It's a tragedy that so many are so afraid of change; so many now believe that the very idea of democratic government really means, "Leave me alone." The truth of our situation, the enormous shift in wealth from the poor and middle classes to the upper 5% of Americans is made to be overlooked by so-called conservative media. The takeover of the machinery of government by people who, with their wealth, have bought and paid for an entire, once relevant political party by means of lies and subterfuge, has gotten us to a point where we no longer share the same reality, the same facts, the same goals, the same dreams for our kids.
That a Jeff Bezos or a Wall St. hedge fund manager pays nearly nothing (to them) in contributing to our common welfare means nothing, compared to "Leave me alone." This American government was at least nominally designed to work for everyone. It doesn't. It hasn't since TR and FDR broke the back of "malefactors of great wealth” a 100 years ago.
My grandmother, who never got past 5th grade and who worked in a brewery in San Francisco for her entire working life, worshiped the ground Franklin Roosevelt walked on, to her dying day. “Democrats,” she’d say, usually around the Thanksgiving Day table, “are for the little guy. When she retired, she got a pension and a Social Security check until her death at 97 years of age.
My grandmother's 21st century counterparts—uneducated like her, and struggling day to day—believe that if government would just "Leave me alone" with their guns, their savior Jesus Christ, their "family values," and their hatred of the very word "socialism" have been hoodwinked by the Rupert Murdochs and Koch Brothers of the 5%, who infuse public discourse with lies intended to separate people from the truth; to set them against each other.
Biden is a child of commonfolk. He remembers how hard it was for his parents. He remembers how FDR rebuilt this country from the near bankruptcy of the Great Depression, who fought and died in a great war. This is what guides him.
It's what guides me. Government, as Lincoln said, should be "for the people." With this Republican Party it simply isn't. It is now something else. The Party of Percy, Eisenhower, Dirkson, Javits, Smith, Kuchel, the McColl—they are all gone with the ages.
Sanity and truth, among today's Republicans, has deserted them, shown the door for the last 40 years by such as Reagan, McConnell, McCarthy, Cruz, DeSantis, and their like. For 40 years the Republican wealthy have worked to erode all the benefits the working class gained in the first 80 years of the 20th century. Until now, they have been wildly successful.
This is the truth: We will sink or swim together. “Leave me alone!” isn’t an option.