Daily Dose From the Pod: My Post-Debate Biden Feelings

Last night, I was listening to the Biden v. Trump debate on the radio as I drove to an event at a local bookstore where I was to be in conversation with the author. I found myself backed up in a line of traffic with the rear end of my car sticking out onto the train tracks. Then the bells and whistles of the train track began to go off, and I had nowhere to go. I panicked. I honked to try to get the cars in front of me to inch up so I could move out of the way. I finally had to pull my car off to the side/curb area to get out of the way of the train. 

I'm telling you all of this because normally, I would never allow my car to straddle a train track without clear egress (and yes I know that even with clear egress it’s really not okay). I did so last night because I was so engrossed in listening to the debate on the radio, by which I mean I was so troubled listening to Biden express himself that I lost the ability to pay attention to my own road safety. This is a sign to me of how I felt in my body about Biden's performance. Like many, I think I found myself feeling oh, no no no no no how can this be!

There may be more to Biden’s difficulties than just being an 81-year-old person with a stutter. Obviously, I’m not a neurologist and I'm not trying to diagnose him. I'm just struggling with what I heard and later saw when I finally saw some clips last night, and I’m asking myself whether Biden still has what it takes to do the work night after night after night after night and day after day after day for another four years.

Unable to tear myself away from the memes and commentary on social media and the punditry that began to roll through my news feeds, I stayed up late. I saw the call for a Harris/Biden ticket, the call to find someone else entirely, and also the call for us Democrats to calm the fuck down, realize it’s only June, admit that Biden is quite good even on tough days, and that he is by far our best shot against Trump, who is, without question, an unmitigated existential threat for so many reasons.

And less than a day later, Biden was so much better. Here he is at a raucous rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, today (June 28) where at the end he admits confidently, with humor and humility (which is his inimitable style):

Folks, I know I’m not a young man. To state the obvious. I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up.

Take twenty minutes and watch the full speech here. (The above quote comes at the 15:20 mark.) You’ll hear his strength, and you’ll see a guy who is nothing like the guy we saw last night. (His campaign said last night that he had a cold, and he does have a bad cough that you’ll hear him barrel through today.)

I think it's OK for Democrats to be having a whole lotta feelings right now. And it’s my deepest hope and wish and prayer that over the next few weeks we’ll get on message about who our candidate is and move forward, committed.

Because this presidential election is a referendum on who we are as a nation, and at stake are the individual rights and freedoms we have come to cherish, from bodily autonomy (abortion, trans-bodies, contraception), to whom we can marry, to religion having no place in our public schools, to a woman’s purpose not being limited to bearing children and keeping house, to a place for immigrants, to protecting the climate, to our democracy itself.

Whatever decisions the Democrats make, we all HAVE TO vote Blue in November. Because for many, our very life and way of living will be gravely impacted if Trump is November’s outcome.

xo

🤗 Here’s a hug for anyone who worries about what America and the world would be like under Trump.

🗞️ The Daily Dose is a new facet of the Pod where I’m devoted to a new discipline of writing daily on any subject under the sun. Prior topics are letting the elderly be who they are (here), my difficult encounter with the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC when I was a congressional candidate (here), and the progress of the 20th Century being thrown into the dumpster by conservatives (here).

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