[FRIAM] An Open Letter to Joe Biden

Nicholas Thompson thompnickson2 at gmail.com
Wed Jul 3 22:49:27 EDT 2024 

Thkanks, Tom.  Will do tmmrw.  N

On Wed, Jul 3, 2024 at 4:34 PM Tom Johnson <jtjohnson555 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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