Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for Presidency, while always slightly left of center, is the arch politician.- the connector, the deal maker, the conciliator, the smoozer, a plain talker - the people’s candidate. While never too far off in front of his electorate he consequently never was at risk of loosing a local election. That is why he has been around such a long time. By the same rationale he has never had that spark that could reward him with the ultimate leadership that he so craved. He never became the Democratic Senate Party leader and it was only on the third attempt that he became the Presidential nominee of his party. Fate has now placed Biden in a situation where “Greatness has been thrust upon him”.
THE COUNTRY IS DESPERATE FOR LEADERSHIP AND BIDEN HAS TO STEP UP
From the word go Joe made it clear that he was running to restore “The soul of the nation”. However the criteria that put him in that position, namely to ensure beating Trump, to quote him by, “Not being a revolutionary”, have dramatically changed. In a country so bereft of leadership hankering back to Jim Crow and riddled with a pandemic where those in charge are doing nothing to make the, health economic and social adjustments that are needed, there is a desperate cry for help from the overwhelming majority of the electorate. In fact the Trump Presidency has seen an abandonment of American values, deserting its role as a global leader in liberal democracy and his undisguised grab to turn America into an autocracy. The current medical, economic and protest crises have exacerbated Trump’s naked crude self serving ambitions as well as magnified his woeful ignorance and incompetence.
The middle of the country who were, initially, crying out for a transitional President are now looking for a transformative President. We are talking Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Regan here - Lincoln would be a bit of a stretch. Biden could put together a humongous talented administration that would rival, “Lincoln’s Team of Rivals”. The highly capable Democratic field, to a man and woman, the moment he was the obvious candidate, fell in line behind him like ten green bottles. You see on top of it all he is a likable empathetic individual. Empathy is his strongest genuine value - an attribute which has never been in shorter supply in leadership in America at a time it that it has never been greater need.
To sum up he is the last politician on earth who you would think would morph his campaign message from “I’m Biden My Time” to “Riden with Biden”. In order to show leadership Biden has also to step out of his comfort zone.
WHAT SHOULD BIDEN DO AND WHAT SHOULD BE HS AGENDA?
Biden has many boxes to fill in. He knows better than most that whatever the polls show it ain’t going to be easy. Trump maybe running against himself but he still has his base running with him. At the end of the day the ten to fifteen percent that protested in 2018 mustn’t be left standing at the ballot box with the thought in their minds, “At least we know where Trump stands and he is a strong leader”. Biden’s job is that much harder because since Sanders called it quits the world has changed medically and economically as a result of a smoldering pandemic and what America now stands for has got even worse. Citizen and economic equity and justice are top of the agendas in line with American values.
He also has to face the administrative chaos that Trump has created by denuding the Federal Government of all its talent. Biden needs careful thought out policies on everything and needs to build a sustainable winning coalition that will win the Senate as well.
So “Good old Joe” needs to prepare to take off on day one on governing and introducing legislation to produce change. He has a number of manuals that Obama’s administration prepared for the Trump administration to continue the functioning of the Federal Government. Dust them off and hand them over to potential cabinet secretaries whom he should put into place now. So on day one they too can be off to the races.
WHO HE NAMES AS RUNNING MATE TAKES ON A GREATER GRAVITAS NOW THAT HE IS TRANSFORMATIVE.
Top of his agenda and what will put a stamp on the direction his Presidency is leaning is who he will elect as his Vice Presidential running mate. He read the mood right when he announced that his electoral partner would be a female. Symbolically that reflected the battle for gender equity. Also he leads Trump in the polls with the female vote by up to nineteen percent. Nothing more epitomizes the change in direction of his prospective Presidency than who that nominee might be. To guess which way that sentiment is being directed the guru to follow is Jim Clyburn the African American Chief Whip of the Democratic Party. If one person is responsible for delivering “Joe knows us and we know Joe” to the Presidential nomination it is Clyburn. Clyburn, who has been around as long as Nancy and Joe stated not so long ago the color of the skin didn’t matter in the selection.
The seasoned Chief Whip like everyone else thought it needed to be someone who could deliver the Mid Western States that Trump had flipped in 2016. No - one was more qualified than Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota. That State is now her problem as Amy was Attorney General of Minnesota where George Floyd was murdered. The record of prosecutions against this type of offense was abysmal and that includes the period of Klobuchar’s incumbency. The patriarch Clyburn had this dry comment on the ongoing tragedy which has galvanized the nation, “We are all sometimes victims of timing. This is very tough coming for Amy Klobuchar who I respect so much”. He added that this impacted her Vice Presidential chances.
What with Biden’s run in the youthful black radio host, Charlamagne the God who made it quite clear that he wanted something for his community in response to Biden’s flippant remark, that in the light of his record, “If you have a problem figuring out if you are for Trump or me, you ain’t black”. Biden has had to run around reassuring all that he had been a wise guy and that he doesn’t take the black vote for granted. So in Jay H. Ell’s humble opinion, in this point in time, a woman of color has to be favorite. Arising out of the recent three murders of African Americans, the legitimacy of their complaint that they are still to this day discriminated against has gained even more currency and support. Furthermore they cannot be seen to be taken for granted.
The short list of candidates has to include the sharpest tool in the whole Democratic field Kamala Harris who was also a prosecutor and whose legal activities are now being vetted up the ying yang. Then there is Stacie Adams who nearly won the Georgia Governorship for G-d’s sake. The Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has put in a sterling performance midst the coronavirus and mass protests and unhelpful Republican Governer. The eloquent and capable Val Demmings who was formerly a police chief and has called for cops to report brutality has to appeal all round. All the latter have strong credentials at working across the aisle. There are others as well but you get Jay H. Ell’s drift.
The crisp point is that any of these talented woman of color would be in tune with the majority of the country at this point in time.
BIDEN’S LIMITED MEDIA EXPOSURE
Bearing in mind that with Trump around sucking all the oxygen out of the air Biden hasn’t had that much media exposure. Those opportunities he has had he used to good effect other than the odd gaffe which has been characteristic of his whole career. He has, in the coronavirus disaster, accompanied by economic hardship for the most vulnerable sectors of the community and in the George Floyd murder and its aftermath, acted as mourner and consoler in chief in stark contrast to Trump. He is as authentic as they come having lived through profound losses himself.
He has stepped out of his comfort zone by going against the powerful police union that has been hyper protective of officers even in the current situation. Unions have generally backed him including the Police Union. However this situation called for him to condemn the culture whereby some police stand around and defend their own and do nothing to prevent brutality and even murder. In another major symbolic move, he juxtaposed Trump’s golfing jaunt by silently laying a wreath to the fallen on Memorial Day.
He is expected to attend George Floyd’s funeral in Houston in mid June. Anything Floyd is receiving wall to wall coverage even across the world. If Biden does speak every word he utters will carry more weight than a thousand tweets from the President.
A CONSENSUS IS BUILDING FOR CHANGE IN SOCIETY - THIS MILIEU IS BIDEN’S CHOP AND HE MUST GALVANIZE THE WINDS OF CHANGE
“Cometh the time cometh the man” - there is no one more suited to put together a coalition that could hammer out a parcel of sweeping changes than Biden. Problems that have been ignored for decades and in some instances not addressed for centuries have risen to the boiling point in the current crises of the pandemic and racial injustice.
At the moment there is as close to unanimity that the American population want to attain racial justice and contain abuse of Presidential power. The former has been triggered off by the three recent deaths that in the eyes of many amounted to murder. Close on eighty percent of those polled believe that the problem is far deeper than the murder of George Floyd. The blatant savage brutal homicide has triggered off close on a fortnight of protests in nearly every city in America. Those present have been in many instances largely white.
The protests for racial equity have come from every section of the community political, economic and in the sports and entertainment field. They have also taken place in every nook and cranny of the United States. The numbers attending in Washington DC and Chicago have been estimated at being the largest ever for demonstrations. Protests have been recorded in six hundred and fifty cities and towns in America. The CNN web page provided details of activities of some of the small town America where these outpourings were taking place. Locations included State Town Pennsylvania, one hundred and ninety two miles west of Philadelphia, Farmington Missouri and Holland Arkansas.
Republican opposition has been vocal headed by former President Bush, and Republican Presidential contender Carly Fiorina. Not to be neglected are the sports figures and their governing bodies, most notably the National Football League who admit they played down the issue in 2016 when Colin Kaepernick took a knee and begun an abortive campaign that” Black Lives Matter in response to other “ignored” deaths at the hands of police.
The key constituency in America today - businesses have also joined in an unprecedented way. From JP Morgan and their legendary CEO Jamie Dimon, to Johnson and Johnson, Apple, Amazon and Nike just to mention a few that have come out against racial and economic inequity. While they and the philanthropies represent billions of dollars and untold influence they need cohesion and direction.
Biden should find a forum for all these entities to meet and create a number of principles and projects in partnership with the Federal Administration to provide policies such as minimum wage, educational opportunities or housing just to mention a few options. It is little publicized fact that the key movers and shakers of the deal that was created between Mandela and the Afrikaner Nationalist Government in South Africa were in large part the corporations.
A CONSENSUS IS BUILDING AGAINST THE ABUSE OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER FROM THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT
The Commander in Chief has to date believed and acted as if the Federal Agencies were departments of Trump Inc. There was no branch that he felt more attached to than the military whom he misread as being his own private militia. With the explosion of the nationwide protests following the sickening video of the murder of unarmed George Floyd mushrooming uncontrollably, Trump decided to make Law and Order the issue he would run on in 2020. In a call to the Governors that became public he berated them for being weak with the result that he would send in the United States military.
As the protests themselves grew less and less violent so it took a Trump/Barr orchestrated provocation to bring the military intervention issue into focus. Officers from various agencies broke a massive peaceful demonstration in front of the WhiteHouse in Lafayette Park with batons, tear gas and violence. The reason it transpired was in order that the President and his retinue including the Secretary of Defense could create a photo op in front of a church. This abuse of power and the threat of using the American military unleashed a reaction that Trump could never have imagined, from the one arm of America’s institutions, the militia ,that had rarely ever raised a peep.
Secretary of Defense Espey made it quite clear the forces under his control could not go into battle with their own civilian society. This open opposition to the WhiteHouse angered the POTUS but did not prevent a flood of former Generals to come out of hibernation and revolt against Trump’s treachery. The bitter biting criticism of his recently resigned and highly respected Defense Secretary General Mattis had the profoundest political impact and the Republican caucus has to be bursting at the seems in frustration. Lisa Murkowski is having her Damascus moment, it really took a lot for it to happen! But for the rest of the gutless they are not available for comment. It is really a question of time before more rats desert the WhiteHouse bunker. Another eighty three Defense officials and personnel sent a scathing letter to the President. The signatories included four former Secretaries of Defense two Republicans and two Democrats. Added to them are former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State General Colin Powell.
The very fact that Trump could have unilaterally turned his military establishment into his those opposing his policies was an unthinkable hypothesis a week ago. Biden could well use this consensus to re examine the relationship between the armed forces and the Executive. America was a mere declaration away from the President instructing the army to mow down protestors.
PARTICIPANTS IN PRODUCING A CONSENSUS
The creation of a consensus which has to recognize, as well, the constituencies of the angry that supported Trump and pushed him over the Electoral College top as well as the group that catapulted Bernie Sanders onto the national scene is not going to be easy. Biden is more than aware that politics is the art of the possible and that if he wishes to reset the soul of this country he cannot only have a two year stint of legislation, losing the legislature at the first midterms. Nevertheless as he well knows leadership matters, America is in a deep mess at the moment the economic sequelae of the mismanaged ongoing coronavirus pandemic have still to be met. In fact the latter is far from over it has only been declared finished. So Biden needs to heal, be honest with the citizenry as to the challenge needed as well as declare to them the vision of freedom and equity he would like to attain with their help and sacrifice.
So to end where it begun - the country needs vision and leadership. To effect this Biden has to move from his comfort zone and project a world that moves America forward not merely replace the experiment of Trump’s “Great America” by the previous status quo. He must move from “Biden with Biden” to “Riden with Biden”. In so doing he has the opportunity of going down in history as a transformative President who not only settled the ship but created a new equitable democratic America which lead the world in coping with diversity and the revolutionary challenges it faces in the twenty - first century.
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