"I read the news today, oh boy…"
- John Lennon
"There's a bad moon risin'"
- John Fogarty
Can anyone but a full-throated MAGA maniac take joy in the events of the past two weeks?
First the Republican majority in the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) handed down a decision which eviscerated the Federal Government's ability to ensure that we have clean air, water, food, medicines and safe working conditions. And they did so by overturning another long standing precedent, something they've had no qualms about doing.
Then, in the ultimate act of legislating from the bench, SCOTUS conferred near total immunity on the office of the President for anything that even smells like an official act (and a lot of the past President's official acts smelled to high heaven). In doing so, they abandoned their slavish devotion to "originalism" and "textualism", coming up with a decision that bore no relation to either the wording of the Constitution, or past history and tradition. Republican Justices focused on the results of their decision (a vague sense that Presidents need the comfort of immunity to act forcibly), something they claim SCOTUS decisions should never be based upon.
Nothing in the Constitution speaks to Presidential immunity, and history shows that no President has ever expected to be immune from criminal prosecution for things he (still no "she" yet) did while in office. In fact, if this decision had been handed down in 1972, Richard Nixon would have finished out his term. But he didn't. He accepted a pardon, indicating that he clearly understood he could have legally been prosecuted for ordering the FBI to halt an investigation that would have shown he was guilty of obstruction of justice.
The second blast of bad news was there for all to see in real time: President Biden's woeful performance in the debate against Trump.
While Trump threw lie after lie out into the airways ("Even Democrats applauded the overturning of Roe v. Wade" Really?), Joe just stood there.
In addition to appearing physically weak and sometimes unable to finish a coherent sentence, he didn't once call Trump out on his lies. Trump continued to throw up softballs that Joe could've knocked out of the park, but he remained silent.
Biden campaign staff and supporters continue to spread the argument that, "This was just one debate. Other candidates -- George Bush in 2000 and Obama in 2011--had lousy first debates, but both came back to win."
The only problem with that position is that, neither Bush nor Obama were in their early 80s, and fighting the notion that they were too old, and perhaps to infirm, to serve four more years in Office.
Well before the debate, polling showed that a majority of the general public thought that Biden was too old to serve out a second term. And his performance on the debate stage only served to confirm their opinion. So no, this wasn't a matter of just one bad debate. It went much deeper.
Reports continue to seep out about Biden's lack of mental acuity during staff meetings, and officials from other nations have remarked about what they saw as a recent decline in Biden's energy and attention span.
I think that evidence has shown that Joe Biden has been the most effective President in this century, and, arguably, since Clinton was in office. His response to the COVID pandemic, actions he took to increase industrial and technological production in America, and strong steps to begin curtailing the effects of climate change, were major accomplishments, not to be taken lightly.
But this election isn't about the last four years, it's about keeping Trump out of the White House, where he would be a danger to the country, and to democracy around the world.
Sorry to say, but it's clear. I don't think Biden can defeat Trump, and for the sake of the country, he has to step aside for someone younger.