Dear Joe,
I’m only a few months younger than you are, and am one of your greatest admirers. Your stamina and purpose (for good causes) are what attract me. But now I want a serious word with you.
Yesterday I was heading across a parking lot carrying two bags filled with water and juice bottles over my shoulders when a torrential rainstorm hit. Me car was pretty far away and water was blinding me and flooding across my feet so I was looking more down than straight ahead. That’s when I smashed head first into a sign and crashed backwards onto the parking lot asphalt with the force of a tree downed by a chainsaw. The bottles I was carrying were in fragments, but I was able to get to my feet and climb dripping wet into my car and drive 60 miles home.
Needless to say, I was bleeding here and there, but so far (20 hours later), serious damage hasn’t shown itself.
My point is this. At my age (80), a fall like that can easily be catastrophic. I’m not a 20-year old soccer player who gets up, shakes himself off, and goes on playing. I have to go on observing myself even today because that’s what aging is all about!
You had a fall yesterday - at least metaphorically! You may not know it yet, but you performed like an 80-year old! A younger man with your talents would have known how to make the right facial expression after Trump’s wild statements and come back hard. Just saying mildly, ‘Everything you said was a lie!’ doesn’t do it.
A large portion of those people tuning into the debate are ‘a-political’. They don’t pay attention most of the time to what goes on and watch such debates just to ‘get a feeling’. That’s why it’s really not much more than a show, and in a show, viewers like the best performer. You were a terrible performer.
A sad thing about our democracy is that ANY citizen can vote. There is no litmus test as to whether the voter is informed - and in my opinion, most AREN’T. Huge numbers march to the polls having a FEELING who they’ll vote for, and since the country has always survived, they don’t think about the dangers.
Well there are dangers this time. Evil could win simply because you were afraid to delegate your job to someone else. There’s a huge number of talented and forceful Democratic governors who could easily do your job, and it’s not too late to abdicate to one of them.
I finish this plea with three words: Ruth Bader Ginsberg.