Earlier in July, Jay Bookman wrote an opinion piece for the Georgia Recorder titled “If the America I love is going to fall to Trumpism, I want it to go down fighting.” I responded with a letter to the editor but never heard back from the publication. I’m publishing it here, with an additional message to Congressional Democrats following.
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Jay Bookman writes a piece titled “If the America I love is going to fall to Trumpism, I want it to go down fighting.” The irony of the title is that he’s advocating for President Biden not to fight but to quit. And the disconnect in his message between what he proposes and it actually means continues throughout his writing.
Bookman believes that one debate performance is sufficient to force President Biden to step aside for ‘fresh’ blood. In his favor, he mentions Kamala Harris. He’s at least somewhat better than so many others who also want to skip Harris as candidate in addition to Biden.
Where Bookman fails is he watched the debate, rather than read the debate transcript. He allowed himself to be ruled by the optics of the debate, rather than the substance. Because if he had read the transcript, he could have seen where much of Biden’s ‘confusion’ and seeming weakness in the debate was less about Biden’s age, and more about Biden having to do the job of debate moderator as well as debate participant.
President Biden was forced to attempt to fact check the firehose of lies coming from Trump, at the same time he was trying to sell his own capabilities to the public. Add to this the fact that, unlike Trump who plays golf for days at a time between rally appearances, Biden also has to run the country and deal with several difficult situations throughout the world in the days leading up to the debate.
He was tired, and he wasn’t feeling well and he was trying to handle two things at once with every answer and it didn’t go well. And that is enough for Bookman to toss him under the bus. I have to wonder if we should do the same for Mr. Bookman when he has an off day?
Completely ignore the excellent job President Biden has done the last 3 1/2 years, and the excellent job he continues to do today, because the only thing that matters is a debate performance.
What Mr. Bookman, certain Hollywood rich people, some Democratic congressional members and way too many in the media all forget is that We the People chose President Biden. We chose him knowing his age and knowing the risk of electing someone who is older. We went into the primaries with our eyes wide open, and for many if not most of us, our choice remains the same: we choose President Biden as our Democratic candidate.
We felt comfortable making this choice because of VP Kamala Harris, as well as the excellent and now seasoned cabinet and staff that President Biden has put into place. We knew then, and still know now, that if President Biden can’t continue as President in the future (and there’s no reason to think this will happen), the country’s leadership will continue without a pause because of VP Kamala Harris and the existing staff and cabinet.
Many of us watched President Biden field an hour long press conference yesterday and he did so with strength, intelligence, and experience. Sure he flubbed a couple of names, but he wouldn’t be our Joe if didn’t flub up a time or two during a speech. Most of us are aware of his speech impediments, and frankly, most of us aren’t ready to jump ship just because of the media fixation on an accidental slip of the tongue, or a bad night at the debate.
How dare any of you take away our right to vote for the candidate of our choice. This is exactly what you’re doing—taking away our right to vote. And by doing so, how are any of you any different than Trump and his people in 2020?
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Now, to certain Congressional Democrats currently lacking both courage and, in my estimation, intelligence, let me repeat what needs to be understood:
We, the voters who participated in the Democratic primary went into the primary with our eyes wide open. We weren’t somehow ignorant of President Biden’s age, either now or the age he’ll be in four years. How dare any of you treat us with such disrespect that you feel you have the right to countermand our votes based on your false belief in your ‘superior’ understanding of what we need to do for November.
All you are doing now, is costing us the election. I don’t why or what selfish or foolish motive there is to your telling we the people that we can’t have the candidate of our choice. If it’s because of wealthy supposed Democratic financial backers, to hell with them. If it’s because of some Hollywood celebrities who oddly enough happen to straight, white, wealthy men who have nothing to lose from this election, then to hell with them.
If it’s because you’re only concerned about your own butt this November, well, to hell with you, too. We may vote for you this November, but know that the voters you’re disrespecting now will do everything we can to make sure you never win a Democratic primary ever again.
After all, you’re trying to deny us our right to having our say during a Democratic primary, it’s only fair to do the same to you.
