We are in the shit now

Truth, integrity, and character have not simply been relegated to the backseat of our democracy – it’s worse than that – they’ve been thrown out of the car altogether, and now that vehicle travels recklessly as a putrid vessel of Presidential self-interest and self-preservation.

When an unrestrained and morally decrepit leader of a powerful nation flaunts the rule of law, the rest of us, the citizens of that nation, get splattered and stained by the consequences of his messy and lawless decisions.

We are muddied and sullied by association, and our ability to disassociate ourselves from his sick, twisted, and purely transactional worldview is hampered by the chokehold he and his supporters have put on the systems of checks and balances designed by our founders to prevent such a person from rising to power.

The Orange King – Music by Suno, Lyrics by Me


If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out my book, My Paper, My Words: Rantings from a Progressive Boomer and Peeved Parent, from Amazon. And if you feel moved to write a review of the book, on Amazon, or anywhere else, I’d be honored.

My Paper, My Words is a collection of essays, stories, and poems that reflect the challenges of a middle-class husband and father trying to navigate a rapidly changing political, religious, and technological landscape of post-911 America.

Clueless Joe?

At sixty-one, I’m not as mentally agile as I used to be, and I’m sure this natural decline will continue as I age.

I suppose what I’ve lost in mental acuity is somewhat offset by the wisdom I’ve gained through experience (personally and professionally) – but I’m not burdened by the need to prove this to anyone – Joe Biden is.

It doesn’t matter if Joe Biden believes he can be a successful President for the next four years.

In fact, it doesn’t matter if Joe Biden can objectively be a successful president—what matters is whether Democratic and independent voters believe he can—and most of them do not.

I’m one of many who think Joe Biden should bow out of the 2024 presidential race.

Does that mean I won’t vote for him?

HELL NO!

I’d vote for the moldy-unrecognizable-saran-wrapped mystery in the back of my refrigerator before I vote for that fat-orange-traitorous-fuck, Donald Trump.

That said, a second Trump Presidency is not something we should leave to chance (the stakes are too high). With Joe Biden as Trump’s opponent, there is a greater chance Trump will win than if the Democrats run a younger candidate with some vitality and vigor.

Joe Biden needs to put the country he professes to love above himself.

He needs to recognize that this race is not about whether his age is a disqualifier but whether he’s able to effectively, aggressively, and convincingly prosecute the case against a second Trump presidency. That should be a relatively easy task, given all the negatives Trump brings.

President Biden had the opportunity to prosecute the case against Trump in the debate, and he failed miserably.

There’s no shortage of capable Democrats (Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg) who can stand toe-to-toe with Trump and cut him down to size – but the longer Joe Biden dawdles, the more logistically challenging it becomes for the party to pivot to an alternative.