Biden’s fall

I just got off the phone with a friend who I consider a well educated, erudite, political observer who asked me for my take on Biden’s fall, and how I’d spin it.

The fact that this was a question shows how skewed the political landscape has become thanks to the social media algorithms dividing and polluting our nation.

In a week where a small minority of right wing, ignorant, political terrorists called the “Freedom Caucus” almost caused an economic implosion that would have made every other financial disaster look like comparing a firecracker to a nuclear bomb, people are concerned because the president tripped on stage at the Air Force Academy graduation.

I trip, although thanks to decades of hockey and a three week vacation at Ft. Benning where I was taught how to do a proper parachute landing fall, when I trip, it usually is done with grace.

But, the real question is, what kind of Americans have we become if we’re more worried about a seniors sense of balance, than our sense of dignity and righteousness? The mark of true Americans is that we’re the first to reach out a hand to those who’ve fallen. The first to ask if they are OK, and as a nation, American’s are those who used to claim that we were united, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Now, that pledge rings hollow.

We are no longer focused on the giant achievement of passing a budget after surviving the world wide pandemic that threw every nation for a loop. We’re not proud that we’ve helped the Ukrainian’s stand up to Russia for over a year, despite being the underdog of underdogs. We’re not the nation we were before, where liberty and justice for all- at least tried to claim colorblindness.

We’ve become a nation of petty dilettantes, who deny science, still believe in fairy tales of this being a nation of great wealth and upward mobility, when all the numbers should be a wake up call for new measures in anti-trust, penalties for price gouging, and a total restructuring of our health care system, our penal system and our campaign finance laws.

Instead, we’re distracted by banning books, abortions, and drag queens as if those issues are somehow more important than can I afford my insulin, or why we’ve created an underclass of felons for which their is no light at the end of the tunnel.

There are insane folks who talk about “Make America Great Again” but can’t define what greatness entails. It’s as empty as the vessel from which it came- a mad man, who violated every standard of decency and brought disgrace to the highest office of this country. And yet, despite the preponderance of evidence slowly coming together to finally stop this despot from ever holding office again, they still believe that somehow, he’s a victim, not the perpetrator in, well, everything.

I have a dream, where American’s come together and decide that we are our brothers keepers, and a government for and by the people is actually a good thing, and can do amazing things if we stop listening to the noise of the loudest voices in the room.

A nation where school kids aren’t being taught to duck and cover, or run, hide and fight. A nation where corporate masters can’t get rich off the sweat of their employees backs, a nation where we practice proactive health care, and one where a prison sentence isn’t the final chapter of every prisoners life.

Where education is respected, science is believed, and news media isn’t striving for sensational, opting for true news.

Why do we have the leadership vacuum that gives us choices of only old white men and only two teams in the political league? Because we’ve come to believe that American’s are too stupid to manage ranked choice voting- or that there could be more than two options in any situation.

For now, we have dumb and dumber vying for the lead.

Hopefully, we wake up. And remember, it’s not how hard you fall, it’s how you pick yourself back up that counts.