Columnist James Cahillane: Joe Biden: Meeting the Moment

In the 1960s Broadway hit, “Stop the World, I Want to Come Down,” an iconic Littlechap tries hard, but the system keeps knocking him down. Time and time again he rises, only to be thwarted by inescapable fate. Courage, it’s 2022 and times are changing for the better.

Democrats were the architects of Social Security, Medicare, minimum wages and now, finally, the Cut Inflation Act, which will move America forward on climate, energy cleaning, electric cars, reducing the cost of medicines and health care and tackling income inequality by implementing a minimum corporate tax of 15%.

The GOP disposes by opposing all of the above. Hello Mitch!

I was making a list of worries for older Americans. There was growing COVID-19 and its variants, a turbulent stock market, gas prices, war overseas, years of Congressional inaction, Senator Joe Manchin’s many no’s. before a surprise yes, climate change, the world our grandchildren will inherit, gun safety, mass shootings and feeling increasingly disconnected in a 24/7 connected environment. I look forward to the January 6 committee nailing those guilty of treason, whether great or small.

The “fight or flight” instinct, demonstrated by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley on the fateful day, and revealed via video during the January 6 hearings, caused solemn proceedings to laugh with scorn. Hawley’s legged flight through the Capitol was set to music on the internet, lying to his cowardly closed-fisted salute behind barriers.

The Show Me State should show me some common sense by reminding Hawley in the South. Perhaps his alma maters, Yale or Stanford, could find him a place in academia or as a running coach?

Record temperatures have curtailed daily activities, as if the elderly need a refresher. We are already pushing any number to come for our next anniversary. Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert made a joke about Joe Biden’s slowdown. I don’t know, he’s only 79, rides a fast bike and walks without assistance. He also smiles easily, making a healthy change from his “Big Mac, Diet Coke-ly, I was robbed” predecessor.

I read the New York Times and the Boston Globe on the Internet. The Globe is on shaky ground because it continues to report Red Sox scores! Sunday brings The New York Times, featuring The Magazine, Arts, Style, International News, Business and its latest iteration Sunday Opinion. Past News of the Week featured in-depth articles on national and world events, as well as a lead editorial, augmented by columnists like Maureen Down, David Brooks and Bret Stephens to engage and expand readers’ opinions.

The July 24 edition asked famous Times columnists to acknowledge past mistakes and bad predictions. Sip!

One of my first blunders comes to mind. I wrote that the internet was a waste of time. This was before cell phones and iPads became ubiquitous. Useless brain and memory, just “Google”. I was wrong about the advantages of the Internet, ignoring its disadvantages. I have a crystal ball on my desk but, like me, it is imperfect.

In his column on errors (“I was wrong about capitalism”), David Brooks compares his ideas in college and their maturation. “In 2003, I had qualms about the free-market education I had received. A very unequal caste system was forming. Gradually, I realized that the government would have to become much more active if every child was to have a clear field and a fair chance.

Conscious growth means bravely casting aside past beliefs based on new information or understanding.

The same week, conservative columnist Bret Stephens argued (“I was wrong about Trump voters”). He started with what he called the “worst line I’ve ever written as an expert”. “If now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you are appalling.” Stephens then admitted to writing column after column about Trump’s ignorance and danger to American democracy. His mistake was to portray Trump’s minions in a “broad swipe at his constituents, caricatured them and put blinders on me.” The famous line about people in glass houses applies here. Hillary’s “deplorables” were a 5 gallon bucket of a word that should never have seen the light of day.

Bret Stephen’s: “Their neighborhoods weren’t as safe and pleasant. Their schools weren’t that great. Their livelihoods were not so secure. Their America was often one of cultural and economic decline, sometimes felt in the most personal way. History’s forgotten voters rose to bite blind privilege in its posterior.

Columnist Maureen Dowd is still in the court of public opinion. Mrs. Dowd and I share the joys of a large Irish family. Being opinionated is a given; just like keeping it to ourselves. Maureen’s latest gaffe writes to push President Biden off the stage for 2024. That’s too hasty a call given Joe’s NATO expansion, passage of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Chips and Science Act, the Veterans Burn Pit Exposure Recognition Act, Insulin Cost Reduction for the Elderly, and the Passage of the Reduction Act of inflation. Tired of winning?

Biden and the Democrats are delivering on long-promised needs for America and doing so with one hand tied behind their backs.

What we vote and how we vote matters!

Jim Cahillane’s opinion column began in 1993. He lives in Williamsburg. Kudos to Tiffany B. for delivering the Sunday Times and USPS for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Happy birthday to our NH son, Matt, turning 61 today.