Sleepy Joe's a Dream

 I'm a judo player, and our platonic ideal is to use the energy of our opponents' attacks against them in order to defeat them.  It is in this spirit that I have wholeheartedly embraced the 'Sleepy Joe' moniker for President Joe Biden... we will all be sleeping better with an adult in charge of the executive branch.  

I was all-in for Elizabeth Warren in the primary, seeing Joe Biden as too much of a centrist for me, but I think today's Joe Biden is a better man than 1980 Joe Biden or even 2012 Joe Biden.  To crib a line from the Good Professor, Joe Biden has suffered incredible bereavement throughout his life... His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.  I believe that the Joe Biden who swore the oath of office today is wiser than those previous incarnations.

Joe Biden's ascent to the Presidency is an ascent to country wracked by the American Carnage that his ignominious predecessor spoke of, and subsequently created.  Even before he was sworn in, Biden's attendance at a COVID-19 memorial service signaled his empathy and capacity for compassion.  He will be burdened with the national pandemic response, a disaster that he inherits from an incompetent, corrupt scoundrel, and I personally don't see a turnaround in the bad situation for another six months or so... but he WILL respond.

Watching the inauguration ceremony, I was relieved to see that people with normal human emotions, empathy and camaraderie, had replaced an individual motivated purely by greed and grievance.  Kamala Harris, a transformative figure as the first female, African-American, and Asian-American Vice President, radiated joy.  Joe Biden himself delivered a much-needed call for unity (I expect that he will task his underlings in the DoJ to do the requisite ass-kicking):

But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us.

On "We the People" who seek a more perfect Union. This is a great nation and we are a good people.

Over the centuries through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we have come so far. But we still have far to go.  We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility. Much to repair. Much to restore. Much to heal. Much to build. And much to gain. 

 

Even more importantly, President Biden is demonstrating his commitment to a progressive agenda with his executive orders-  rejoining the Paris climate accords, aggressively responding to the COVID pandemic, rejoining the World Health Organization, extending moratoria on evictions and foreclosures, reversing the travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries, reining in oil and gas extraction at national monuments, working for racial equity in federal programs, committing to giving the 'Dreamers' a pathway to citizenship, and other policies that appeal to the more progressive members of the Democratic Party.  Today's Biden looks to me to be a changed man, much more liberal than the senator from business-friendly Delaware.

It's up to us to keep the pressure on the Democrats, to better reflect values of the progressive electorate that put them in the seats of power.  We need to force Sleepy Joe to be a dream for us, even if it means he is a nightmare to others... such as these creeps.