The Boredom of Biden
Today someone sent me a Randy Rainbow YouTube which highlights the fact that Joe Biden is so much less interesting to make fun of than Donald Trump. Obviously, since Randy Rainbow spent most of the last five years making fun of Trump, this is not real criticism of Biden, but rather an underlining of the fact that in national politics we can all use a bit of down-time with some regular old boring responsible leadership that does not seek the spotlight as it seeks to do good things for the American public. Today the House of Representatives countersigned the $1.9 Trillion COVID-relief bill. In a relatively quick ceremony on the Capital terrace, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer signed the bill and spoke of the monumental nature of the legislation and the record speed with which it was passed. What is clear is that this legislation is entirely a Democrat bill since not one single Republican did anything but resist it despite the 70% approval rating across the American electorate for the measure.
While we all expect President Biden will comment on and join in the celebration of the signing of the bill, he is not derailing his existing schedule, which today is focused on meetings with the leaders of Johnson & Johnson and Merck. He is expected to sign the bill into law on Friday and there will certainly be an appropriate signing ceremony, but the difference between this administration and the last should be notable by all. Joe Biden has done a wonderful job of making us feel that his administration is about all of us and NOT about him. That concept was completely lacking during the Trump presidency where every moment was about playing to the bloated and distorted ego of the Trump man-child. It is truly wonderful on this, the fiftieth day of the Biden presidency, to see the selflessness of the Democratic agenda as opposed to the entirely self-centered nature of the Republican agenda. Randy Rainbow is correct, this is all very boring for comedians even though it is exactly what Americans need and want from their leaders. The likenesses to FDR are again being mentioned, but there is even a difference from FDR. Joe Biden may not be prepared to compare himself to FDR in greatness and therein lies the strength of the man and the importance of his manner to our current state.
Underneath all the nonsense about voter fraud and vote-by-mail and even the nonsense around COVID masking protocol and border immigration policy (the wall and detention centers including child separation strategies) there is both the underlying issue of the character of our leadership. In this case character translates into two very specific ideals. The first is that of general integrity and our ability to believe what our president says. The second is the belief that he is working in our collective best interests as he believes them to be. I am purposefully making that second definition quite broad and therefore, I hope, non-partisan. There is a fundamental need for the American people to feel that their government cares about them and their wellbeing and that they are doing things for the greater good and not for some surreptitious purpose that ignores what is good for the general population. Part of both of those ideals is rooted in a sense that showmanship and ego take a back seat or preferably no seat at all at the table of governing.
We should all be able to agree that no matter how entertaining you consider Donald Trump and his followers to be, he did continuously seek the limelight and center stage. Everything from openly declaring himself the smartest guy in any room, to insisting on signing relief checks with his name (never before the procedure) or now, suing his own Party for the unauthorized use of his image and/or name in their fundraising efforts, the man was beyond the textbook definition of narcissistic. His insistence that he send up to sixty personal tweets per day to continuously be in the forefront of everyone in the country’s awareness makes the clear point that governing had little or nothing to do with policy objectives or improving the lives of the electorate and everything to do with self-aggrandizement. Even the most brazen of selfish politicians or leaders had the balanced good sense to try to make it not seem as though everything was all about him, but not so Donald Trump. I think it is fair to suggest that Joe BIden looks modest by contrast to Trump. You might even say that Biden is leaning that way to purposefully counterbalance the lingering image of Donald Trump and play off of that image to look good in comparison. Others, however, are starting to make the point that Joe Biden is simply being Joe Biden and that he is truly at his core a modest man who has learned that leaders who are remembered by history as great are those that accomplish the most for their electorate, not those that constantly seek the limelight.
As I reflect on Joe Biden going back to his term as Barack Obama’s Vice President, we see a man who certainly wanted to rise to become president, but was modest enough to understand the push by his Party for Hilary Clinton in 2016 and seemed to disappointedly understand when Barack Obama did not come forth and endorse or anoint him in any way. He seemed to understand his place in the moment. Then as 2019 rolled on, Joe Biden was honest enough with himself to take a long look at his chances before he committed to run again for president. After Iowa and New Hampshire he seemed to teeter as to the likelihood of his being the right answer for a nation that desperately needed a solution to the Donald Trump years. When South Carolina and Rep. Jim Clyburn turned the tide in his favor, he was modest in accepting the mantle of being the leading contender. After the nomination he was even more modest in selecting as his running mate a person who was harsh on the campaign trail and who represented an important symbolic presence to a large part of the electorate who were suffering in many ways from the renewed rise of racial angst. Every step of the way, Joe Biden has chosen the high road as defined by Michele Obama.
We should all be very proud of Joe. It is not easy to maintain your humility and humanity when you sit in the chair that is deemed to be the most powerful in the world. People say that power corrupts and what the last five years have shown me is that what might be more accurate is that power reinforces innate tendencies. In the case of Donald Trump it took a corrupt person who had gotten away with fraud his whole life and made him feel invincible and therefore insufferable in his teflon nature. In the case of Joe Biden, it has caused a humble and good man to become more than ever impassioned to do what is right for his constituents (which he always defines as ALL Americans and even all citizens of the Earth) and to honor the importance of the moment in helping mankind along. This is the boredom of Biden that we can all use even more of.