Understanding Joe Biden (the big picture)
Last edited Wed Aug 18, 2021, 03:40 PM - Edit history (3)
Here is the first and most important thing to keep in mind about Biden and his goals, strategies, and tactics:
He's fully aware he might not be alive for the 2024 election. Or if he is alive, he might not be fit enough, in his own estimation, to serve another term.
Here is the second and almost equally important thing to keep in mind:
He has NO fucks left to give in political terms. Everything about what he initiates, supports, promotes, etc., is based not on politics, but on governance. And for someone whose only governance experience is 8 years as Vice President, he has a better grasp of how governance works than many multi-term state governors and past Presidents. He THINKS in governance terms.
That doesn't mean he ignores politics altogether - where politics has an impact on the success or failure of important governance goals, he will bring an awesome reservoir of practical experience and political nous into play.
But politics - including Democratic Party politics - will never define any of his goals, initiatives, etc. They are ALL squarely rooted in restoring the capability and competence of governance to serve the American people.
This combination of factors makes him the prepotent and preeminent threat to Putin and the GOP.
It takes away a huge arsenal of normally-powerful leverage points against him in the political process. It is not possible to threaten him with not being re-elected - he has faced the reality that he may not even be running in 2024. It is not possible to threaten him with purely political factors such as "optics" and "downticket success" and other Party wheelhouse concerns unrelated to what Democrats do when they are in power.
He has only the most minimal concern for keeping the Democratic Party in power or expanding its power in terms of electoral success, per se, because:
1. He understands the timelines and workings of the biennial electoral process, as well as the timelines and the "spin factors" of his own actions and accomplishments. He also has a healthy awareness of the limits of what planned action can accomplish, and a healthy respect for the unknown factors and what hasn't happened yet and isn't on anyone's horizon.
2. He knows a lot more about how campaigns and elections work, how the Party process is underway, what the strategies are, etc., than any media pundit, GOPpie analyst, or 95% of Democratic high-level political strategists. He has confidence in how it's working so far, and he's leaving it to those who have done a pretty damn' good job already.
3. He knows that ultimately, if he has to be a scapegoat to ensure the completion and continuance of his governance agenda through future Democratic political victories, he can and will do that, with gusto and style.
He has had an up-close-and-personal view of the attempted destruction of America's government, and the ongoing subversion of our Constitution. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1973, so he also had a front-row seat to American government at its most functional: Assuring the highest possible standard of living for the greatest number of American citizens, recouping costly military errors at great sacrifice and rebuilding a functional military, rooting out corruption and criminality at the highest possible levels including the White House itself, and holding the foreign intelligence community accountable for its worst excesses and enacting checks against repeated domestic interventions.
Those were all truly spectacular accomplishments of American government. Add in the establishment of the EPA and several major initiatives to improve working conditions for Americans, etc., in spite of the sabotage by Big Finance and Fossil Fuels in the form of economic manipulation that produced runaway inflation. Had Carter been re-elected in 1980, Biden would have had a front-row seat to ongoing efforts to curb American reliance on foreign oil and fossil fuels, to continue checking the attempts of Big Finance to slip all forms of control, to continue protecting the American consumer from exploitation and impoverishment, and a whole lot more.
Instead, after 1980, Biden had a front-row seat to the sabotage and outright demolition of government's capability to serve it's non-oligarch citizenry. He had that front-row seat for THIRTY YEARS of increasing kakistocracy.
Then he had an advanced laboratory workshop in "How attempts to fix the problems can be derailed and/or sabotaged" for eight years more.
Then he had four years to watch the climactic collapse of America's role as a leader in the world and the blatant smash-and-grab raid on what remained of government.
Add this into the calculations:
He's already experienced the worst things, personally and politically, that can happen to anyone. Multiple times. And survived them. And recovered to become even stronger and more focused on public service.
He has a three-year clock running, to accomplish the maximum possible rescue, rehabilitation, and improvement of American government. Not in any big, splashy, public-relations way, but AT THE ROOTS. In the agencies, in the rule books, in the standards, in literally THOUSANDS of places that regularly fly under the radar of political and public perception - but he knows them all.
So, yeah, public excoration over the inevitable chaos ensuing from cleaning up after others' mistakes?
He has no more fucks to give about that. He'll do it again, as needed.
Buckle up, Vlad.
Buckle up, Mitch.
analytically,
Bright
= new reply since forum marked as read
Hubby’s comment several weeks ago when he saw the two if them together
was, “He’s giving her a master class in how to do this,” meaning in how to be president. We are both rooting for her to be his successor, whenever that is.
Meanwhile, may Joe continue in robust good health.
About that coffee — drop by any time, Bright.
