By Donald A. Collins 11 July 2022
Church and State
At 91 and luckily in good health, I still know a bit about how aging effects my performance of formerly automatic tasks. That I can still submit Op Ed articles weekly to this amazing web site and still play golf pleases my ego greatly.
Successful aging seemed to me remarkably exemplified by Fareed Zakaria’s Sunday July 10th CNN interview with 99-year-old Henry Kissinger.
Kissinger has interviewed Putin multiple times. He has just published a new book entitled Leadership, likely to be one of numerous best sellers.
This former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under Nixon in this CNN interview made incisive observations totally confirming his full capacity to analyze current critical policy issues.
You can read this interview here.
Here just one example from this interview of his amazing propinquity:
Fareed: You’ve called for comprehensive negotiations with Iran. It’s always struck me, that this debate about whether to negotiate, it sort of defies the point. The question is: How would you negotiate? What would be the — what would be the goals? How would you set up a negotiating process with Iran?
KISSINGER: Well, the problem Americans often have in negotiations is they treat diplomacy as a separate aspect, as totally separate from strategy. And it is said, let’s negotiate rather than do something else. They all have to be a part of it.
In order to negotiate, one has to understand the perception of the other side of the world. And they have to understand our perception. And there has to be a decision on both sides that they’re going to try to reconcile these differences.
Our fundamental concern is not to have an additional proliferating country in the region, because that will set off a whole set of other proliferating decisions. And that when the number of nuclear countries that are in conflict with each other multiplies — I would really say beyond the current point — some use of nuclear weapons will become highly probable. And once nuclear weapons are used, militarily or — once nuclear weapons are used, I don’t think the world will ever be the same again.”
I use these aging examples obviously not to disparage older people but to laud them.
Thus, I am suggesting the following action by President Biden as a Democratic political strategy not because he is the oldest President to serve in our history, but because this generous action might greatly enhance chances of righting our listing ship of state by offering all citizens a unique look at a wide-open democratic transition in 2024’s Presidential race.
At now nearly 80 and to be 82 at the end of his term in 2024, Biden could very strategically decide to end his long career of honorable public service.
By doing it NOW gives his party much needed momentum to keep Congress in the midterms which is now very much in doubt, despite his generally good record.
His low poll ratings, many commentators have argued, are mainly based on the depressed mood of a American public riven by years of COVID and now suffering huge inflation driven considerably by Putin’s war in Ukraine, but which ironically has allowed Biden to boost our NATO and Western cohesion.
NEW: Joe Biden’s approval rating is at 33% and he is facing alarming doubt about his future from Democrats.
Age was top concern as 64% of Dems say they prefer a different nominee in ‘24, including 94% of those under 30.
First NYT/Siena poll of 2022 —> https://t.co/vdLdTeW14C
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) July 11, 2022
Biden certainly wouldn’t or shouldn’t abandon his VP Kamala Harris, but in the time remaining now before the midterms, Biden’s announced intention not to run again could open the way for others to seek the Democratic nomination over the final years of his Presidency.
Such action would be widely perceived by many voters as an act made as an unselfish, public interest move sharply contrasting with the now proven efforts by Trump to pull off a illegal coup to overturn Biden’s election.
A final thought: Despite his excellent statement about the Supreme Court’s heinous decision to kill Roe, Biden is a practicing Catholic and someone else running for President could likely make a stronger case or feel more strongly about attacking this zealotry in trying to reclaim this Constitutional right now taken from women.
Doubt Biden will take this suggestion, but it could deeply affect the outcome of the midterms and even the 2024 Presidential election. Do any of my readers have a way to get this message to the White House?
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote” and “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”.“What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”: https://t.co/fHuh0CG6JD
“We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”: https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE
“From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”: https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9 pic.twitter.com/bQsL2mLBcO— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) November 1, 2021
Henry Kissinger: ‘We are now living in a totally new era’ | FT
He’s advised 4 different presidents. Hear what he thinks of Biden
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In general I agree. However, for Joe Biden to declare himself out of the running too early puts him in the position of being a lame duck.
I wish that the Democratic Party would start getting some serious momentum behind California Gavin Newsom or some other outstanding younger person and make it easier for Joe to step aside gracefully.