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President Boring

  
Via:  Bob Nelson  •  3 years ago  •  10 comments

By:   John Scalzi (Whatever)

President Boring



Has there ever been, in the history of the Presidency of the United States, so low a bar for the incoming occupant of the position as Joe Biden now has?

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John Scalzi is a   science fiction writer. He's good, and has a zillion prizes to prove it (including this year's Hugo). That wouldn't necessarily make him a good political commentator... but I think he is in fact  pretty good.

His blog isn't all worth reading, but hey! You don't need to be spoon-fed, do you?



S E E D E D   C O N T E N T




800 After Donald Trump’s tenure , if Biden did nothing more in his term of office than not shit on floor of the Oval Office, nor set fire to the drapes, he’d still be ahead of the game, in terms of personal comportment. Lord knows Biden is not a perfect man nor a perfect politician, but neither is he a buffoonish sociopath with rage issues and a chorus of inadequacies screaming in and out of his skull all hours of the day and night. Biden is boring, in point of fact, and never has boring felt so good. We’re not   settling   for boring. Boring is what we’re   hoping for .

But boring alone won’t be enough from Biden. It’s been a tradition for the last few presidential cycles for a Republican president to fuck up the country in some significant way, and for a Democrat to come into the office and spend a not insignificant amount of his term fixing things; indeed, one could say fucking up the country is an actual Republican   goal , to keep the Democrats from being able to achieve their own policies and plans. In this regard, Trump has done marvelously well; the US is as dysfunctional now as it has ever been short of an actual (declared) civil war, and while Trump did not do that on his own — he had vital assistance from the Republican party, who aided and abetted his worst excesses, up to and including an insurrection against the legislature — he certainly did   enough . It’s good that Biden’s boring, relative to Trump. But if boring means simply a functional status quo for the next four years, a milquetoast attempt to get back to “normal,” we’re all fucked.

I want Biden to use his boring for good — a bland, genial and chummy front to keep white people from freaking out about substantive work his underlings are doing. And when I’m talking about “white people” here, I’m not talking about the dimwit QAnon jackasses who will need years of deprogramming to even conceive of the notion that Joe Biden, of   all   people, is not in fact the head of an international conspiracy to do terrible things to children and pets. I’m also not talking about the actual fascists, who are these days too bold and too many. Those people are lost. Fuck ’em. I’m talking about the rest of the white folks out there, the perfectly nice, oh-sure-we-vote-Republican-but-we-thought-Trump-was-a-bit-much folks,   and also   the perfectly nice, oh-sure-we-vote-Democrat-but-let’s-not-get-ahead-of-ourselves-here folks, who even after   an actual white riot at the Capitol   still don’t grasp how their own privilege and assumption got us to a place where we almost chucked away our republic for someone who represents the worst possible version of our union. White people in their obliviousness almost “both sided” our country into authoritarianism and, yes, fascism. We have a   loooooong   way to go to get back from that bullshit. If Biden’s “Uncle Joe” shtick makes them comfortable on the way, great, because now we really do know what the alternative is.

That said, I’m not expecting miracles from Biden. One, the political reality is there are razor-thin margins of Democratic control in the House and Senate, and then there is a radicalized Republican party, much of which still won’t admit that Biden actually won the presidency in a legitimate election, and which still unfathomably has not chucked to the side a corrupt, unpopular and criminal president who lost them the House, the Senate and the White House. There are things Biden and his administration can and should do from day one, and it looks like at least some of them will be done. But a lot of the really hard lifts are still going to be hard. No one likes to hear that, but it is a real thing.

Two, Biden’s grandfatherly centrist shtick isn’t just a shtick, he’s really that way. He’s a 78-year-old white man who spent his entire political life just to the right of whatever was “center left” at the time, and is still under the illusion that just because he spent time in the Senate with Mitch McConnell, McConnell wouldn’t stab him in both kidneys at the earliest possible convenience, sniggering as he did so. This is yet another place where Kamala Harris will come in handy: pointing out to Biden that the Senate is a very different place now, and there’s only so far “bipartisanship” is going to take him. Hell,   Biden   should know that after watching eight years of Obama getting his hand slapped away every single time he reached it out. But I guess Biden is gonna give it the ol’ college try anyway.

So, yes, I suspect I will be exasperated with Biden a lot, and remember that I am a well-off cishet white dude who is not, in fact, a radical liberal. However exasperated I will be is a mere fraction of what others, more affected by the nonsense of the last four years, will be feeling. What I’m going to try to remember in those moments is that every step away from the abyss our nation almost toppled into is a good step. Biden will be my president (thank God), but he’s not the president   for   me. He’s the president for White People Who Still Haven’t Realized How Bad It Just Got, and hopefully through him, things get better for a whole lot of   other   people. Every day of that will be a victory of sorts. Or could be, at least.

I will take that for now. It’s a vast improvement over what we’ve had for the last four years. I’m willing to let boring work for us. Let’s see where it can get us in four years, and then, possibly, beyond.



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Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
1  seeder  Bob Nelson    3 years ago

"Do not behave like a spoiled-rotten child..."

Yeah... that's a pretty low bar, but... it would be such an improvement!

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
1.1  Greg Jones  replied to  Bob Nelson @1    3 years ago

[Deleted]

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
1.1.1  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  Greg Jones @1.1    3 years ago

[Deleted]

 
 
 
TᵢG
Professor Principal
2  TᵢG    3 years ago
Biden is boring, in point of fact, and never has boring felt so good. We’re not   settling   for boring. Boring is what we’re   hoping for .

Oddly enough, that is what I have been hoping for.   I would prefer Biden operate like a maintenance crew repairing the system after it has experience a shitload of stress.   Focus on COVID-19 until we can achieve a normality.   Then focus on truly being a PotUS for everyone by encouraging actions that serve the nation as a whole.   For example, sensible immigration policy that secures our borders while allowing legal immigration to continue.  Encourage renewable energy but do not try to force it with massive federal actions.  Respect science (aka modern empirical knowledge of reality), and take sensible actions to reduce our impact on AGW and encourage other nations to follow suit.  Show the rest of the world that the USA has ejected the malignant narcissist, pathological liar from office and that an adult is now in charge.   Preserve the principles of Roe v Wade ... just keep it steady.   

Do not attempt to make massive changes to our healthcare system.   If anything, organize a panel consisting largely of private sector experts in the medical field to devise a long term, layered strategy for a modern, effective healthcare system that would work for the USA.   Working yet again on a political 'healthcare' system is a loser.   Do not open the borders to make illegal immigration easier.   Do not follow the lead of Sanders and try to fix crony capitalism within the term of a PotUS.   Do not follow the wishes of your VP.   And do not take any actions that would hinder the economy.   We need a strong economy to help us work out of the mess of COVID-19.   Oh, also, don't just throw money at problems.

( I could go on forever )

Bottom line, I would hope for Biden to help repair damage:  to lead and manage rather than spend.

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
2.1  seeder  Bob Nelson  replied to  TᵢG @2    3 years ago

That's a good alignment with Scalzi. 

 
 
 
TᵢG
Professor Principal
2.1.1  TᵢG  replied to  Bob Nelson @2.1    3 years ago

One more note on the economy.  

If the economy can remain healthy for four more years, that will kill any chance for Trump to run again (regardless of what happens with impeachment).   It will show to the electorate (and maybe even to the stupidly stubborn misguided die-hard sycophants who continue to carry his water) that there is nothing magical about Trump and that he inherited a growing economy and did not create it using the sheer force of his highly touted but totally bullshit  'business acumen'.

Biden need to be careful here.   A PotUS has little power to make an economy stronger, but can do serious damage to an economy.

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
2.2  Greg Jones  replied to  TᵢG @2    3 years ago

[Deleted]

 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
2.2.1  Dismayed Patriot  replied to  Greg Jones @2.2    3 years ago
[Context]
 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
3  Kavika     3 years ago

I'm very happy to have a Boring President, In just half an hour Joe Biden will become President of the United States. 

Lead us back from the wilderness Mr. President.

 
 

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