Trump is NOT the Problem, and Biden is NOT the answer …
Let me be clear. The best way to do that is to use the words of President Obama as he put it so succinctly: Trump is a terrible person. He is terrible, in my opinion (slight tilt of the head to the lawyers, who smile back and nod), because he seems to exhibit all of the characteristics of a narcissist. I am not a doctor, but according to Sandy Hotchkiss, Author of “Why Is It Always About You?” they are:
Shamelessness
Magical thinking
Arrogance
Envy
Sense of entitlement
Exploitation
Lack of boundaries
You don’t have to look very hard to see Donald Trump nail every one of these at least several times a day. I am no fan of Donald Trump.
However, I propose that Trump is not the problem. Despite the fact the some people believe him to be the incarnation of evil, he is actually someone with the emotional maturity of a child (again, this is my opinion - wink at my lawyer friends, slight trace of a smile back at me) with the financial means to do a great deal of damage. The problem, therefore, is that we have a system which has enabled him to succeed in the primaries and become President. More importantly—perhaps more concerningly—we have a system that has enabled him to remain in power. In spite of the fact that many agreed that Donald Trump was completely unfit for the role of President of the United States. As he now continues to erode the democratic process (at least that is where we are on the day I am writing this) by making false claims about voter fraud while Republicans remain silent or, worse, echo his sentiments, we are seeing what amounts to the behavior of a small child who proceeds to destroy all of his own toys because he didn’t get his way.
What’s worse, we have a press which once could have been considered another check on our government—through the protections extended in the Bill of Rights—that has grossly failed the American People. On the Conservative Right, Fox News paved the way for even more conservative and just plain criminally irresponsible (my opinion, of course) actions by even more conservative “news“ networks (I am not sure they can, in good faith be called such) and personalities (if I am being honest, mostly idiots who would do or say anything to stay in the spotlight), that have cannibalized the concept of news. What’s worse, they have managed to convince a large number of people to abandon any reason when it comes to how we look at facts. In the middle, we have a group of well-meaning news organizations from CNN to NPR who, initially, were labeled as “liberal media” because they dared to report on the unflattering aspects of the George W. Bush presidency (you should thank Karl Rove for that, because, in my opinion, he is the mastermind behind this downward spiral). As these middle of the road news outlets (see here for the facts on bias in news) got scared of being labeled biased, they went too far in the other direction. They went out of their way to legitimize that which should not have been legitimized. What do I mean by that? As recently as the months leading up to this travesty of an election, they kept talking to Trump supporters in an effort to show “all sides.” In addition, they reported on the things that Trump said and did with only minor traces of concern in an attempt to respect the process and all that. But they should have been reporting that his words and actions were the ravings of a narcissistic man-child.
When Trump made outrageous and criminal statements, everyone should have stood up and said, “That’s wrong!” But that didn’t happen. All of this proves that the problem is not Trump himself, but it is the institutions and systems that didn’t stop him along the way.
And then we have Joe Biden. Another person who, by all accounts, should have dropped out of the race before he ever entered. I applaud the fact that he selected a woman as his running mate who will be the first woman, first woman of color, the first woman/person of Indian descent to be our Vice President. I hope Joe realizes he is in over his head and hands the reigns over to her sometime during his first term in office. Joe Biden is no more the answer than another four years under a man who may just have proved that democracy is a failed model. Joe Biden’s ascent to the Presidential nomination is just another symptom of the problem that plagues our nation and us as a people. I cringe when Joe Biden talks about going back to the good old days of working “across the aisle.” When white men sat in leather chairs, smoked cigars, and talked about how they wanted to fuck their secretaries. Or each other’s staff because she looked great in a skirt. When people of color and immigrants were just property and tools to the white male masters of their domain. Yeah, don’t kid yourself, those conversations happened and still do.
Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham (ugh, it hurts to say his name), and on and on, are all products of a broken system. A system that a petty, immature narcissist (I am not a doctor, this is my opinion based on my understanding of the facts) can and did exploit to serve his own self-interest. They are all mostly flawed individuals who rose to a level of power and spent the bulk of their careers trying to convince everybody else they belonged there, doing their best imitation of a soccer goalie trying to keep anyone else from taking their spot. That’s a broken system with no accountability.
Modern societies face very real challenges with problems that those who came before us (thanks Boomers!) created. These problems need to be solved by smart people who are the least biased among us. Intelligence, capability, and integrity matter. Not one leader in government has the humility and the drive to do the right thing. Not one.
Well, maybe one. But AOC is already tired of the bullshit and she has been in office for one term.
SIGH.
-M
This essay represents the opinion of the writer and should be considered as such. Any thoughts or statements about persons real or imagined are opinions.
Copyright © 2020 - Malcolm Bolivar. All Rights Reserved.