LTTE: NYT (not)

[I am not sending this letter to the Times: it’s far too long for them, and they would assert a right to edit it. Screw that.]

Dear Times Editorial Board:

I read your editorial “To serve his country, President Biden should leave the race” (6/30/24) with great interest. Like others, I skipped listening to the debate, since I knew in advance it would not be a debate under the original meaning of the term, but one man answering questions honestly with facts, legislation, and arguments derived from reality. The other man would ignore the questions put to him at the earliest opportunity, and engage in his usual campaign rallying speech: persistent ad hominem attacks interspersed with warped versions of reality. Unfortunately, none of our broadcast media offered to clip out the Republican’s comments, and just offer us the sane guy’s. So I engaged in self-care, and skipped the whole thing.

The first question that your editorial prompted me to ask was: Why are the Democrats being held responsible for the Republicans’ sins? Why are a Democratic president and his Democratic base being asked to save the bacon of the entire country and its settled form of government? Pres. Biden did not get us into this mess; the Republican Party and its chosen candidate did. Why, not for the first time, is one party being asked by the Times to atone for the sins of the other? Surely, if TFG and his party are dangerous to our democracy, it would be fairer to ask the Republicans to admit their multiple errors, express genuine contrition, and clean up their act? Does the Times think Pres. Biden can work miracles, or Kamala Harris, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or Pete Buttigieg, or Katie Porter? Alas, they are all merely human, and are also constrained to playing by the rules, as well as the laws of the land. Since Republicans have broken every rule (and some laws) they could find for fifty years, would it not be a great injustice to let them skate free from this quagmire of their own making?

Whatever your thoughts on that question, I wish to protest being asked to abandon this specific president for the good of the country. As a tenderhearted citizen of the same age as the president, I would be glad to issue him his gold watch, and send him off to a less stressful life with the profuse thanks of his constituents. But as a practical voter, I know that Joseph R. Biden has exceeded my wildest dreams of what a Democratic president could achieve. Not to mention the hostile environment he’s been working in. The man is in the middle of pitching a no-hitter, and one of the coaches wants to pull him and insert a photogenic rookie. For Shame! I say. Democratic voters can’t afford to pull this player from the game. There’s too much good government at stake.

I am gratified to note that the Times thinks Mr. Biden has served this country “so nobly for so long.” But I suspect he would not recognize any nobility in himself. My guess is that he merely takes the “service” part of public service very seriously, and is, at this moment, engaged in a number of practical considerations. Whatever he’s thinking about, I feel confident that this game will be one for the record books.