President Joe Biden announces at the Oval Office on June 2, 2023 | Photo by the White House via Wikimedia Commons
Part XXXII of the “United States 2024 Election
To paraphrase 17th-century English author John Donne, “No American president ‘is an island.'”
In his sermon, John Donne meant that nobody is self-sufficient but relies on others. Yes, even the world’s most powerful head of state depends on teamwork.
In other words, no president can decide alone, even if he (or she, someday) holds the sole power to order the use of nuclear weapons to start World War III. And make people extinct. But even in waging war, the American presidency can be compared to a continent. Because he (or she someday) has to consult with congressional leaders of the land, his national security advisers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defense Secretary, and all Cabinet members. Just as important as their inner circle, the POTUS has to consult with the country’s principal allies and even the heads of state of nations located on many continents (pun intended). Nations and commonwealth of countries that have signed a mutual defense treaty with the United States. Yes, the POTUS must think also of the welfare of humanity’s billions of people spread over at least seven continents and thousands of small islands.
History books describe how Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) decided not to run for reelection in March 1968, primarily due to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War. The war was highly divisive among Americans, and President Johnson faced increasing criticism and protests for his handling of the conflict.
President Johnson announced on March 31, 1968, at the end of a speech, that he would not run for reelection nor accept the Democratic Party nomination, even if offered. His prominent supporters in the U.S. Congress supposedly told the POTUS that a decreasing number of political allies would support him and thus doom his reelection bid.
The legislators and state governors who told President LBJ of his no-win situation probably remembered the advice of then-Philippine Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon in the late 1930s: “Loyalty to a political party ends when loyalty to the country begins.” The Philippine Commonwealth was then a colony of the United States.
President Biden now faces this question: Would he do an “LBJ?” This wordsmith created a new meaning for the acronym; it now means “Let Biden (be) Johnson.”
The last column said that Mr. Biden might find a semblance of immortality if he ends his candidacy. And solace that during the Joe Biden and Barack Obama administrations, both presidents — in nearly 12 years of work — relied on qualified and competent Cabinet members, chief of staff, press and communications secretaries, and other vital staffers — with hardly any turnover. This achievement of teamwork can be passed on to his Democratic successor. It will further embellish his exemplary record under extreme circumstances — like ending the COVID-19 pandemic, completely withdrawing American troops from the Afghan War, maintaining America as the most significant world economy, restoring military power, and preserving NATO by leading efforts to preserve Ukrainian independence.
“Can President Biden risk turning the “American Dream” into an “American Nightmare”? Many socioeconomic experts and public/private leaders in North America and Europe fear nightmares if Donald J. Trump wins the presidency again on November 5, 2024.”
In contrast, during the 4-year Trump Administration, his Cabinet, staff, and other functionaries underwent a parlor game of “Trip to Jerusalem.” Mr. Trump was fired, or the Cabinet members resigned (often in protest of his conduct) nearly four dozen times. And worse, during the COVID-19 pandemic, then-President Trump ignored the advice of government medical experts and people of science and implemented the IBOD strategy (which this wordsmith coined). “IBOD,” as in “Ignore, Blame Others and Distract.” The IBODian (sic) conduct of President Trump — from 2019-to-2020 — led to the deaths of some 1.2 million COVID patients. The IBOD caused President Trump to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2020 election — even if the majority of the deaths happened after his presidency ended in 2021. The pandemic also led to record unemployment numbers and the start of an economic recession.
Can President Biden risk turning the “American Dream” into an “American Nightmare”? Many socioeconomic experts and public/private leaders in North America and Europe fear nightmares if Donald J. Trump wins the presidency again on November 5, 2024. Mr. Trump, as this columnist wrote last Sunday, might become the American version of the Ugandan despot of President Idi Amin.
Mr. Trump also said he was better than the generals of the U.S. military. And how could a draft dodger be more competent than graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point? Or of the alumni of the U.S. Naval Academy or other military-learning institutions? But if Mr. Trump is cheated (again, in his mind) in the 2024 election, would there be a bloodbath? Or, being a self-declared imaginary “military genius,” he would begin America’s second civil war?
The question now is whether President Biden will emulate President LBJ. President Johnson did what he believed was the only honorable move to preserve the presidency’s integrity. President LBJ decided that his retirement would heal all the divisions in the country and end a deadlier Tsunami of student protests and peacemakers, aside from mitigating the mounting military and civilian casualties in Vietnam. History credits LBJ’s quitting politics with hastening the end of the Vietnam War.
Quo vadis, President Joe Biden?
