Some Are a Little More Relevant Than Others
We all like to think we are still relevant, that we still carry a sort of je ne sais quoi that separates us from the herd.
We were Baby Boomers, man, and not a one of today’s Millennials or Gen-Xers will ever be as cool as we were in our tie-dyed uniforms, smoking a joint in a field while the local rock band was setting up for a free mini-festival. Today, new music is dropped. In our day it was an event whenever The Beatles or Stones or The Who released a new album. Hell, Millennials don’t even have favorite bands anymore.
True, we sort of bristle when our pants are referred to as “grandpa jeans,” our songs are called “geezer music,” and the kid at the store wants to help us to the car with our groceries.
True, I lost my ass somewhere along the way and my jeans don’t fit like they once did, our music is 50 years old, and our grocery sacks feel a little heavier. But, my jeans are comfortable and so are the old tunes. As far as toting grocery bags, well, I chalk it up to getting in some exercise.
On the other hand, however, I can understand the burgeoning generation gap.
Especially when you look at our so-called leaders, who are, for the most part, old, rich, white men.
I mean, can a Millennial, or even a Gen-Xer, truly relate to Joe Biden or the guy in the White House?
That’s why I’m not terribly enthusiastic about the coming election, other than to end one of the most horrific eras in the nation’s history by changing horses.
Joe Biden is fine enough. I’d certainly like to sit and have a beer with him, maybe even invite him over for Sunday dinner. And, he has the kindly grandfather sort of thing going that could help us as we transition from this national disgrace to some sort of normalcy and try to revive our prominence in a world that pretty much looks at the United States as a joke.
But, Joe Biden is an old guy with old ideas.
He may be OK as a transitional president, getting the nation back on its feet after the fraud, abuse, lies, and, of course, the pandemic.
He has great amounts of charm, wit, and intelligence to prop things up.
What he lacks is a vision and the kind of progressive idealism needed to reach the younger voters who he polls decently with, but does seem to inspire as his former boss or his foe in the primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders did, which could be dangerous to his fortunes come November.
I will still vote for him because of the clear and present danger another four years of this administration would result in and so should you. Despite all of the boxes he does not check on his resume, the most important is the one he can mark off is that he is not Donald J. Trump, and that is good enough for me, a host of Democrats, and a growing number of Republicans who wonder why he is still campaigning against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. My heart tells me this is the case. My gut tells me that there is no such thing as a sure thing any longer. Things stopped making sense four years ago when one of the most improbable candidates in American political history eked out an Electoral College win while failing at the popular vote.
I had great hope in Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind.
He seemed the almost perfect candidate with a fairly moderate platform, immense charm and likeability, and a refreshing splash of honesty. It didn’t work out, of course, but at 38, he has a lot of political opportunity in front of him and can still hang onto his youthful appeal for at least another 20-25 years.
I am a fan of Gavin Newsom, the nascent governor of California who is 52 years young. Energetic, progressive, bright, he is young enough to play the youth card, yet old enough to be taken seriously by the money guys who decide everything anyway.
The good thing here is that Biden has promised to name a woman as his running mate.
There is no shortage of qualified women to choose from.
My guess – my hope – is that he opts for Kamala Harris, a very young 55 who would complement him well. The odds are that Biden would go one and done, which would position the junior senator from California nicely for another run at the Oval Office in 2024. Yeah, Harris hammered him pretty good in the first debate, but that only solidifies her as a good candidate for the gig, as somebody willing to duke it out on principle. She would bring relevance to the ticket.
Biden carries, as former vice president, a certain gravitas that gives him a place at the table and he is relevant because he kept a hand in issues and causes even after leaving office. He was active, he cared, and, yes, he was campaigning even before he announced, but everybody knew who Joe Biden was and he was part of the national dialog.
The president is relevant simply because he is president.
Parse it down, however, and you have one guy in grandpa jeans and another who looks like he should be wearing a leisure suit with a white belt, white shoes, and that used car salesman, lacquered-down hair.
Neither one of them is terribly hip.
Neither one of them can reach across that generational gap and shake hands with the kids.
Neither one of them offers, really, much for the rest of us to relate to.
I mean, yeah, it would be cool to fly in a jet with your name painted on the side. But, Led Zeppelin did that during the ‘70s and The Stones have done it for years, ho-hum.
And, yeah, it could be cool to be vice president, I guess.
But neither is as cool as putting on our tie-dyed uniforms and smoking a joint in a field while the local rock band is setting up for a free mini-festival.
That pretty well punches your cool ticket for life and ensures your relevance.
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