I’m still with Joe
Maybe you know the story. JFK is giving a speech at a dinner in Houston when he says, “Next month, when the United States of America fires the largest booster in the history of the world into space for the first time giving us the lead, fires the largest payroll — payload — into space giving us the lead. It will be the largest payroll, too.”
The laughter was well-earned. But let’s face it, even the ever-suave John F Kennedy made verbal gaffes. He recovered well, but gaffe he did. (This story is particularly poignant, because when he made that speech he had exactly one day to live.)
You may also know the famous story of the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debate. It’s practically a cliche. People who watched it on television said Kennedy won. People who listened to it on the radio said Nixon won. Nixon’s performance was more substantial, but Kennedy looked good. Our obsession with surface appearances hasn’t changed. In some ways we’re as shallow today as we were back then. And the mainstream media knows exactly how to manipulate that shallowness.
And Kennedy didn’t have to worry back then. Members of the press weren’t crouching like buzzards, reloading their guns, waiting for him to make a mistake. There’s something inevitable about verbal flubs and bad debate performances when you know everyone is waiting for you to make them, ready to pounce. When you know they will kick you to the ground — and go right on kicking you.
The press has relentlessly hounded Joe Biden ever since the debate. They have done so to the point that many members of his own party are ready to give up on him. America’s mainstream media has been so relentlessly complicit in the destruction of Joe Biden that even many of us, members of the public, are joining them in their bullying, because many people let the press do their thinking for them. It’s sickening to watch. It’s even more sickening to understand the motive.
Donald Trump would make a more “interesting” president than Joe Biden. He would serve up a daily feast of racist pronouncements and dog whistles, outrageous attacks on America’s allies, misogynistic statements and out-and-out lies. Joe Biden just gets on with the business of being President, sponsoring legislation to improve the infrastructure, bringing joblessness down to record lows, strengthening the economy, encouraging industry, lowering inflation, you know, boring stuff like that.
Biden is bad for business. Trump is good for business. The press wants Trump back. He’s better for ratings than Biden, and ratings means more ad revenue, and more ad revenue means fatter salaries and longer contracts for the talking head class of America’s news-reporting elite.
In short they want Trump back, just like they wanted him in power in 2016. They saw to it back then by ignoring many of Trump’s horrific flaws and obvious criminality, and focusing endlessly on Hillary’s emails. And they’re doing it again.
Is it really just that simple? Maybe so. To be sure, they are also terrified of a Trump presidency. They don’t want to be the ones Trump comes after first should he do the unthinkable, should he return to the White House.
So they exploit one of the oldest and safest bigotries of all, ageism. They do so despite obvious contradictions. Trump is almost as old as Biden. Trump makes far more gaffes. Trump does things Biden never does, like giving long, meandering, meaningless speeches that go nowhere and mean nothing and make him look like the incompetent fool that he is. And many of us, including many prominent members of Congress, let them get away with it. Because their con works. And many of us are their complacent accomplices.
To be sure, Joe Biden is no John F Kennedy. He is not young and suave and vigorous. He’s just boring old Joe who gets the job done. And what a job it’s been! But that doesn’t matter in the land of the sheep. That doesn’t matter in the land of the parrot. If the media can whip the half-asleep crowd into the belief that Joe Biden can’t win, one day it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We must not let that happen. I do not want Joe to drop out. You see, I think he’s the one man, the only man, who can save us from Trump. Moreover, I believe in that corny and old-fashioned quality seldom mentioned. I believe in loyalty. And I join the millions of loyal Americans who think Joe Biden has done a pretty damned good job. And I want him back for another four years. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.