An Adult Arrives

An Adult Arrives america in transition - four

January 20, 2021

President Joe Biden was born and raised, until the fourth grade, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It is a typical, middle-class American city that has endured through prosperous times and hard times. Even today, like most American places, it has its pockets of wealth and struggle.

The home in Scranton, Pennsylvania where Joe Biden's family lived when he was born.

I have watched Biden's political career over the decades. I have had my doubts about him as a national leader, but as his administration begins, and given the context of the moment, I have no doubt that he may be the perfect person for the job at hand.

Through his years in Washington, D.C., he has learned the right lessons. Chief among them is that every person elected to office in the federal government is there to represent a specific constituency, they reflect the desires of a specific constituency, and the political positions they take on issues must be respected. Motives should not be questioned. Compromise can only be achieved when all sides start from a position of mutual respect.

He understands that there is a balance that must be struck. As in the case of any American family, sometimes, when one family member goes astray they must be confronted with the truth. There is a difference between giving a constituency, or in the case of a family - a child - everything it wants and telling that constituency "no" when there is over-reach or petulance.

If any president can right this ship called the United States, Biden may be the one to do it. He has waited 78 years for this chance and I imagine he had always hoped his presidential agenda would be less stressful than carrying the responsibility of saving the country from itself. But that is where we are. This is as close to 1861 as we have been in awhile.

Above: The bridges of Pittsburgh.

With all due respect to my fellow Americans who fell for the sales pitch of former president Trump, the 45th president comes from a phony, made up, gold plated world that shares no resemblance with the lives of average Americans. He seeks celebrity and self-aggrandizement. His only goal is to finish each day with more money and more stuff than he began with. He and his closest family members have open disdain for the little people who work regular jobs and have not found easy, sweatless, ways to make and hoard riches. His daughter, Ivanka, at the height of the pandemic, blithely told millions of Americans who had lost their jobs to just "try something new," as if a family struggling to pay rent and put food on the table has the means to invest in Manhattan real estate.

Biden on the other hand, whether in Pennsylvania or Delaware, grew up and has lived among the scenery and grit of an America that is closer to the life experience most of us are accustomed to. Throughout his Senate career, he took the train home every night to be with his family. This is a great political story, but even if you only view it as cynical stage craft, the experience helped form Biden's view of the world. Those daily hours on Amtrak shaped his understanding of American life through the osmosis of shared experience. He does not arrive at the White House as someone who is out of touch with sacrifice or struggle.

Pennsylvania scenes of the America any president should understand.

So far, he has kept his promises. He has formed a cabinet that looks like America and is filled with competent people who are smarter than he is in their areas of expertise. He has set a simple two-part agenda for his first year in office: Getting the pandemic under control and re-building a stalled economy. He is doing this with the humility and confidence that perhaps can only be mustered by a 78 year old man who has the wisdom to know he is not always right, there is always something new to learn, and that in the end - all that matters is the integrity that comes from doing the right thing especially when it is hard.

Biden gets his second COVID shot - January 11, 2021 (Courtesy C-Span).

In 2020, decency was on the ballot. It was put there by the now former president. While 74 million people voted to stay the course - endorsing the crass selfishness of the last four years - more than 81 million - more than any before - voted for a return to the common values of empathy, honesty, and respect.

Above all else, that should be comforting to all of America. That should give us hope. This is Inauguration Day and America has a chance to start again with someone we know and trust leading the way.

Pittsburgh at night.