The election is about America, not Biden and Trump
PLUS: Why Rupert Murdoch's retirement could mean the end for Fox News
But Lincoln's hand did not tremble. He did not hesitate. He did not equivocate. For he was the president of the United States.
Sixty-four years ago this coming January, on the eve of the first votes being cast in the 1960 general election, the 42-year-old junior senator from Massachusetts appeared before the National Press Club and talked about the American presidency. His name was John Kennedy. There is a desperate need in our nation for his spirit and vision to be reborn in a new form to confront our gravest threats and serious challenges.
Senator Kennedy concluded his remarks with this spine-tingling account of a moment during which history ruptured in America and progress towards justice occurred in a dramatic moment that began a new epoch. This is the moment we should recognize as the headwaters of “a new birth of freedom:”
And so, as this vital campaign begins, let us discuss the issues the next President will face – but let us also discuss the powers and tools with which we must face them.
For we must endow that office with extraordinary strength and vision. We must act in the image of Abraham Lincoln summoning his wartime Cabinet to a meeting on the Emancipation Proclamation. That Cabinet has [sic] been carefully chosen to please and reflect many elements in the country. But "I have gathered you together," Lincoln said, "to hear what I have written down. I do not wish your advice about the main matter – that I have determined for myself.”
And later, when he went to sign, after several hours of exhausting handshaking that had left his arm weak, he said to those present: "If my name goes down in history, it will be for this act. My whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign this proclamation, all who examine the document hereafter will say: 'He hesitated.'"
But Lincoln's hand did not tremble. He did not hesitate. He did not equivocate. For he was the President of the United States.
It is in this spirit that we must go forth in the coming months and years.
One thing is clear from reading the speech, and that is the obvious and remarkable degradation of thoughtfulness, seriousness, intellect and character over 60 short years amongst the individuals who aspire to possess the power to extinct human civilization on their command. Reading this, and comparing it against Trump’s “Meet The Press” travesty, CNN’s “Trump Town Hall” travesty, or the Trump-less Republican debate travesty, is simultaneously tragic and laughable. In fact, it is almost incomprehensible within the context of the current fascist zeitgeist and unrequited nihilism of the MAGA movement and GOP establishment.
Senator John Kennedy quoted from FDR’s 1933 inaugural in his campaign speech that was titled, “The Presidency in 1960” The words are as true today as they were then:
In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.
Let us have some frankness. It is long overdue.
On Wednesday, President Biden attended a fundraiser in New York. Here was the White House '‘pool report” (a press pool is an arrangement wherein a group of news organizations combine their resources in the collection of news, and a written pool report is distributed to all members of the print media) of the event from Axios’ Alex Thompson:
Just because the overwhelming majority of America’s access media chose to suppress the facts of the pool report doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It did.
There is no equivalence between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, nor is there any moral equivalence between the two political parties in this moment of treachery and danger. My friend, the brilliant political journalist and author
put it this way in his newsletter, and he couldn’t be more correct in my estimation.MAGA is a fascist movement built on a mountain of lies, intimations of violence, racial animus, threats and an overt promise to end the republic through its failure to honor election results. It is the greatest threat to the United States since the civil war and the institutions of the National Democratic Party are utterly failing to engage, confront and defeat it. James Carville is spot on when he says that if the election were this November, Joe Biden would be an underdog:
In July 2022, I wrote an essay urging President Biden to embrace being a one-term president and step back from power with an act of humility that honors the legacy of George Washington at a moment when such an action is badly needed:
I wrote about it again in February 2023:
I suggested that Biden travel to every corner of America, and remind everyone what we share in common. I urged him to retire from politics, a divisive business and embrace statesmanship — the rarest form of service. The president took a different path. Here we are all these months later and the panic within the Democratic Party is starting to be noticeable. Remember what Joe Scarborough said:
Mika and I, everybody we talk to, every political discussion, it talks a lot about Trump, but when it comes to Joe Biden, people say, ‘Man, he’s too old to run.’ He’s, and I mean, he’s not going to, he’s not really going to run. So, you know, we often will complain about Republicans who will say one thing about Donald Trump off the air and another on air, well, let me just say, Democrats, off the air, will say ‘Joe Biden’s too old. Why is he running.’ On the air? They won’t say that.
Everything you see a Democratic politician saying on air about how much confidence they have in Biden evaporates the instant the camera light goes off. It is all for show.
There was an astonishing quote in a Washington Post story bylined by Toluse Olorunnipa, Meryl Kornfield and Colby Itkowitz that reported on the growing panic amongst Democrats, and revealed the disorientation of Democratic Party leaders towards the rank and file Democrat who doesn’t want Joe Biden to run for a second term and has extremely serious reservations about his fitness, stamina and wherewithal to defeat a resurgent, snarling and vengeful Trump. Here are the numbers referenced in this story, and they are astonishing:
An August survey from Associated Press/NORC found that 77 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of Democrats, thought Biden was too old to be effective for another four-year term. When asked what word came to mind when they thought of Biden, more than a quarter of respondents mentioned age, with another 15 percent using words like “slow” or “confused.”
Phil Murphy is the Democratic Governor of New Jersey and would be an interesting presidential candidate. He said something incredible in the Washington Post story that is as flat out wrong an assertion that could conceivably be said out loud. What he said was that the voters would move in his direction. They would embrace the party’s leadership and reject their views. The Murphy quote has since disappeared from the Post story without explanation.
That isn’t how it works. Public opinion isn’t breaking in the direction of an out-of-touch party elite that is defending a status quo three-quarters of the voters want sidelined. The majority of the party doesn’t want it. Perhaps it would be well to remind the party honchos of the old advertising saw about dogs and dog food. What Murphy is saying will happen, will never happen. Ever. It is delusional.
It raises a question. Where does giving offense to Team Biden and bruising the president’s ego stack up in the hierarchy of importance around keeping Trump and his MAGA virus from seizing the American presidency? It does seem like it might be timely to start thinking about now before the November 2024 election results. When 2016 delivered the White House to the Queen’s hustler millions of angry Americans marched. This time they will be able to sit home contentedly and happy knowing that while Trump won, Biden’s support never wavered in the Democratic Party leadership, and though he was too old, no one said it. I guess.
I hope you’ll read President Kennedy’s speech in full. It is extremely relevant. It’s worth thinking about. In the end, the election is about America, not Biden and Trump.
Why Rupert Murdoch's retirement could mean the end for Fox News
I react to Rupert Murdoch stepping down as chairman of News Corp. I talk about how Rupert harmed American democracy and why Fox News could be in trouble under Lachlan Murdoch's reign:
Steve, two points:
1. I disagree with James Carville's opinion that Biden would be an underdog if the election was this November. I respect (and usually agree with) Mr. Carville; but, on this point he's wrong, and
2. I'm disappointed that you keep talking about Biden's age. You're proliferating the MAGA talking point on this issue. STOP. Focus on the tremendous things the Biden administration (led by Biden) has done in the 2 years and 8 months they've been leading.
You are as wrongheaded as you can be in thinking that jettisoning Biden means we beat Trump.
it does Not.