This really isn't about Joe Biden's Hugging

Creepy Uncle Joe is feeling the pinch of his choices. I probably wouldn’t vote for Joe Biden, but that doesn’t mean I can’t come to his defense. It’s a rule of the courts to not impart intent and testify as to the motives of your opponent or the party being prosecuted. After all, when you are in conflict with another party, you can’t read their mind. Professor X stays pretty busy (or dead, these timelines are confusing) these days. This blog is not a court, nor are you a judge (though I’m sure you’d look smashing in flowing black robes), so I’m going to impart intent for a little bit.

As a side note, I know that compiling all of Biden’s instances of coming in so close the recipient of his affection can tell whether his breath is on 10 or 1 has a bad look. But anyone’s life will cast an unattractive pall were the same thing done with their not-so-shining moments. That, and Biden has never been accused of sexual assault, only making a few of them uncomfortable. I can’t judge him on this point. I’ve got a big personality and love to laugh boisterously. I’ve made more than a few introverts uncomfortable in my day (that remark is for you, big sister).

But Biden is a caring and loving man. He comes from a more demonstrative time. Attacking him and weaving a new hypersensitive strand into the social fabric means we have to start policing ourselves even more tightly in the future. I wouldn’t grab a colleague by the hip in a photo-op, but I would (and have) front-hug a colleague and tell them I love them, planting a kiss on their cheek if I knew them well. You can ask my old principal about that. She and I are great friends and very close. All this even takes into account the “would you do that to a man” argument. I kiss all three of my sons. My oldest is 17 and stopped kissing me on the lips several years ago. That doesn’t mean he stopped getting kisses on his cheek and forehead, often, and in front of his friends and coworkers. I would and have, kissed my male friends on the cheek. I’d do it more often if our culture didn’t call it weird. I’ve held their hands in time of emotional distress, and they mine. I’ve cried on more men’s shoulders than I have women’s, including my mom’s. The Chinese and other Asian cultures are over-protective of their personal space. That’s all fine and good for them, but we humans need touch that isn’t sexual in nature or intent to feel connected to others in this life. I’m a male teacher in a high school. Suspicion already dangles like the sword of Damocles over my head due to those facts. Our contemporaneous time’s habit of overreacting can’t help but make things worse for those of us who want to hug and kiss with only good intentions at heart.

Now, on to the imparting intent. The timing here is predominant. Biden is flirting with another presidential campaign. He’s playing coy and not announcing yet. He’s crafty, old Joe. He knows he has to put some distance between the rest of the troupe announcing, hitting the trail, and furiously racing to the extreme left before he should. The day he announces will be a day of bolstering in the polls. Often it’s a gradual or heavy slide down after that. He also knows he’s got a lot of support built in. But the lefties to the far left of his leftism know this also. They’ve thrown this touching stuff into the mix so as to throw him off his game, possibly remove him from the mix altogether. He’s too moderate. He’s had the gall to say nice things about guys on the other side of the aisle. He’s too old. For some reason age and and the wisdom gained with experience are…a…bad…thing to many Democrats. I don’t really care if my president knows the latest dance craze or the hippest nonsensical phrase to hit the streets this summer. But who am I to tell them they are wrong in their thinking? They’d shout me down in their comment threads and wish violence on my family anyway. He’s establishment. He’s not radical enough.

I’ll gi you dat one mo’ agin. And I’ll say it louder for the folks in the back. The vice president of Barack Obama’s reign isn’t radical enough for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Ladies and gentlemen, have we warped to Bizarro world? Do Democrats have even a modicum of party stability, or must they be like the sea, ever changing, ever elusive, ever unpredictable, ever flowing left? I think they are going about this all wrong anyway. The response to Trump’s outlandish behavior, verbal diarrhea, and childish shenanigans isn’t to go crazy radical oneself. If you really are the party of the moral authority and of the common people, start acting like moral, dignified people. Hillary didn’t lose because she was too moderate and establishment. She lost because she was too unlikable, had too much scandal weighing her down. She also tried to schoolmarm Trump. That didn’t come across as anything but stodgy and condescending.

Even more insidiously, he’s too white, straight, and WASP-y. Identity Politics are the new sheriff in town. Democrats are more guilty but Republicans aren’t even close to guiltless in this regard. Identity Politics states that one’s opinions, experiences, and beliefs are subordinate to their demographic. Simultaneously, it posits that any immoral choices are mitigated, opinions bolstered, or beliefs unquestioningly validated when a member of an accredited victim group makes or espouses them. It’s frustrating because it only sees validity in one’s own opinions and dismisses the other’s out of hand without any open mindedness. It’s fascist and rhetorically slothful because it seeks to strike down civil debate by engaging one’s labeling of the debater rather than engaging their argument. It’s oppressive because it confers autonomy to the thinker of an idea while demanding heteronomy on the hearer of an idea. It’s evil because it rejects any form of absolute morality for relativism. It’s dangerous because moral relativism leads, in its logical end, to excusing, maybe even praising, all sorts of wicked behavior. What’s right is right. What’s logical is logical. What’s valid is valid. None of those are dampened or enhanced by a random and unimportant characteristic of the speaker. I will unreservedly defy identity politics in all its manifestations, while still striving to love and respect those who practice it.

Biden is more likely to win (or put up a better fight) than his younger opponents because they would want to act sanctimoniously and place their virtue signaling dial on eleven. Clearly, the Republican party doesn’t care about personal holiness anymore. They got all high and mighty when it was revealed Clinton liked to chase chubby tale but turned a blind eye to Trump’s scandalous ruffian-ism. But attacking Trump on that front didn’t work for Hillary. It’s hard to snatch and hold onto an eel. A good offshoot of Biden’s moderate behavior would be a measured response to Trump’s all encompassing dorkiness. At the very least, having two old guys who have a creepy streak with women and history of verbal gaffes would be entertaining. Biden, verbal gaffes aside, would probably debate better. Love or hate his political stances, he has substance behind him. Trump is witty in a blazing contest, not so great with procedural politics. Makes one pine for the experienced, dignified, and unshakable eloquence of Ronald Reagan.

The new Democrat Party just doesn’t want Biden. He’s had his chance, now it’s time to step aside and let some fresh faces…fall flat on their faces. This is all moot anyway. I didn’t vote for him, but Trump is the second coming to so very many Republicans. Polarized times mean our guy has to win, no matter what moral compromises one has to make. He’s the incumbent. Many more presidents win a second term than get voted out after the first. The economy is going well. He’s done well on confronting despots globally. He can blame the lack of a wall on Democrats. Were I into predictions and making wagers, I’d say he’s got the lion’s chance to win a second term. So it’s all moot, as I said above. We are all just waiting for AOC to drop-kick Pelosi into the retirement home and announce her bid anyway. She’s a 29-year-old bartender, so I’ve been told. That gives us six more years of her pontificating until she’s ready to be the first socialist president of these United States.

Let Biden run and see failure or success without playing dirty and unfair tricks on him.