There comes a point in politics, like most of life, where all of the books, schools, teachers, theories, while broadly useful in day to day life, obviously, do get cast aside, and the battle takes to the street.
In the end, it always comes down to the rules of the street. You might see a noble President and an autocratic leader, and I do too, but at its core, for all of the talk of democracy and freedom, these are two Godfathers that will seemingly inevitably clash. Maybe only politically, we can hope. But the clash appears fated. And that is ok.
Sometimes the bully shows up at 3 p.m. Sometimes he struts out with his entourage and threatens some more. Sometimes he doesn’t. But what is important is that the aggrieved always shows up. I don’t worry about if Putin is going to twist his britches and get an itchier trigger finger, because what the President said, needed to be said.
There, I said it.
At some point the rules of the street apply, and you have to be willing to break a tooth or get a black eye. But you have to show up. Those are the rules of the street.
Antony Blinken can walk back whatever his playbook tells him to walk back. No kidding, none of us want to see the night sky lit up with a mushroom cloud as our last vision. Duh. We know this. But sometimes, not always, but just sometimes, you have to show up ready to dance. And too many people, and this also needs to be said, that are in Democratic politics know squat about politics. Not at the gut level. They don’t. (But the future is bright, AOC, Cori Bush, Newsom and more)
On a cynically political level the President needs an ass to kick. Republicans are behaving indignantly and with no regard for decency, and Covid keeps returning, with ever higher gas prices on top of everything else inflation related. The President needs a (political) bloodied stump to show off. That is just business. That is just staying in charge of the family. Most Democrats in leadership don’t get that.
People ask me why Reagan (who I am not a fan of) politically survived even after the economy started downhill in his 2nd term. Even after Iran Contra. Why? You want to know why? Because when it became time to deal with Libya, on April 14th, 1986 he special delivered an airstrike to Gaddafi’s house.
He “Reagazon Primed” his ass with a missile.
That’s why. That is the raw unvarnished truth of American politics. You can be John Wayne, you can be Jane Wayne, you can even be Bruce Wayne, but in the end, you better be willing to put up.
You don’t have to like it. But there is little to change it. Once Reagan kicked his ass up and down the Gulf of Sidra, America wasn’t turning their backs on him.
And what the “experts” will find, is that America will react to President’s Biden’s words not with fear but pride.
They won’t turn their backs on President Biden, either.
Political experts know everything. It is why they frequently know nothing. Perhaps the greatest collegiate lie ever told is calling politics a science.
Politics is theatre.
But what makes me love this President even more, is that he didn’t say what he said, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power” to posture or project or any of these cheap psychological tactics. He was speaking to the world. He was speaking truthfully. For all I know he might have been crying out to God in emotional pain over what this man has done.
It was pure. It was justified. It was in accordance with the moral arc of the universe. I have come to terms with the possibility that a madman could snuff me out like a used cigarette. That is the world we live in. But my “family” whether you call it America, or the “west” that is a different story. This bastard is not snuffing out all of us. What the President said, in my opinion, will be the defining moment of his Presidency.
Years from now, after I am long gone, it will be seen as the moment that galvanized the world, regardless of what experts too timid to themselves ever enter the fray think. The beginning of the end of the war, and Putin’s reign, started in Poland with the words of the President.
Sometimes you have to say, “Ya, I said it. Whaddaya gonna do about it, punk?”
I am my grandpa’s grandson. I am not acting in fear. That is what the President accomplished. He told me, the world, allies, and future opponents that we are one. That we will not be defeated. We will not be moved. We will not cower. I am not afraid any longer, of World War III. Our nation is firmly behind the cause of freedom and justice, and in perfect harmony with that aforementioned moral arc of the universe.
My soul, according to my faith, which is Christian, the kind that believes in the long-haired liberal Jesus as my Savior, roaming the land talking about love, is at peace.
This is because now that the President has spoken for us, I know I am not on the side that will throw flowers on the grave of freedom.
I will either be on the side that wins, or I will be buried under my own flowers. But I will not be suffering the indignity of appeasing, or turning my back on everything we have built, out of fear, while alive.
My fear of shame is greater than my fear of death. And whether you know it or not, our values, and our willingness to sacrifice for them, are the only things that propel this nation. For too long we have abandoned them as a nation. It is why we have suffered, why we have escalating poverty, and crime, and inequality. Putin knew this. That is how he knew Trump could be viable. Only when we resolutely and collectively show our butts up at 3 p.m. will our enemies get the message. Only when we actually stop letting the United tell a lie on the States, will we solve our problems.
This is not a partisan editorial. This is an American editorial. This is a devoutly liberal human being willing to answer the bell as a liberal. As a New Deal loving, civil-rights backing, Barack Obama door-knocking, Walter Mondale-esque dreamer who believes that we will see Abraham and Martin and John in the eyes of every child from New York to L.A. if we can only take off our own rose-colored glasses long enough to look.
You can’t kill dignity. You can’t kill honor. You can’t kill a concept.
You can’t kill freedom.
I don’t want war. I don’t want to escalate, or “deploy the subs.” I don’t want to engage in a gentalia measuring contest. I simply want to convey the exact message the President did. “I am here. I will be here. You know my address. You know what will happen if you knock on my door. If it goes unknocked, you won’t be rocked. But sooner or later, the neighborhood is kicking you out.”
And because our President understands what too few do, because we are the nation of dignity, of honor, and freedom, while Putin yes, could in theory launch weapons and kill Americans, he can’t kill the United States of America.
That is because we are more than buildings, or zip codes, or cities.
We are hope.
That is the debt we are born into as Americans, or as those who find their way here. We have to pay back in our deeds the sacrifices made by those who came before us. We must live to preserve, and build, and share hope. But there is good news in all of this:
Hope is invincible.
-ROC
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Love,
-ROC
