I’ve been trying for months, but I’ve been unable to put it into words.  Then, an unusually reasonable exchange on Twitter followed by a timely DNC campaign email crystallized the thought for me.  This is what I sent back to Mr. Biden.  It says what I mean, and how I feel.  I wonder if it might not be close to how you feel.

---

I know this is going to be intercepted by some staffer or volunteer, and that’s a good thing.  The candidate should never have to read things like this, especially someone with as soft a heart as our Uncle Joe.  (I’ve seen you, sir, keep talking to the people until the room empties.  You’re a good man and a politician, even though you do have your flaws — like anyone.)  But I have to say it; I’m compelled.  And if nobody listens… I guess that’s just as well.  My only job is to write the words, and I’m doing my part right now.

It’s not you, Uncle Joe.  Those of us that know you, for the most part we like you.  It’s not Tara Reade either, though the way The Party is reacting is both telling and hypocritical as all hell — both here and in the Northam case in Virginia.  That’s what it is we hate, right there:  that The Party has let us down — again.

Four years ago, there was a coronation.  She had an energized primary opponent, but it was her turn; she deserved it.  So The Party handed it to her using the normal dirty tricks; it’s politics, and we expect that even though she would have won the nomination fairly.  But The Party stacked the deck, and when they do that we expect them to win — and they didn’t.  They cheated, and did so clumsily and visibly; and by so doing they let us all down.

Most of us look at Donald Trump, and we blame The Party.  Not the GOP, which is who we should blame, but the DNC, who cheated and lost anyway.

I look at Steyer’s campaign in South Carolina and how that ended.  I look at Warren, who fought some brilliant battles with no strategy (there, but for some decent help— !)  I see Andrew Yang, a prophet of reason we desperately need to listen to, whose voice was smothered.  But most of all I see the paid protest that sunk Klobuchar, the mad rush of Bloomberg,  and the way the press was handled.  I look at the way the Credentials Committee was stacked in advance of Milwaukee.  I read Hunter S. Thompson, thinking grimly of 1972 and Nixon.

And I ask myself, Who’s playing Hubert Humphrey in this scene?  Who’s the decent and lovable guy who at the same moment is the “tired old ward-heeler whose time has come”?

I look at you, sir.  And I ask you straight:  The deck is clearly stacked, but is it stacked well enough?  Are you gonna let us down, Mr. Biden?

Because I think you will.  I think you have.

We could have had greatness.  We could have had a real liberal, an honest progressive, someone with vision and energy and purpose and no baggage at all.  And instead — we got you.

I know you well, Uncle Joe, and I love you.  I just wish you were the right man for the right time, and you’re not.

And I’m so sad about this it hurts.

Nevertheless, I sincerely wish you and yours the best of luck, good health, and success in your endeavours.  I fervently pray Almighty God that He grant you guidance and wisdom in the choice you’re about to announce — you’ve known your running mate for some time now, or your managers have, but I remind you the final choice still is not made until you announce it.

May God richly bless this country in our time of trial.  God knows we need it.

---

Most of my regular readers know I’m a man of faith.  I don’t often preach, and when I do it’s to the choir; I’m not proselytizing here.  If you want to know more, it’s because you see something in me you like, and you’ll ask.  I make no excuses for what I believe.

When I write, it’s as a man of reason.  I’m not on the Right and I’m not on the Left; I’m a pragmatist, and my allegiance is to no party.  I’m an American, and I think of myself as a patriot.  It’s in this capacity that I’m publishing this, because I believe it’s the duty — as well as the right and the privilege, it’s a duty — of every thinking patriot to express their well-reasoned opinion in the proper forum, where it may be read and properly considered.

If you agree with me, or even if you only respect my reasoning, I urge you to Share this.