WAS: What Adults are Saying about a Bittersweet Ending
Biden's departure ends multiple eras
As Joe and Jill Biden pack the last box this week much more will be going on than simply vacating the White House for number 47. Unlike their successors the Biden’s will complete this transition with the utmost of grace, civility and respect for the law. They will do this, as ever, on a world stage while constantly viewed for missteps showing that America’s democracy is crumbling. Viewers will find none, but they will be watching an ending that closes multiple eras—political and otherwise.
The first is the end of the Joe Biden political era. Much has already been established about that for a man who as a decent public servant has been more effective than not through a career going back to pre-Watergate days. As is well known his Federal political career began just as his family encountered its first wave of heavy grief. His response was to simultaneously learn the ways of Washington while still being a nightly parent in Delaware.
Joe Biden has always been just a regular guy thrust into irregular, elite circumstances—kind of like Jimmy Carter or a less bright version of Bill Clinton. Nothing may underscore this more than in his adult life, among many occupations, Biden once worked as all things—a coal miner! This isn’t a 19th century parable a la Lincoln or some other chap from the pre-electric and plumbing days. Now, in the present time, our departing President was a former coal miner. He was this in part because he came from people who were that, and back then, that’s just they way it was.
Like all former Presidents his good and bad will be closely judged. The pinnacle of failure may prove to be the tawdry way he presided over Anita Hill testimony in 1991. Or it may something more recent such as his bungled re-election effort. No matter, the positives far outweigh that and history will rightly treat Biden well. If for no other reason than his efforts in extricating the country from COVID and returning some sense of dignity to the Oval Office, Biden will be remembered warmly. Moreover, in his final major Presidential speech he introduced two timely concepts. Warning against the perils of an American oligarchy and a “technological industrial complex” (similar to Eisenhower about the military when leaving Washington), Biden made sure his long held views of democracy would not be forgotten.
Now also brings to close another era that perhaps many don’t even acknowledge. It has long been said the Watergate scandal was the “end” of the tumultuous 1960s—it having “started” with JFK’s murder. That means all that has followed was first the 70s where Peter Frampton first came alive at a time that roughly paralleled Biden’s arrival at Washington.
With Watergate settled as a Nixon disgrace and subsequent criminal pardon from his President successor, Gerald Ford, the scandal’s end was in some ways an American success story. As Nixon took on the Supreme Court with his criminality he was met with fierce resistance. Unlike the compromised court of the 47 era, it held the President specifically was not above the law. In this wake political pressure from within his own party led by Arizona-whacko Barry Goldwater is what essentially sent him from office. All of this occurred only after reporters for the Washington Post (oh how times have changed) unearthed the contours of the scandal as a broad burglary cover up directly touched by Nixon.
This combo plate of resistance and accountability was good evidence that the American system worked. One branch of government charged with interpreting law ruled—just like everyone else—laws apply to a sitting President. His own party was wise to the long-term political carnage invited and suggested it was time to exit stage left. The Fourth Estate was also especially vital—ensuring the interests of the “people” were protected with dogged reporting uncovering a slimy truth. In short the “system” worked from legal, political and public angles.
For a substantial period this outcome refurbished the fuzzy lines where political chicanery should stop. The Watergate result sort of hung in the Washington atmosphere as a deterrent where no politician, regardless of how ambitious, wanted to end up in a California-exiled disgrace as Nixon. Moreover the nation’s press was further empowered by its Watergate role meaning missteps were tougher to keep private—especially of the sexual variety—where Wayne Hays was an early example of power loss due to “Johnson” behavior.
Of course there were exceptions in that political rogues know only one thing. ABSCAM came in the early 80s and then the bald-faced lying of Ronald Reagan about Iran-Contra where Oliver North dutifully took the fall. But for the most part political behavior was within an acceptable tolerance. Slowly this changed with disruptors coming primarily from the right. But few in Washington believed they had the right to lie above established political norm and legal statute. Even the oddity of 45 was largely thought aberrant as though Leo Dicaprio’s character from Shutter Island had simply escaped to the Oval Office.
But that era is gone too—the original thickness that may have bonded political thieves eroded. With it went a functionality where a political and ethical purgatory was a catch all that let bad boys and girls roam without burning down the barn. It was an imperfect solution where those with clay feet could breathe without derailing the country.
Lastly, and most damaging, is the end of time when civil, non-malicious behavior was the American default. Since its first days as a world power the US has always (imperfectly) embraced at least a cool civility toward most where no harm was wished. The Orwellian politics of 47 and his parasite enablers have put that to death.
The roller-coaster twists returning him to office are part, but not all of the story. Adult readers of the landscape already knew about 47 there is no politics, theology or world view. It was long understood that he shows a juvenile form of nihilism simply because his ego needs exercise or he’s too dim to understand the political and social complexities of the most complex nation on earth. But to remain relevant he’s needed a calling card so he developed (with the help from the WWE) the wrestling character of the perpetually aggrieved who wants dullards across the countryside to be the same. In the absence of any remaining common-sense, those dullards have followed the Pied Piper.
To be sure nonsense in American life has a very long and rich history. It has never been far from the main artery of daily, civil life. But in its prominence it still was always a minority perspective—a view where a notable number of followers made life occasionally more difficult for the rest. In mobilizing the crowd who never needed more than eight Crayola’s because their cognition couldn’t handle it, number 47 has changed that. Thus nonsense, and its close cousin, oversimplification conspire to now frame daily American life with a persistent, heavy thump of malice.
On a national scale this is as unprecedented as it is dangerous. Whatever virtues may remain in a democracy they surely won’t be recognized if citizens are wishing ill will to one another. One need not be as virtuous as Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale or St. Paul to understand this. All that is needed is 23 pairs of normal chromosomes and respiration. For all other mammals that has always been enough to understand that malice to your own meant failure for all. Sometimes, grudgingly, even American Homo Sapiens grasped and lived this. Until now.