe Biden is himself corrupt, but the state he once represented most certainly is.   If he wins the Democratic nomination, this rock will be turned over, and nobody can predict what will come crawling out. 

Finally, there is Biden’s claim that he can work “across the aisle” and restore our government to a more benign era of bipartisan and collegial consensus.  This notion is worse than naive; it is a complete fantasy.  It would lead the Democratic Party and the nation as a whole down a blind alley, by ignoring the brutal reality of our politics and the moral depravity of Republicans who have chosen to embrace and defend a president whose actions threaten the very foundations of our democracy. 

No compromise can be made with such people.  The only course is to oppose and defeat them.  Judged by his own words and actions, Joe Biden is not the man for the job.  

In the name of God, Joe, go!