[FRIAM] An Open Letter to Joe Biden

Wed Jul 3 16:33:44 EDT 2024

Nick-
Send this to My View at the New Mexican.
Tom

=======================
Tom Johnson
Inst. for Analytic Journalism
Santa Fe, New Mexico
505-577-6482
=======================

On Wed, Jul 3, 2024, 10:56 AM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> My Phellow Phriammers,
>
> I am frantic about the last week’s events.  In a fit of absurd geriatric
> arrogance, I have concluded that the attached document contains a good idea
> that nobody else has thought of.  Beset by this illusion, I asking you-all
> to forward this letter to anybody for whom it might make a difference.
> Attachment and/ or in line text below. Suggestions, calming comments, etc.,
> welcome.
>
> Nick
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Dear Joe Biden,
>
> I write to offer some thoughts concerning your decision to continue your
> run for a second term.  These thoughts come in two forms: (1), A
> description of what it is like to live from 81 to 86, something that I have
> done, and you have not.  And (2), a way to leverage your power as
> presumptive nominee to guarantee the best possible solution for all of us.
>
>
>    1. *A Guide The Early Eighties*
>
> I was born in ’38, you, in ’43, back in the good old days when two numbers
> and an apostrophe were sufficient to identify a year.  We both were raised
> during World War II.   We have other things in common, a life-long
> disability, yours a stammer, mine a devastating hip infection as an
> infant.   We both had heart attacks, yours at an early age, mine much
> later.   I say all this to claim some standing with you as a spokesman for
> the early eighties.   I certainly have not suffered the awful human losses
> that you have endured in your long life.
>
> The problem of the early eighties is not what a younger person thinks it
> is going to be.  When I was younger, I worried about the dramatic event
> that killed me or left me totally incapacitated, the stroke or the heart
> attack.  Mind you, these sorts of endings are possible, and the more stress
> a body is under, the more likely they are to happen.   And mind you, also,
> such sudden deaths are devastating to the people you love.
>
>  But rational fear of these outcomes is not the hardest part of living
> through the early eighties.   The most terrifying feature is the vice-like
> squeeze between the time available to do ordinary things and the time it
> takes to do them.  Please consider a simple example.   Once upon a time, I
> could spring from behind a desk like a scalded cat, stride quickly across a
> room, and plop myself down in a couch, while not losing a beat in the
> conversation.  Now, such a move requires preparation.  Arthritis in my
> hips, knees and back makes me stiff after a prolonged period of sitting.
> Am I going to lift with my legs, or with my hands on the surface of the
> desk.   Once up, before I take my first step, I must be sure of my balance
> and footing.  Is that a fold in rug between me and my destination?  My path
> must be adjusted to take account of it. When I get to the couch, I must
> plan my sitting.  I need to sit at the end, so to have the arm of the couch
> to let myself down gently lest I collapse on to the cushions like a pile of
> old bones.  And if I was talking when I decided to make this voyage, I must
> pause.  Those to whom I am talking feel obligated to stay silent till I am
> reseated, lest they endanger my progress. All of this is disconcerting
> enough.   I can only imagine the discomfort I might feel if my spectators
> were generals, congresspersons, senators, or cabinet members.
>
> The expansion of the time it takes to do such small acts is multiplied a
> hundred times a day.   Since fatigue sets in a few seconds earlier every
> afternoon, this time is deleted from a day that is itself shrinking
> inexorably.  Sure, adjustments can be made, sure there can be naps, sure,
> staff can step up, others can fill in, but each of these people is also on
> their own vice-like time schedule.  As this vise tightens, there is bound
> to be a moment when someone’s life shatters between its jaws.   And with
> all the devoted people working around you, you can never be sure that the
> life that shatters is your own.
>
>    2. *Make them put up or shut up.*
>
> Despite these dark realities, I grant that you have many good and generous
> reasons to challenge the odds and hang onto the nomination you have amply
> earned and won.   Ezra Klein’s dream of a orgy of democracy at the
> convention is bonkers.  Unleashing the competitive instincts of a bunch of
> career politicians (and their organizations) at this time would almost
> certainly lead to Trump’s second term.
>
> But there is a way out of this dilemma.  I suggest that you go before the
> nation with the following proposal.
>
> *My fellow Americans, *
>
> *It has come to my attention that many of you are concerned about a
> President’s ability to carry on with the job into his eighties.   You
> should know that most of the work of being president is in hiring the
> people who make up the administration.   That work is done.  The people
> around me are extraordinarily skilled and well-informed, and once such a
> team is assembled, the role of the president is to keep them moving forward
> steadily in a coordinated direction.   One does not have to be able to
> dance a jig to get that job done.  One can do it from a chair.  *
>
> *As things stand, of course, the country has no way to avoid being
> governed by an octogenarian.  The choice now is between an elderly man with
> a loving and hopeful heart and the alternative, a selfish and mendacious
> schemer who admires dictators and seeks vengeance all  who oppose him. Now
> that the Supreme Court has removed constraints against presidential
> criminality,  this choice becomes  ever more stark, *
>
> *As it stands, that choice seems obvious to me. Still, many of you would
> prefer another option.  I see that.  But I think you all would agree that
> if I were simply to withdraw at this late date, without any guarantee of
> order and continuity, chaos might follow.  *
>
> *So, here is my proposal.  Let the candidates who would succeed me, [all
> extraordinarily people in their own right], agree upon an alternative.  If
> they can, I will release my delegates and endorse that alternative.  If,
> however, they cannot, then I will continue to pursue a second term.*
>
> *Whomever you choose, you should be reassured that my team, highly
> qualified, steady, and firm in their allegiance to the institutions of
> democracy, will be at the service of  any candidat.  *
>
> *Good night, and sleep well, all of you.    *
>
> *And when you wake up tomorrow, please think about this proposal, and make
> your wishes known to your leaders.*
>
>
>
> In closing, thank you for all you have done to stave off this assault on
> democracy.
>
> Yours faithfully,
>
> A fellow octogenarian.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
>
> Clark University,
>
> nthompson at clarku.edu
>
>
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