Radical Decency
In a polarized society where us vs. them is the norm, the true rebel is willing to “lend a hand” to the other side
It was strange seeing something so normal.
On our flatscreens, big and small, there appeared a new commander in chief, acting, speaking, thinking in a way that was once called “presidential.”
He stood at the podium, delivering the inaugural address thoughtfully, intentionally as if he respected the office — and the listeners, whoever they were, wherever they were listening, however they voted.
It was as if he actually had a speech.
He struck words together like so many different types of rocks in hopes that, on a cold Wednesday in January, he might find the right combination to catch a spark and rekindle something inside of us.
All of us.
Something we, Americans, forgot was there and that, for many — too many of us — had nearly been snuffed out.
It wasn’t vile self-interest. It wasn’t ego. It wasn’t primal hatred of the “other.”
He was trying to reignite something my Mom called basic human decency.
Radical decency I call it now, for it is a sharp and comforting departure from the tone and temperament of his predecessor.
Not “Great,” Not “Again”
How could such a moment have come to pass when only two Wednesdays before, at that very same location, America was under attack?
Not by the British who did manage to burn down our first White House. Not by Islamic extremists.
But by Americans in red hats who have willfully turned their backs on civil society; and, egged-on by Biden’s predecessor, shed American blood on the steps and in the halls of the capitol building, calling for the deaths of Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
The answer? Deviance.
So much deviance, in fact, that an unprecedented number of voters turned out for a presidential election in November to cast 81 million legitimate ballots — as election judges from both parties verified again and again and again (and again) — to say finally, exasperatingly, collectively “enough.”
That’s why Joe Biden was standing at that podium, at that building, on Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States.
American voters — some faster to catch on than others — realized there was only so much deviance from the norms of the presidency by a flimflam president that a representative democracy, its institutions, and more than 300,000,000 citizens could tolerate, would tolerate, before a 243-year-old nation, flawed and fallible and fragile as it is, was driven to a violent grave.
And possibly — more possible than even the most wildly cynical pundits and conspiracy theorists care to admit — a new kind of America would arise where the president is president for life; where the caprice of a single man — a “strongman” as they are called after successful coups — replaces the rule of law; and where some, not all, but some would then look upon that version of America and say with Luciferian irony: NOW America is great again.
That America is not “great,” not to any reasonable-minded member of civil society. American colonists waged war against the English crown to break free from a system of government that might one day make America that kind of America: repressive, autocratic, tyrannical.
How, then, could it ever be said that making America that kind of America would be “great”?
How, then, could it ever be said that America could be that kind of America “again” when America has never in its history been that kind of America, under the heel of a desperate, delusional strongman?
Clearly, the slogan was the first lie.
The New Deviance
If Biden’s predecessor was serious about “draining the swamp” and fulfilling the radical right’s dream of making America “great again” (as it defines both “America” and “great”) he would not have continued to deviate from political norms with alarming frequency and, frankly, stupidity.
Surely, he wouldn’t have set about building his own, exclusive, and what he hoped would be permanent swamp.
He would have done what every shrewd, deal-making politician does once in office if one is serious about making deals: move a little closer to the center, expand the base, and start convincing opponents to buy his assessment of the situation. And buy into his vision for America.
If he were wiser — and thank the Lord he wasn’t — he would have known that the very thing that got him into the Oval Office wasn’t going to keep him there: deviance from the norms of the presidency.
The right amount, in the right form, can move mountains. Without deviance, as Frank Zappa famously remarked, there can be no progress, no change in any form.
Too much deviance, however, can bring unwanted sanctions and punishments — the loss of the same election (repeatedly), the loss of much needed funding and political support, the loss of a beloved Twitter account.
Too much deviance can make loyalists turn their coats, make the apathetic give a damn, make the apolitical take a stand. It can make deals go south [artlessly], make swing states swing the wrong way. And cause the limo and helicopter privileges to be revoked, along with that coveted presidential immunity, after only one (1) embarrassing and disastrous term.
It can force a proud man, humiliated but far from humbled, to try and save face by hollering “fraud!” to anyone who would listen in the wake of what has been called the most secure election in history. Some heard him, for ulterior motives and darker purposes.
Many, many more — Republicans and Democrats — did not.
On Inauguration Wednesday, President Biden offered us his first acts of deviance from the norms of Trumpism: he was humble. He was kind. He was eloquent.
He was radically, radically decent.
His thoughts were organized. His tone, inclusive. He was, for a “lefty”, oddly reactionary by dignifying our country’s ancient customs, not mocking them or any of the witnesses.
“Some days…you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand,” Biden said. “That’s what we do for one another. And if we are this way, our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future.”
“And we can still disagree.”
President Biden might not require an excessive amount of deviance to enact the kind of change he spoke about at his inaugural.
Radical decency just might be all the deviance he needs right now to help America figure out how to put herself back together again.
