MIKE’S OPINION (be afraid…be very afraid)

OPINION:

The other night, I wondered about how Joe Biden would go down in history.  Would he be seen as the old man who had to give up a position of great power against his will – a “weak, pathetic man” as some bullies might be inclined to assert?   Or would he be seen as a heroic figure – one who (arguably) came out of retirement to slay the beast called Trump; and later, who later had the courage to step aside when it became clear that he would not be able to lead the people into the promised land?

I lean towards the latter.

The tale of Biden also reminded me of similar role models: Cincinnatus from ancient Rome, or his widely proclaimed protégé, George Washington.  Comparing Biden to George Washington clearly has its flaws, but I did a google search and learned that the comparison of Joe Biden and George Washington is not as crazy as one might initially have thought.

Today I had a new epiphany, and wondered whether some of the excitement about Kamala Harris might be related to the fact that the United States appears (at least as of today), to be finally ‘rounding the corner on Trump’.  When Joe Biden decided to run for office in 2020, he could make a legitimate case that we needed him as the alternative to a second Trump term.  That argument, however, became less clear in 2024, primarily because of Biden’s age.

So, now that Kamala has come to the fore-front, are we seeing a ‘rounding the corner on Trump‘?

Or is it simply excitement about an alternatieve to the binary choice between two old men.  To be honest, I didn’t think I would ever get excited about the prospect of Kamala.  But given the choice of Kamala or Trump, there is no way that I’m going back to the past (and Kamala v. Trump is somehow clearer to me than Biden v. Trump). So having a choice helps, but it’s more than that.

So I googled the phrase “rounding the corner on Trump” to see if there was someone else who previously had this thought, And I was suddently jerked back into the reality about another reason we don’t need another Trump term.  But not in the way that I first thought.

My initial google search brought me back to August of 2020, when Trump said that the U.S. was just “rounding the corner” on COVID. Surely that would show the craziness of Trump, and why he is always wrong.

But then, I honestly listened to what Trump said at the time.  And honestly, what he said at the time wasn’t that crazy in hindsight.  And I’m sure that, at the time, I thought Trump was crazy.  And the “liberal media” also certainly critiqued what Trump said at the time.  Hmmm.  Were we all wrong?

So, I think I learned something tonight.  And unfortunately for my brother Steve, it isn’t that Donald Trump is smart.  It is that Donald Trump, even in all of his craziness, is sometimes correct (or better stated, at least partially correct. OK, in my mind, Trump is correct like a broken clock, which is right twice a day).  But Trump is still partially correct sometimes.

So why don’t we give him credit?  Because we know that Donald Trump will say anything to prove he’s right and others are wrong (regardless of the facts).  Donald Trump is not afraid to bend the Truth to get what he wants.  And like the “Boy who Cried Wolf”, we don’t believe Trump – even when he’s correct.

It was worthwhile for me to watch the “Boy who Cried Wolf” and relect on Trump.