Take a Break from Typhoid Donny with Uncle Joe’s Gettysburg Address

By DICK POLMAN

Here’s a splendid idea: Instead of focusing on the latest White House horrors – Trump’s aides are trying to stop him from spreading his deadly infection to the Oval Office – let’s shift our attention to the soothing ministrations of Uncle Joe.

As well we should. Biden has opened up a double-digit lead in six national polls, and he’s pouring ad money into highly competitive red states, all of which means (believe it or not) that he’s well positioned to put the COVID-in-Chief out to pasture. He deserves at least equal time in the news cycle that Trump is increasingly desperate to dominate – but not just for horserace reasons. What he said yesterday, in a Gettysburg address, was a veritable balm to our battered spirits.

Biden referenced Abraham Lincoln’s speech on that same sacred ground:

“He believed in the rescue, redemption, and re-dedication of the union. All this in a time, not just of ferocious division, but of widespread death, structural inequity, and fear of the future. And he taught us this: A house divided could not stand. That is a great and timeless truth. Today, once again, we are a house divided, but that, my friends, can no longer be. We’re facing too many crises. We have too much work to do. We have too bright a future to have it shipwrecked on the shoals of anger and hate, and division...

“There’s something bigger going on in this nation than just our broken politics. Something darker, something more dangerous. I’m not talking about ordinary differences of opinion, competing viewpoints give life and vibrancy to our democracy. No, I’m talking about something different, something deeper. Too many Americans seek not to overcome our divisions, but to deepen them. We must seek not to build walls, but bridges. We must seek not to have our fist clenched, but our arms open. We have to seek not to tear each other apart, we seek to come together. You don’t have to agree with me on everything, or even on most things, to see that we’re experiencing today is neither good nor normal.”

Biden is ridiculed in some quarters for believing that we still have the requisite willpower to build bridges. But the choice in this election is strictly binary: Do we ratify Typhoid Donny’s dark vision, or do we go with someone who’s at least trying to appeal to the better angels of our nature?

And the pandemic sharpens the contrast like no other issue. One guy doesn’t give a damn who he infects, even in his own inner circle; the other guy aspires to be our public health president. These passages in his Gettysburg address were key:

“What we need is leadership that seeks to deescalate tensions, to open lines of communications, to bring us together, to heal, to hope. As president, that’s precisely what I will do. We paid a high price for allowing the deep divisions in this country to impact how we deal with the coronavirus. 210,000 Americans dead, and the number’s climbing. It’s estimated that nearly another 210,000 Americans could lose their lives by the end of the year. Enough, no more. Let’s just set partisanship aside, let’s end the politics and follow the science.

“Wearing a mask is not a political statement. It’s a scientific recommendation. Social distancing isn’t a political statement. It’s a scientific recommendation. Testing, tracing, the development and approval and distribution of a vaccine, isn’t a political statement. It is a science-based decision. We can’t undo what has been done. We can’t go back. We can do so much better. We can do better starting today. We can have a national strategy that puts politics aside and saves lives.

“We can have a national strategy that will make it possible for our schools and business to open safely. We can have a national strategy that reflects the true values of this nation. This pandemic is not a red state or blue state issue. This virus doesn’t care whether you live, or where you live, what political party you belong to, it affects us all. It will take anyone’s life. It’s a virus. It’s not a political weapon.”

But Biden’s address was not policy-centric. With 28 days left on the electoral clock, his goal was to offer a curative for our serious spiritual ills: “I will raise hope, not fear. Peace, not violence. Generosity, not greed. And light, not darkness. I’ll be a president who appeals to the best in us, not the worst.”

And if the polls are any indication, it appears that the electorate yearns for someone who will comport and act and sound like a President of the United States.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, November 1, 2020

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