President: Joe Biden

The choice of any decent American voter is clear in this 2020 general election: Your vote must be for Joe Biden.

Before I get into the reasons why, I need to point out that Joe Biden was not my first choice in the primary, nor even my second. One of my visceral reactions when he jumped into the race was “Oh yay, another old white guy.” I mean, I know he is decent and competent and aligns with many of my values, but politics is still too filled with old white guys, and we need our politics, like our juries and our companies, to be representative of the whole of American society.

Well, except for the racists. And the white supremacists. And the sexists and misogynists. And the xenophobes. And the homophobes. None of these deserve to be political leaders at any level.

And let’s make it crystal clear here: We live in a two-party country. Yes, there are a myriad of minor parties, but especially at a national level, two, and only two, matter.

You are not going to get your sparkly unicorn, ever. A presidential election election isn’t a purity test. It’s for who is best equipped to run a country of more than 300 incredibly diverse people.

Robert A. Heinlein wrote the novel Time Enough for Love as a chronicle of the character Lazarus Long, and included were several series of apocryphal quotes, one of which applies perhaps more than ever to this year’s presidential election:

“If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for … but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.”

You may feel that Biden is not “pure” enough for you, but a vote for a third-party candidate, or worse, a “protest” by not voting at all, is effectively a vote for the current White House occupier. If you believe, as I do, that the current White House occupier is utterly incompetent to serve, has zero interest in the health and well-being of most American people, and is flat-out a danger to this country that we love with all our hearts, then you must vote, and you must vote for Biden. You don’t have to like it, you don’t have to believe it, but if you care the least little bit about your family, about your friends, about your neighbors, about your society, about anything beyond yourself and your own self-interest, then you must — you MUST — do your duty and vote on November 3, and cast that vote for Biden.

It is your fundamental duty as a citizen of the United States to vote. (Don’t believe me? Ask Jim Wright.)

“The Republic doesn’t run on moonbeams and magic. It can’t be all things to all people all of the time. The work of maintaining the republic is tedious and boring, if you’re doing it right. Duty very often isn’t glamorous or popular or even particularly inspiring, but that is what holds civilization together. Sometimes, most times, it’s just about showing up and doing what has to be done to hold back the fall of night and for no other reason than because the alternative is disaster and ruin. It’s your duty as a citizen to keep the nuts from working loose and the walls from falling down. You don’t get a medal for that and nobody is going to sing songs about you, but it’s your job nonetheless.”

— Jim Wright, Hunting the Unicorn — To Extinction

Biden isn’t energizing like Sanders or whip-smart like Warren or aspirational like Mayor Pete or no-bullshit like Booker. Well, he is, but not to the extent of any of those. What he is is competent. And decent. And hard-working. He has committed his life to governing, where his definition of governing is to make life better for as many people as he can.

The unicorn-seekers begin their arguments against Biden with “But he’s not…” They are so invested in their purity tests that they fail to see how Biden has, throughout his history, constantly evolved, evolved in almost all cases to be on the right side of history. Is his history perfect. No it is not. It is not for any of us, and although we should hold our leaders to a higher standard, that standard should not be and cannot be perfection and purity.

Will Biden play the political game should he attain the White House? To an extent, he almost certainly will. There will be bills to be paid, thanks to be given, commitments to be honored.

But leaders are judged not only on what they say and what they do, they are judged by those who are selected to work with them. The current administration has been worse than a swamp. It has been a fetid cesspool of grift and corruption and dishonesty, and that’s the mildest of accurate adjectives. Biden will surround himself with smart, competent people, people who will serve the country, not themselves. We will see decisions made mostly on fact, not on political calculus.

The Kool-Aid that too many drank in 2016 was “Make America great again,” Kool-Aid that was as toxic and deadly as that of Jim Jones. The thing is, America was great through most of the 20th century. We cured diseases. We fed not only our country, but the world. We created great businesses. We built massive and effective transportation systems. We invented amazing technologies. We put humans on the moon.

What happened? We drank too much Kool-Aid, and most of it was made by Republicans. The Kool-Aid was in flavors such as “no new taxes,” and “deregulation.” Republicans changed, and not for the better, to a party that demonizes and eviscerates government.

Government is not bad. Sure, it has it’s issues, just like any entity. But government is — or should be — a reflect of us. It should be caring. It should be hard working. It should be efficient. And it should be aspirational.

We can make government better. Will it be perfect? No. Will it be pure? No. But if we put people in government who care more about people than about power, who care more about society than about money, we have at least an opportunity for better government. And that starts at the top.

At that top, there is just one choice that give us the possibility to be better: Biden.