The Biden advantage: it might take another clown to beat Donald Trump
Both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump share a special gift: the ability to come off as clowns. But there are two differences which might be critical. First, however gaffe-prone he might be, Joe Biden is an experienced, knowledgeable, and qualified man; beneath the clownish facade is a man of substance. With Mr. Trump, what you see is what you get. Half the country seems to be somehow charmed or at least amused by and tolerant of, his erratic and frankly immature behavior; one of the most frightening things about the status quo in this country is that so many people balk at the very reasonable concerns Mr. Trump's mean-spirited tweets and outbursts, his childish tantrums, his consistent falsehoods, and his generally erratic behavior raise about his mental health and thus our national security. I find it hard to imagine the America of even ten years ago putting up with his fondness for dictators and his hostility to our fellow democracies. I continue to shake my head in amazement at the reaction of Republicans and conservatives who were willing to charge President Obama with all manner of disloyalty on comparatively flimsy grounds simply because they didn't see his foreign policy as aggressive enough to the spectacle of an alleged Republican and conservative with given the deep ties to the Russian mob and his habitual subservience to Vladimir Putin, who is reputed to be in league with it. I shudder to think what they would have had to say if Mr. Obama had gone on national radio in North Korea to praise the most brutal dictator on the planet to that dictator's own oppressed and enslaved people, including the North Korean Christians who hold their faith at the risk of their very lives and many of whom have family members who been martyrs or are currently confessors suffering in Kim's concentration camps.
But somehow, America's "evangelical" Christians ignore and even justify that betrayal of their suffering brothers and sisters in the Faith. Somehow they accept his venality and meanness. Incredibly they plead that he is, after all, a "baby Christian" who repents his serial adultery and admitted sexual predation. He, himself, of course, admits making "mistakes" only reluctantly, and says that when he does "he doesn't bring God into it." All-in-all, Mr. Trump's Christian supporters seem to remain oblivious to the evidence that they are being played.
All those patriots who were so outraged at Mr. Obama's bowing to foreign dignitaries (an inappropriate and wholly regrettable habit of which they were right to complain) have suddenly changed their tune when the president who seems, whether out of ignorance or calculation, to actually put the national interests of other nations ahead of our own and undermines our alliances with falsehoods and insults, presents himself as one of their own. Mr. Trump's appointments of originalist justices to the Supreme Court, giving constitutionally sound jurists a majority on the court for the first time in recent history, is altogether praiseworthy. But they shine so brightly in conservative eyes are that conservatives are blinded the abundant evidence that on trade policy, on matters of national security, as regards the traditional conservative commitment to a Constitution with whose content Mr. Trump seems rather unfamiliar and, oath of office or not, less than completely committed, and as regards traditional conservative values like due process, fair play, a decent regard for the truth, and elementary good manners. Conservatives, too- many of which are simply too bright to be so completely hoodwinked- are also being played, and for the sake of power are apparently content that it be so.
The confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh and the prospect that the next vacancy on the Court will be the seat of Justice Ginsburg changes the political equation for me. I doubt that I will actually do it, but for the first time, I could actually consider voting for the Democrat. The re-election of Donald Trump would, I believe, be so toxic to America's political culture and future as to possibly justify even that. And Joe Biden- as extreme as his views are on many issues, and as quirky as his personna- would not be nearly the disaster for America that his radical and obscure potential rivals for the nomination would be. Tim Kaine is the only other Democratic option I can think of whose judgment and maturity might possibly outweigh a socially destructive ideological bent. I would expect to disagree with many of their policies as president, but I believe that our national security would be in better hands than the erratic and undependable ones in which they now reside if either were to replace Donald Trump in the White House.
But that would not be my preference. The Republican party has compromised itself so completely that I see no chance that Mr. Trump could be successfully or even strongly challenged for the 2020 nomination by any Republican, no matter how traditional. Popular Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is supposedly preparing some sort of a run, is somewhere to the left of traditional on certain issues. Were he to challenge Mr. Trump for the nomination, it's doubtful that his candidacy would be more than a joke the morning after New Hampshire.
If Kasich is going to run, it has to be as an independent. I'm confident that somebody will enter the race as a third party candidate- Kasich, or Evan McMullin, or (unlikely) Mitt Romney, or someone else. There are too many of us "Never Trumpers" who cannot vote for the president and would really, really prefer not to even consider voting for the candidate of the other party. There are too many independents who see the need for an alternative to the extremes. And there are even moderate Democrats who are concerned about their party's accelerating drift to the left.
This would be the time for such a movement to get started. Evan McMullin started too late to even get on the ballot in most states, and as a result, he made little impact beyond giving people like me somebody I could vote for in good conscience. He ran as a last resort after literally every more likely candidate had refused. Something tells me that he would rather not run again. But I will really, really worried about this country if somebody doesn't come forward much more quickly this time.
That's the way I personally plan to go in 2020, given the chance. But what about the dynamics of the potential Trump-Biden race, third-party candidates aside?
President Trump, whose judgment is not always the best, claims that Biden is the opponent he's hoping for. At least Mr. Trump can recognize eccentricity in Mr. Biden, even if he is blind to it in himself.
A Trump-Biden race wouldn't be pretty. It would, from a certain perspective, be funny, a comedy show on CNN. It would be a campaign chock full of gaffes and bizarre statements, claims, and events. Each side would laugh at the foolishness of the other side's candidate, and at least claim to be totally oblivious of that of their own.
A narcissist like Mr. Trump could manipulate most of us out of our socks, especially given the fact that half the country is prepared to believe any outrageous statement he makes and see even his most bizarre and unstable behavior as normal. Any of the other candidates might well fare as badly in the face of the largely inarticulate, often incomprehensible, and largely false verbalizations of our president as the Republican debate participants or Hillary Clinton did in 2016. It's hard to bring facts to bear in a debate with a candidate who is impervious to them, especially when such a large percentage of the audience shares that failing.
But how would he handle a wild card like Joe Biden, who is as unpredictable as he is, probably better at schmoozing and mugging for the camera, and capable of putting on at least as good a comedy act as Mr. Trump's own? It would be interesting to find out. The fact that he, unlike the president, would know what he was talking about and occasionally would make sense might actually be noticeable as the one distinguishing characteristic between the two.
Yeah, if I were Mr. Trump, I'm not sure I would be so eager to take on Joe Biden. Biden not only can compete with him in the clownishness department but the fact that he would have some idea what he was talking about might be especially noticeable because it's the one obvious contrast between the two men.
The debate would do nothing for our national dignity, of course. But neither does having Donald Trump as our president.
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