From world leaders to the Fourth Estate, the official announcement that Joe Biden is, indeed, on the 2024 ballot elicited cheers and jubilation – at least on the surface. Below the oh-so-thin veneer of celebration appears to be a quiet desperation barely covered by the rictus grin* of falsity. Barring any unfortunate health issues -- and with no Democratic Party primary debates -- Biden will be crowned the nominee in Chicago next year. It seems that the movers and shakers of DC politics have been granted their wish, but can they live with it?
Trying too Hard?
“President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally launched his campaign for a second term in 2024, asking voters to keep him in office and ‘finish the job’ of an historic American recovery that started after he vanquished Donald Trump in 2020,” Politico gushed, foregoing any semblance of neutrality. As Liberty Nation author James Fite noted, the article's “opening paragraph alone is so sweet on Biden the outlet should include a disclaimer that consuming too much of their ‘news’ might cause political diabetes.”
“Just as he did in 2020, Biden is making an appeal to the nation’s ideals, particularly with the specter of Trump’s return,” warned CNN. “Biden, a career politician with decades of experience in Washington, entered his first presidential term in 2021 in the shadow of an insurrection and pervasive election denialism that has trailed him through his time in office.”
Rarely has such sycophancy echoed through the halls of the public square, a palpable desperation that brings to mind the words of Queen Gertrude in Shakespeare’s Hamlet that the media “doth protest too much.”
What Has Biden Cost Them?
It is perhaps the worst-kept secret in Washington, DC, that Biden ascended to the Democratic Party nomination for only one reason. As LN’s Tim Donner wrote, in 2020 “party elders, left with no other choice in a field replete with almost laughable alternatives, cleared the path for his failing campaign.” But this time around, there are – so far – only two competitors, neither of which has the blessing of the party elite.
Joe Biden (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
For better or worse, Biden will face the Republican nominee in 2024, and the nation’s media will have to do the heavy lifting. When the activist journalists undertook this task in 2020, they at least had the silver lining of a clean slate and no presidential faux pas to derail the narrative. More than two years later, every major poll shows that the public disapproves of Biden’s handling of the economy, inflation, crime, immigration, foreign policy, and just about every other topic surveyed.
The weight of all that water may become just too heavy a load to bear.
The Show Doesn’t Have to Go On
Famed showman P.T. Barnum once advised: “Advertising is to a genuine article what manure is to land, - it largely increases the product.” President Joe Biden – despite the advertising – is much diminished by his record since taking office and his clear cognitive issues. And he is ultimately made smaller by the obsequious falsity of those in the media and on the world stage who insist that he is running for the good of the country.
*The Rictus Grin, also known as the Sardonic Grin, was in the ancient world associated with hemlock poisoning. It is described as being a smile highly drawn up the face, appearing fake or fearful from the frozen musculature.
