What if somebody, I dunno, like, a president type person, or somebody who wants to be president, were to step up and, again, dunno, tried to rally us around something, toward something?
We sure could use a somebody who could do that.
This somebody could say, you know, things aren’t going great now, but if we come together, work at this, there’s nothing we can’t do.
Dammit, we’re Americans!
That’s your applause line. People like audience-participation bits.
People are down now. Even those who haven’t been directly affected by businesses shuttering, jobs being cut, and then of course, those who are trying to figure out life in the here and now, and worry for the immediate future.
It’s tough.
FDR got that back in the ‘30s, which is how we ended up with his fireside chats, telling us that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself.
People want to be part of something bigger than their individual selves.
That’s why we have religion, spectator sports.
Right now, we have neither of those.
Actually, the church down the street from my house, two doors down, had an outdoor service yesterday, its first in-person service since March.
I’m not a religious person at all, but, man, I was glad to see those folks out there.
And I’m trying like hell to get into NASCAR and Premier League soccer, but it ain’t summer without baseball.
No religion, no sports, so all we have is fear, from our friends in the news media, who do their best minute by minute to scare the ever-lovin’ shit out of us.
Can’t even watch ESPN or late-night TV without being beaten over the head with the new invented reality, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy the more it’s reinforced.
It would be great if somebody with a bully pulpit could break through the nonsense and get us believing in things again.
This, of Donald Trump’s many failures, will go down in history as his most glaring.
A man who sold himself to us as a savvy TV communicator type has been almost entirely silent on any matters of substance the past two and a half months, and it’s been a silence is deafening type scenario.
He hasn’t even been able to put throat to any kind of defense of his interest in keeping his job as our chief executive.
If I were advising Joe Biden, I’d be pushing him to go ahead and fill the void now, not so much because it would benefit him politically to do so, though it would, but more because … our country needs him to.
We can’t wait until November, and then until Jan. 20, 2021, to begin the process of getting ourselves back up off the mat and back in the fight.
The time is now.
Things aren’t going great now, but if we come together, work at this, there’s nothing we can’t do.
Dammit, we’re Americans!
Come on, Joe. We need you, baby.
Story by Chris Graham
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