The Elephant in the Room: Tara Reade

Let’s presume, for the moment (ludicrous as it is), that Tara Reade is telling the truth about her encounter with Joe Biden a quarter century ago and that the top two contenders for POTUS are both (in Trump’s stark terms) p***y grabbers.

 

If p-grabbing is a deal breaker for women and other feminists (it didn’t seem to be in Trump’s case), they won’t vote for either candidate, Biden or Trump. So, those voters are a wash; they won’t vote for either candidate.

 

If it isn’t a deal-breaker, then we’re left with clear indications of how these two men differ when it comes to policy-making and position-filling.

 

And that’s where the rubber meets the road when it comes to voting for a President. Take a look at this chart to see where these two men stand on the issues you most care about before you read what follows below. Are there any deal breakers in it?

 

(I’ve never agreed with any candidate on every single issue, but when you want a bus to take you somewhere, you get on the one that’s heading in the direction you want to go, not in the opposite direction.)

 

Then, there’s the issue of who will decide who should become the next one or two Supreme Court Justices. With Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s age and health issues uppermost in people’s minds and others on the court on the verge of “aging out” or dying, the next POTUS will lock in the balance (or imbalance) of the highest court in the land for at least the next twenty years.

 

We’ve seen what Trump does with/to the people he selects or expects to have to deal with: he demands “loyalty” and then, when he feels they don’t serve him above all else, he comes down on them hard. As a result, he has assembled around him a Mafia of sorts, pledged to do his bidding–which is appropriate, since his name is Don.

 

Trump is a an amoral sociopath, showing zero compassion or empathy for others; he focuses only on his personal and professional ow-ees the way a two-year-old addresses his scraped knee.

 

He always looks at what’s in every situation for him, from capitalizing in every way possible from the corona virus pandemic to the way he cannibalizes stimulus packages to quench his own and his capitalist cronies’ lust for more, more more at the expense of the rest of us; and look how he shorts blue states the PPE and other equipment they need to keep their citizens alive. He bellyaches that if every eligible voter could and did vote, no Republican would ever get elected again–a rare truth that underscores why the GOP is doing all it can to tip the scales via voter suppression, gerrymandering and even encouraging foreign governments to enter in and throw monkey wrenches into our election processes.

 

Biden, by contrast, has been on the receiving end of so many sad events (the loss of his first wife and daughter in a car accident, and his son Beau’s death from brain cancer several years ago) that his compassion and empathy genes turn on every time someone mentions a personal tragedy. His entire countenance changes; he remembers what it’s like to be sucker-punched by fate.  He “enters in” to their pain and consoles them wonderfully well, as only someone can do who has been in their footsteps.

 

Although he’s far from a progressive darling, he would most certainly be a far better President than the one we have now.  He hasn’t finished creating his professional legacy yet, and his legacy was more progressive than President Obama’s in a few instances. He came out for gay marriage before Barack did. He realizes love is love and that it sure as hell beats hatred, marginalization and bigotry.

 

So, yeah, although both of these men may be forever tainted by rumors of past indiscretions, proven or not (compare the single, shaky allegation against Biden with all of the actual lawsuits against Trump for unwanted touching and the fact that, according to insiders, he has paid for plenty of abortions caused by his callous disregard for the women he has indiscriminately screwed), they are far from carbon copies of each other.

 

If (BIG IF!) the allegations and the chain of events that Reade remembers are true (those who have noticed how her memories have morphed say she’s an unreliable recounter of events), Biden did back off in a fear-stricken, ham-handed way instead of apologizing for presuming she’d be thrilled to find herself on the receiving end of his attention and intentions. In fact, if he hadn’t (again, allegedly) been so ham-handed when she rebuffed him and had handled the situation like a contrite gentleman, she may have just let sleeping dogs lie. She has said it was what he allegedly told her after she demurred that hurt her most.)

 

I think voters are going to decide in a huge way that Trump’s reign is OVER. No matter who heads up the DEM team, I still think there are enough NEVER AGAIN/ANTI-TRUMP voters in all parties (and unaffiliated) to put the kibosh on the further (fuhrer) machinations of the ingrate in the Oval Office right now.

 

I hope with everything in me that I’m right. (Michael Moore isn’t convinced Biden can win against Trump, and that makes me nervous, because he said the same thing in 2016 when pundits were all saying Clinton was a shoo-in by a landslide to become the next President.)

 

It will take VOTERS to make me right or wrong.  I hope they turn out in unprecedented numbers this year. If they don’t, I will lose all my faith in America and Americans. This is the most consequential election in our collective lifetimes. The future depends on how many people vote, and how.

 

I hope no one wastes a single vote.

 

Every. Vote. Brings. Us. Closer. To. The. Future. We. Seek. In the Supreme Court, in D.C., and here at home in our states and counties.