A little perspective

I don’t hate Joe Biden. I do not worship Donald Trump. If I had to guess I’d say that both are probably very much like the rest of us, a mixed bag of ego driven delusions, good intentions, deep love and deep resentments. I have watched both men in the public eye for decades, and I’ve never much cared for Biden’s politics or judgment, but the reasons I do not support him do not make him monstrous. Just not the sort I admire. In September of 1991 Biden was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and in that capacity headed the confirmation hearing of Clarence Thomas. At that time I was still a registered Democrat and barely paying attention to anything political, but I watched those hearings. I was appalled by the behavior of both Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy. What I saw on display was a sort of Machiavellian truth-be-damned, win at any cost attitude, and much that I didn’t understand about the working of government suddenly became clear. I had always naively assumed that confirmation hearings (and politics in general) were a process in which fair-minded people debated the points, made their arguments, always aiming for what is best. Advise and consent. Find the best path forward. What I saw was a partisan blood sport, where to the winners went the spoils, and “truth” had no standing. And Joe? Joe didn’t acquit himself as a particularly honorable man. That impression has stuck with me.

Trump, on the other hand, (until I met him in 2015) I knew only as a larger-than-life personality, someone who would appear in the press from time to time because he’d accomplished something—put up another building, built a skating rink, had a television show, etc.—or because he was getting a divorce, or getting married. It seemed the coverage he received (at least before the now famous escalator ride) was nearly always positive. Coincidentally, Trump appeared as a witness before House Task Force on Urgent Fiscal Issues in October of 1991, just weeks after the Thomas hearing and just as I was beginning to pay attention to politics. At that time Trump was appearing as an expert real estate developer, and he seemed to know what he was talking about. (Donald Trump 1991 Appearance Before House Task Force on Urgent Fiscal Issues | C-SPAN.org )

But there is little room for real people in presidential politics. The process seems to require everyone seem larger than life. The run-of-the-mill must assume legendary status, for better or worse. Like the fictional cherry tree of George Washington, the legend must be crafted, usually from whole cloth, and then carefully sold to the public. This can cut both ways, depending upon how the makers of these myths want the tale to be told. In the hands of the myth makers Joe became a congenial everyman prone to gaffes and Trump some sort of totalitarian monster who hates everything and everybody.

It is important to me, though, if for no reason other than concern for my own levels of compassion and empathy, to remember that behind the mythology there are real people. There are real people named Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who stand naked in the shower, as we all do, and recall the past while considering the day ahead and the limits of mortality.

I try to imagine how Joe Biden must feel, grasping for words that are just out of reach and trying to reassemble a personal history he often cobbled together on the spot, with ancestors who were either coal miners or steel workers or abolitionists, football stars or preachers, while he was either acing his exams or marching with the Freedom Riders. Was his first wife killed by a drunk driver? Was his son Beau killed in action overseas? What is real? What is imagined? It must be a horrible place to be, particularly when shouldering the knowledge that the picture will never become clear and only fuzzier with every passing day. That has got to be a bitter pill to swallow. Everything around him is turning to ashes, right before his eyes.

There are those who will argue that Joe deserves no less. I don’t know about that. I’m hardly the arbiter of universal justice. In the end, I suppose, we all pay in some way for the lies we have told, to ourselves and to others. Not my job to exact punishment from anyone. This is a good thing, too, because I’d be lousy at it.

On the flip side, there is Donald Trump. He’s not “just like Hitler” or a “danger to Democracy”. That’s bullshit. Trump developed real estate in Manhattan for decades, and all over the globe. If nothing else this indicates a great understanding of red tape and bureaucratic nonsense, and the ability to accomplish things while staying within the rules. His tax returns were illegally leaked and poured over by his fiercest political enemies. Have we heard anything about them since? Did anyone suggest that he was cheating, cutting corners, or doing anything illegal? Nope.

But, because he is the opposition, all standards have been set aside. It is not hyperbole to say that no American has ever suffered the intense scrutiny and lawfare Trump has been subjected to. Slandering Trump became a pastime, a parlor game, and he weathered it all. When, ever, have we seen District Attorneys run on a platform of taking an individual down? Can we even imagine what the response would have been had some DA in a deep red state run for office on a platform of putting Obama in jail by any means necessary? We would have all thought such an individual insane, someone deeply disturbed, a person to be avoided. It would be one thing should a prospective DA think it, but to actually stand before a crowd and speak it out loud? “If elected I will use all of my power and authority to insure that Obama is destroyed! I will find a crime, charge him, and see him convicted!” We’d have all thought such a person dangerously crazy. That isn’t how it is done, we all would have said. You don’t use the law to target individuals! In the last eight years, though, such behavior has become commonplace. The list of disingenuous, devious attacks and investigations of Trump is too long for me to include in this piece. It begins with the Russian collusion hoax and runs right through the FBI raid on Mar-a-lago. It ends with an attempted assassination.

Today we hear a lot of noise about “coming together” and “healing”. Meh. Both are pretty simple. We, as a people, need do only a few simple things. Remember who we are and return to a place where we were all content to play by the rules, win or lose. Anyone who loves baseball, for example, would not enjoy a game in which the Red Sox had a strike zone that consisted of, oh, the belt line, while the Yankees were called for strikes on any pitch crossing the plate between the bill of their cap and the top of their shoes. We’d all hate it, even Red Sox fans, and it wouldn’t matter if the announcers and the league told us it was all on the up and up and that the Yankees had corked their bats. We’d all see, plainly, that the game was unfair. It would destroy baseball. Want to “destroy Democracy”? The same is true. Change the rules so one side has a great advantage. This is the first step toward a national healing. A level playing field.

And then we must all look within ourselves to see our own foibles and faults and remember that the people before the cameras are people, too. Hate gets you nothing. It never wins. Never has. Never will.

The world turns and we all age out. Every one of us. My suspicion is that much, maybe most, of the noise we hear about the chaos in the world comes from people angry about aging out without ever having the opportunity to steer humanity themselves. Too f’ing bad. No one gets to steer. That is above everyone’s pay grade. No one gets to fundamentally transform humanity. That happens over long, long expanses of time. The transformation we have a hand in is internal. It’s an inside job. We can change ourselves—how we act, what we say and do, how we feel—and that is all we can change, and the opportunity for this comes with every day.

Play by the rules. Consider what we, as individuals do and say. And remember that none of us, not a single one, is any manner of big deal.

That’s what we’ve got. That is all we have ever had.

The world is not ending. All is as it should be. We are and will be, fine.

Peace.