09 May The M______est of All Time
If Donald Trump definitely is some breed of G.O.A.T., as we explained last week in The G___ of All Time (May 2, 2023), then Joe Biden must be the M.O.A.T. by some meaning of that abbreviation and its initial M.
And, in the same way our prior post described the former president as the ultimate lower-case goat, President Biden is just as much the moat with a small m. Like a ring of water built around a medieval castle, Joe Biden was put in place to protect our country from harm—specifically, from the things feared about Mr. Trump himself.
M is for What?
The first question involves the most fitting M word to encapsulate the way in which Joe Biden surpasses all who have occupied the Oval Office before him.
Mr. Biden himself for several decades ran for the Senate, won, and acted as one of the most moderate of politicians. We know now, however, that moderate is no longer the right word to describe President Biden. Nor is majestic, masterful, or mighty. His backers and handout recipients might find him merciful, magnanimous, or perhaps magnificent, but those terms truly are not widely accepted descriptors for our leader. The most maligned and misunderstood come closer, although those are not exactly positive attributes.
Moral? Only by comparison to the recent past. Despite his age, even mature is debatable.
Opponents might choose one of these to deride the President: the meagerest, muddiest, or meekest of all time. They would say Mr. Biden is the most malleable, modifiable, managed, mundane, monotonous, mistaken, and malaprop-prone ever to sit in the White House. Anti-abortion protesters might pick murderous. Financial conservatives would opt for money-wasting.
To land on an M adjective that is both fitting and kind, Principle Based Politics has been forced to invent one. The undeniable words, or term if you will, is this: Joe Biden has proved himself to be the MAGA-beatingest, MAGA Republican-tormentingest, of All Time. Yes, the one undisputed way in which President Biden has exceeded all others to date has been in his ability to thwart Donald Trump and his like from running our country.*
*Even that accomplishment, we fully understand, may be more attributable to President Trump’s own failures than to anything Joe Biden has done. Perhaps any Democrat except Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren could have won the 2020 election.
Biden Serves Mostly as the Moat
In his role as the man who evicted Donald Trump and spends most of his time trying to keep the former president and his MAGAites out of the White House and U.S. Capitol, President Biden arguably serves as a barrier of protection around our country. Like the medieval moat, he makes it difficult for Trump and his copycats to take over the keys to the castle.
We are not talking literally about only the Trump-inspired zealots who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. We also are talking about the angry mob of politicians, channeling Mr. Trump himself, who have manipulated the gullible, whistled to the racists, scared the peaceful, and stoked the angry in America. We refer as well to socialists and extremists on all sides of the aisle.
Joe Biden, for all of his M-faults, at least temporarily awakened—we avoid the word woke (see The Broke Woke Joke (Feb. 28, 2023)—America from the Trump nightmare and shielded us somewhat from the once-imminent nomination of the aforementioned Sanders.
We realize that our moat analogy offers faint praise of President Biden, somewhat along the lines of “it could be worse.” But, as the umpire once said, we “call ‘em like we see ‘em.”
Written by Quentin R. Wittrock, founder of Principle Based Politics.
Look for his posts each week, as this blog will explore and promote the idea of principle in politics, both as to individual elected leaders and our federal government as an institution.
Susan Donaghy
Posted at 12:38h, 09 May“handout recipients” …. I hope you are referring to the massive corporate tax break Trump gave out which does NOT trickle down. But…. you may be referring to the
the lower middle class which continues to grow as a result of loss of manufacturing jobs and the exponential technology boom.
The olde saying ” pull yourself up by your bootstraps” doesn’t apply anymore anywhere in the world. The world economy is wobbling it’s way along.
Admin
Posted at 13:27h, 09 MayGreat comment, Susan; thank you. Any kind of breaks directed at particular groups (usually, but not always corporations) are suspect.