The Very Bearable Lightness of Biden
A few nights ago, early on in one of our Zoomchats that have become ubiquitous over the past year, a cousin grinned broadly and asked “Don’t you just feel better since January 20th?”
“Yes!” my wife and I exclaimed in unison. It was so very true. Pandemic paunch aside, I feel lighter these days.
Lightness. That’s the gift Joe Biden is giving us. Not that the disease has magically disappeared, or employment has returned to the millions laid off because of the economic ravages of Covid, or the pervasive sadness at the enormous loss of loved ones has lifted.
But if you’re like me, waking up is no longer a moment of anticipatory anxiety. You’ve stopped dreading being triggered by the certainty that some Tweet, some crazy rant, some perverse new policy, will greet you before coffee. The evening news no longer causes that churning in your stomach, the surging of your blood pressure and clenching of your jaw. Doomscrolling has been replaced by dumbscrolling.
Be honest. Have you missed being gaslighted in the last 50 days? Have you fretted over the fact that your daily count of cursing at the TV has dropped so low, you barely notice it? Are you in withdrawal from not hearing commentators perpetually pronouncing (ahistorically, quite often) that the latest Administration outrage “is not who we are”? If you answered “no”, welcome back into the lightness.
Sure, Joe hasn’t fixed everything. Just ask Twitter — thousands of Twitterati still insist loudly that the glass is completely empty because POTUS hasn’t already reversed every cruel policy of the past four years. I guess if you’re the type who is always looking to be disappointed (“I told you, the Dems always cave!”), why even give the guy 100 days?
But me? I will trade you the perpetual propaganda of American Carnage for a few of Old Uncle Joe’s corny stories any day. I’ve heard enough narcissistic anecdotes building up to “He came up to me and said, Sir….”? to last me several lifetimes. Bring on the aphorisms, bathe us in comforting parables of fathers and mothers doing their best for their families. I’m not even close to being tired of listening to someone quoting his Dad saying “Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect.”
Someday I will tire of Bidenisms. Right now, every time he ad libs another “folks, here’s the deal” and “look, that’s not hyperbole” riff, it brings a smile to my face. Folks, I’m serious!
Don’t misunderestimate the guy, mind you. A light touch does not mean a lightweight. On day one he proposed an astonishingly huge, politically audacious $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill. Just a few weeks later, despite razor thin margins in the Congress — and the best efforts of the Oracles of conventional wisdom to scare him into doing too little — they passed a $1.9 trillion Covid bill. True to form, the President and his team accomplished it with relatively little muss and fuss, no shaming Tweets necessary.
Better yet, middle of the road Joe delivered transformative change. In some cases he delivered massive relief to people who didn’t even realize it was coming. Take one example. Yesterday a relative called, elated and astonished. He had just learned that one obscure section of the American Rescue Plan did just that to his pension — protecting roughly $500,000 of lifetime payments, money he was sure he would never see. Thanks to a proposal by Senator Sherrod Brown, my relative and 10 million other workers in 1400 so-called multiemployer pension plans will have more secure retirements. Huge! Is Biden crowing about it, demanding that retirees thank him or he’ll take the money back?
I think most of us are ready for this, starved for what some deride as “normalcy.” After four years of constant reality TV, we are ready for a plain old real Presidency. A guy who will just care about all Americans, do the job, and not demand that we laud (or maybe lard?) accolades on him daily.
I can’t wait for the first Cabinet meeting. A table full of talented public servants who look like America will be assembled. The agenda will not be a round of forced praise for the Great Leader, taking turns fawning performative “It is the honor of a lifetime to serve you” statements. Instead, Joe’s team will just get down to business, doing the work for America. It will be so undramatic that I may not even pay much attention.
Lightness. I could get used to this.
