Dear President Biden,
Is it just a coincidence that the WP published exceedingly little MLK-related material yesterday or was it a conscious tactic to duck the fact that we are again (or really, still) battling over the systemic racism (and thinly veiled greed) that’s driving the GOP’s efforts to roll back voting rights, state by state?
Well, I’m putting my money on the latter – that it was intentional.
Don’t look too hard or deep or long at what King actually said or at how White people really felt about him when he was alive and god forbid we draw any parallels with our now, because, uhm, that might get to be too much for all the White subscribers who want to think we are so beyond where our parents and grandparents were in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. Let us not forget who owns the WP and what he and his main gig are doing to the economy, the environment, quality of life, our collective dependence on immediate gratification.
The system is working as designed, is it not?
And where are you in all of this? Who is buttering your bread? I know you can’t singlehandedly call all of the shots or do a “make it so” Piccard move, but it’s hard to believe that your motives are pure as the driven snow since you had to see from the beginning that the GOP people were never, ever going to play ball with you. Yet, you acted as if there was some real hope for your vaunted bipartisanship – why?
In her editorial this morning, Karen Tumulty said that you are apt to say “reality has a way of intruding,” but you sure seemed to come to this reality late in the game here – why? I hate to say it, but the most obvious options are that either you’ve been living in a make-believe la la land or you stand to gain something from voting rights getting shredded, wealth inequality escalating unchecked, and the climate cratering. If I am being charitable, I might allow that perhaps you felt you had to show the American people that you gave bipartisanship a whole bunch of old college tries before going it alone, but if that was the case, why so many?
I don’t know if you and Team Biden can turn things around or do enough of a salvage job such that you all aren’t just handing the keys over to Mitch and DJT. I hope so – life on this planet rather hinges on them not having the keys to the kingdom.
So how about some straight talk about reality and some smart strategy to deal with reality? Be a broken record about it all – there’s a lot of interference that needs to be cut through, especially in West Virginia and Arizona…. (wake those constituents up!)
May we be safe.
May we be happy and content (remember that “pursuit of happiness” for all deal??).
May we be healthy and strong.
May we accept that capitulating on voting rights would mean we are screwed.
Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson
The Biden Letters 