The Clear Choice Before Us

Life may be a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats

Voltaire once wrote life may be a shipwreck but that we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. Let us sing then.

I have much to write about our recent Rajanaka Camp conversations about the mythologies and meanings of the Ayyappa story. But today I’m going political, not to be vexing or borish but because these things matter in life no matter how we try to evade or attempt innoculation.

I for one can’t go about pretending it’s not happening, as if a “spiritual” life were possible without taking up such matters. Of course, some have argued that a truly spiritual life not only excludes the political but exempts us from its tribulations. So much yoga tradition has sought such invulnerability often by espousing some or another kind of asociality, renunciation, internalization. I suppose it is possible to go so far inside your own imagination that the world really no longer matters. And if that’s true, everyone can make their own decision. I making a different decision here.

So here goes.

I had a long day and a worse night following this Sunday afternoon's announcement that Biden was stepping down. I felt wearied, despairing, relieved too but wondering what comes next. I dove into pictures of our pup when all seemed lost.  The dog knows how to be happy and I can’t deny that treats, a good cur snooze, and some yard time helps. But even that was not enough.  When feeling disconcerted, balled up, and woolly, I must reengage reason. I think we need to be discerning and ask the hard questions.  I think that is essential to living an examined life, a spiritual life. The search for meaning is meaning made from the hardest things we face as human beings. My discomfort was a prompt to go deeper.

We humans need rage as much as we need the entire complexity of emotion to find our core but we always need calm to reveal its meaning. A soulful life takes up the difficult tasks of choice and purpose, without which meaning will remain inchoate, embryonic, formless. Meaning needs form to emerge from the heart’s desire.

Let me be clear, I'm deeply, genuinely worried about our collective fate as a nation. I think there is also a plan unfolding for Democrats. I think we have to take sides if there is to be a world that projects a future of possibilities for all. If we want to go deep, get inside our hearts, ignite the soul, we’re going to have to sort out our everyday affairs. We’re going to have to take living with differences seriously. We’re going to need ideas and plans and strategies to speak to these aspirations.

Since the debate I have not believed President Biden was in position to win reelection despite my belief that his presidency has been among the most effective and beneficial terms in our history. Not the least of his accomplishments has been to keep, as far as possible, the barbarians at the gate. This is no ordinary political opposition we face but instead a dangerous, likely existential threat to democracy and decency itself. I don’t believe this is hyperbole or exaggeration. A spiritual life must be as sober and honest as it is committed to the joys and consequences of a life lived, a pursuit of the meaningful

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But now is the time to draw out the important real differences and choices that people need to understand. As usual, I need write to clarify in my own head what the heart feels when the turmoil is real. Sometimes a dark night of the soul and the very early morning need to meet for a good conversation.

By deciding not to run for his office in 2024, Joe Biden joins the most honorable politicians of our history. He has put country before himself, before party as a clear and unambiguous choice. This is not merely because he has been facing the very real prospect of a loss. Rather, it is be cause the president sees Donald Trump as a threat to American democracy.

I think we all agree to the latter point: I have been nothing less than distraught for our future. Biden did what he could to make his case, to recover but he has always been a savvy politician and now all will know beyond any doubt that he is both a wise and decent person.

Republican responses will be as predictable as they are disingenuous but the facts speak plainly: Biden has done what is right thing, not the politically expedient or self-aggrandizing thing.

If the political calculation was that we were facing 2016 again, this time we know none of the supposed adults in the room who guided Trump during his tenure would be present. A next Trump administration would be staffed as such by the worst opportunists, cranks, and extremists. This possibility has not diminished one bit in the last 24 hours nor will it unless Trump is defeated. The courts are well-positioned to support a new, worse Trumpism. The corrupt conservative majority on the Supreme Court has already invited Trump to rule as king---or worse as dictator. This is what is directly before us.

Biden faced with this nightmare scenario, which he understood plainly in 2020, did the most courageous thing he could have done again. But this time he ended his candidacy rather than decided to begin it. How hard must that have been for him?

Faced with what he sees as a nightmare scenario both for his party and his nation, President Biden decided to end his candidacy.

I too hope never to become a defensive, brittle old man who cannot hear the concerned and rational voices of those around him. But I have no such burden as Joe Biden. We all must come to grips with the facts and in Biden's case that was the fact that he was the Democrat least likely to defeat Trump. Understanding this hard truth, he listened, understood, and made what is certainly a personally painful decision. (When my time comes, I hope too to hear the voices of reason and love coincide to reach the best choice.)

I don't know whether Biden’s replacement will fare better in November.  But I do think there is now an actual replacement.  That unknowing her fate is not mere cynicism but rather I think another fact. Having given this a lot more thought, I think Biden again made the best and wisest political choice. Rather than a repeat of 1968 he quickly and unequivocally endorsed his vice president. Democrats must coalesce to have a chance to win and Vice President Harris is not only the logical political choice but eminently qualified for the office.

What we need is a fighting chance, not a fight amongst ourselves that will leave us further fractured and incapable of rallying when our time to decide is short and requires communication and comity.

Recently, Biden said he was eager to get back to the campaign trail but now with Harris leading the ticket this kind of barnstorming and the vital messaging of policy and fact can be undertaken wholly, entirely. We know she can do this. So much will depend on how well she does over these next 100 or so days. She must project the clarity, stability, and competence we know she possesses as an experienced politician and as a person. She must be keenly aware that any stumble or gaffe will be used to declare her unfit while Trump bungles and speaks with typical incoherence. I do not underestimate her task because misogyny, racism, and history also speak plainly in America.

We should expect Republicans not only to go into culture-war overdrive but to exploit every fear, anxiety, and grievance their voters harbor. They will couch much of their criticism in typical rhetoric saying she is too Californian, too liberal while simultaneously claiming that as a former prosecutor, she is too conservative. In every breath they will imply that she is too female and too Black though they won't say that out loud---or maybe they will. Nothing is beneath them.

But be prepared for all of the dog whistles and gratuitous fakes that amp up to 11. Their constituencies will lap this up and Harris will need both to address them directly and allow important surrogates get out the message that these are wanton, indefensible attacks without merit. We're not facing anything like an ordinary election's usual vitriol. This one will be different because Kamala Harris is different in ways America must address as a feature of our history. The fate of the country is before us. Biden understood this. Harris does too and will have the determination to make clear the stakes.

Trump knows only narcissism and a personal vanity that makes him incapable of making such choices. What he does possess is an animal instinct to prey upon fear, anger, and hatred. It will take keen political skills in communication to break through such veils of delusion and disinformation. Trump has whole propoganda networks and billionaire support to shore up his base and amplify the lies.

But from today the difference between Democrats and Republicans could not be clearer. Biden's age is no longer a factor. Instead, it is unmasking Trump's increasing disabilities. Further Democrats must make clear that their younger, more vibrant, capable, and coherent candidate is not a party of one. Democrats are not a cult of personality driven by a bellowing, muddled raving lunatic. Only one political party has brought the adults to the room while the other proposes a would-be dictator. This message can reach voters in key swing states if it is presented plainly and honestly.

Virtually no Republicans called out Trump when he insulted veterans repeatedly or called the nation's war dead "losers." He has been found liable for sexual abuse, which according to a federal judge was tantamount to rape. He has been convicted of business fraud and has hoarded government secrets when he wasn't offering them up to our enemies. When he lost the election, he sent a mob to attempt a coup. Show those pictures again and again and again.

Trump is a pestilence, not a candidate for the nation's highest office. There is nothing "normal" here and that must not be understated. With Biden stepping down all false equivalency can end. Biden is not only a good man but has a record of accomplishment. That record can and must be run on, voiced with conviction for all the genuine good that it has produced. The contrast could not be plainer: Trump's presidency was an incompetent disaster led by an ignorant and selfish man---one who cost the country millions of lives when faced with pandemic. What would Trump do next time? Matters at home must be attended to before it is too late.

The choice is now between a 78-year-old habitual liar whose life offers records of shame and failure and a 59-year-old woman who has served honorably as an effective attorney general of the country's most populous State, a senator, and now vice president of the United States. The contrast could not be clearer.

I see Harris as vulnerable for reasons Americans do not like to discuss openly or honestly. But I would also not refrain from assessing her record with sober skepticism, as we must of any other politician. She may be the "natural" next in line---as of this morning nearly every one of her serious opponents has thrown their support to her---but in the end she a candidate that must rise to the occasion to win. She can draw the contrast between one who understands the gravity of the presidency and all it entails and Trump who simply does not. Let us hope for several debates.

Anyone who has been flustered or despaired an election between two old white men now has no excuses for indecision. Vice President Harris will be an experienced and capable candidate. Republicans in a fever-dream of delusions are fielding Trump. Will young people, women, veterans, people of color, all citizens of America understand the difference and the choice? That is the task of the 106 days before our election. The task is mighty and so much can happen. Let us make this happen.