Letter to my Friend and Colleague Dale in Canada on the Great Debate Signaling the End of the United States of America.
Hi Dale,
Usually, I wake up around 8:30. Today in this “Day after Doom,” I woke at 6 am. I must have been dreaming because I had in my mind the Great Debate and all the things Biden should have said back to Trump. So, thanks for this letter of commiseration. It gives me the opportunity to think because I really cannot finish ruminating until I put it out there.
Yes, on Biden. I agree he was the best we could have got in the circumstance. He opened many possibilities for those of us small “d” democrats to reconstruct and so advance the cause of democracy in our world. But the debate was a disaster. I would have quit watching if our friends Frank and Carroll had not been watching with us. Im so glad they made me suffer through to the bitter end.
I remember my friend Jim Doyle saying to me on my eightieth birthday: “Rollie, when you are 70, it’s like being 60 or even 50. But when you are 80 you are definitely 80.” And he was right. From 80 to 86, I became old. People say I don’t look that old, but I am and feel it. Just not sharp like I was. I lose words, can’t run anymore (much less marathons), and feel pains I never felt. So, I commiserate or, better, empathize with Joe a lot. And MAGA voters who have always existed since the founding of the country, from slave owners to genociders to oligarchs and fascists, are too dangerous. Biden gave his all and did his job well, but now it’s time to move on. Trump played his bluff well for his supporters from his very much a bully pulpit.
If Joe had been able to fight back, he would have shown us that he is the strong man that we need, a democratic one who will save democracy in our house divided just as how Lincoln led to a new founding of democracy in America. Not the way of violence, of divide and conquer, of bullying and the big lie, which is the way of The American Fascist who has taken over the Republican Party scaring people to flee or fight others, who demeans the strangers and newcomers, who is backed by and rewards the wealthiest, and deludes the religious by his phony pietism.
When asked about abortion Joe should have said: my own tradition urges me to oppose abortion; and if you oppose abortion then don’t have one and urge others not to have one. But it is not for me as representing the government to decide whether to have free choice. It is for both federal and state governments to simply ensure a woman’s right to choose for herself. It is for the woman, however she became pregnant, to decide. A rule by religious dogma is not democracy. It is not liberty. It is tyranny.
When Trump said that he would never have had a war in Ukraine, Joe should have said: yes, that’s right, you would have had it over in a day because you would have capitulated to your Comrade Putin, aching to have you back as President whom you called on for help to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. You would have supported him in taking the land of Ukraine just as your ideal President Jackson, whose picture you put in the Oval Office, stole the land of native Americans and camped them in reservations where they could be taught and compelled to be White.
On Israel, he could have admitted: I have always and will always support a democratic Israel. However, Netanyahu, like you, uses force rather than persuasion, denies a Palestinian homeland, and is now a major threat to his own country. I tried to stop his war on civilians from the beginning. But unfortunately, it is like talking to you about refugees and immigrants.
When Trump was asked about childcare and instead totally disrespected the President, Biden should have countered: can’t you answer one question directly without trying to bully and lie about people as you lie about me accusing me of indicting you when you consistently indict yourself by your crooked actions now acknowledged by a jury of your peers and recognized by your own lawyers? And then Biden could answer the question asked. The same with the question when Trump punted on Health Care.
On being old, Biden should have admitted: that yes, I am old, that’s why I make the appointments I make and get counsel from my peers who share my democratic vision for America and for nations who want it, including Kenya, South Africa, Europe, and Latin America. He should also say: whenever I feels after being counseled by my peers that I cannot protect our democracy and our liberty, I will step down.
Or perhaps that would have been the time to say that he was stepping down and leaving his delegates free to choose a better younger person but only after consulting with the party members in their own state as Yosha Mounk wrote in his column Persuasion today.
Many are trying to save Biden to avoid Trump and I also will try. Carroll just called and said Biden’s speech in North Carolina today was magnificent and “said everything he should have said last night.” Well, as Bernie’s mother always said “We’’ll see.”
As a student of liberation theology, Catholic Social Teaching, John Dewey and my work in communities who have been left behind, I am a small “d” democrat. That is my faith in humanity and the future. But I’m not a partisan. I have voted for leaders in other parties and, yes, Republicans in California and Ohio when I knew that the person running for office would help us and our community in promoting local democracy. I have come to believe that all politics is, or least starts, locally. I believe, following Alexis De Tocqueville, that the way of democracy starts where we are — in our school, our church or synagogue, our block club, our neighborhood, our retirement community. Building and maintaining civil society to hold authorities accountable is my and ordinary people politics.
I have come to believe with many of my mentors that democracy is both means and end of human thriving. Yet always in process. Just as you, Don, and I did in Toronto with many ordinary leaders and volunteers in developing Riverdale Community Organization and Greater Riverdale Organization. I will not give up that faith no matter what beliefs or teachings express it. I will continue to hope in the Future, a hope that will stay with my children and theirs, your children and everyone’s children when I am gone. I hope.
My love to you always.
Rollie