JUNE 28, 2020 – If I had 15-minutes with Biden, I’d say:
“Joe, you’re in a unique position. You don’t have to worry about the electability of your VP pick.
“Polls show you have a commanding lead over Naked Emperor and Sycophant-in-Chief. Doofus Duo will continue to plummet, and you’ll win by a landslide . . . assuming failure of Republicans’ voter suppression.
“But let’s look beyond your election. You’re the ultimate ‘old, white guy’ in a country where the median age is two generations younger than you and whites will be a minority less than two generations from now. Your day in sunshine is over the horizon, and I don’t mean to the east.
“To use your elegant phrase, ‘Here’s the deal . . .’ Millennials think you’re too old, white and moderate to deserve their votes—though you’re the third geologic time zone behind Paleolithic. Young people think you’re Neolithic, and in their uninitiated minds, all cave men live in the same cave.
“Yet, among us still are cave people who cheer Paleo-Man and think Ukraine means, ‘You, crook!’
“The point here: you’ll have a helluva time governing. The best that you can do is keep the country from exploding or plunging into depression. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is simply to be Transition Man.
“This means no radical reforms. (Yet, it’ll be no time to be idle. On Day One, you’ll need to countermand every single executive order of Paleo-Man. All that does, of course, is return us to status quo ante.)
“To keep reactionaries at bay—no radical change. To control progressives—the ultimate force to reckon with—and ultimately reunite the country, the central focus of your (one-term) presidency must be to groom your successor for her two-term presidency.
“Let’s talk about that presidency. Run by a woman, it’ll be a first. But let’s not get carried away congratulating ourselves. A woman president is long overdue. Women have been around since the dawn of man and in brains and numbers equal to men.
“We need to look at changing demographics; at people of all colors realizing that fundamental change must occur if we are to survive ourselves.
“If, as the progressives demand, we attempt radical change at once, it will trigger a violent reaction, even lead to unforgiving revolution. No, we need four years of a storm-free transition from the darkness of night to the light of day. It’s called the dawn of a new America.
“Once morning arrives, it will be a day in the sun for well-designed, well-directed, well-implemented policy changes. In that day a woman of color must lead.
“I say, Stacey Abrams. After the announcement, give her a prominent role and meaningful responsibilities. Over the next four years, give her more experience, more exposure, more opportunity, more capacity than any other vice president in history to learn the ropes, develop the skills and establish the reputation for true leadership.
“Here’s the deal, Joe: do that and future historians will give you a slap on the back and . . . a statue.”
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© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
