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The
previous President, also known as 45, or the Orange Man, or the Nutty
Narcissist, kept our nation with his insanity for more than four
years. President Biden is best advised to ignore his predecessor and
should not even stoop to mention his name. Why not? The nation, even
the former’s rabid supporters, know the former was out of line,
out of order, and out of control. He is also desperate for the
attention that even his Conservative Political Action Committee
(CPAC) sycophants could not offer. Reality can be grating, especially
when someone accustomed to adulation finds the applause tepid, the
plane out of order, the taxes under review, and more. President Biden
gave the former too much air in even mentioning his name at his March
25 press conference.
The
press behaved as badly as President Biden. They focused on
immigration, a Republican talking point that invokes the former,
instead of concentrating on COVID and vaccinations, about which most
Americans care. Not one question about COVID? Who are these press
members, and what is wrong with them? If you polled people, the
pandemic would rank much higher on a priority scale than immigration.
But like sharks smelling blood in the water, or a possible Biden
weakness, they surrounded and pounced (or whatever sharks do).
Meanwhile,
several topics got short shrift in the hour-long press conference.
The President likened the filibuster to Jim Crow law, but he
shillyshallied around what he will do about it. President Biden, you
have condemned racism, discrimination, and Jim Crow in the past? Why
can’t you come out more forcefully against the filibuster?
You’ve had strong words about the new voter-suppressing Georgia
laws. Why won’t you commit to federal action to ensure that we
all have the right to vote?
Are
you expecting a message in a bottle? Georgia Republicans seem to
think that voting activists can send them. Otherwise, why would they
make it illegal for people to offer a simple, humane gesture to
people who have been standing in line for hours, a bottle of water?
What could be more benign than handing someone standing in line for
hours a bottle of water and a bag of chips or an apple? If President
Biden got a message from a bottle I handed him, it would say, be
firm, be firm. This racist attack on our democracy must not be
tolerated.
We
must consider President Biden’s point about timing. He knows
the Senate better most, knows his former colleagues well enough to
know their sensibilities. But he must also understand the nature of
racist intransigence. Many Senate Republicans have chosen
partisanship and obstruction over integrity and decency. Few of them
are willing to retreat from their line in the sand.
President
Biden must understand, though, that he would not be our nation’s
elected leader if the laws that Georgia just passed existed in
November 2020 or January 2021. There would be no Senators Warnock and
Ossoff, no Georgia electoral votes, no democracy. Instead, there
would have been the continuation of anarchy with the former resting
on his laurels, spewing more lies.
President
Biden inherited a mess, no question. Still, he should never refer to
the former and the mess he left again. If he were me, he might
respond with any questions about the former with a dismissive, “the
former is irrelevant.” The former needs to be treated as such.
Whether it is immigration, COVID, the economy, or more, it’s
President Biden’s ball of wax now. Continuing to mention the
former gives him light he does not deserve. President Biden, and the
rest of us, should keep that name in the dark. He can probably show
up on Faux News whenever he wants to, but his rants look more like
empty barks when nobody calls his name.
So,
President Biden, you’ve been doing rather well in your first
two-plus months as President. You’ve gotten checks in the bank,
shots in arms, and shelter for children at the border. You have
infrastructure plans but must stand more firmly against efforts to
erode our democracy. And it would be best if you did not refer to
your predecessor as anything but “the former.” Nor should
the rest of us ever utter the former’s name. We must move
forward and leave the devil in the dark.
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