Positive… Negative. Negative… Positive. My shifting COVID test results mimic my feelings about Joe and his ability to stay in the race.
Right now like my current COVID test, I’m positive that Joe stays the course.
I’m ridin’ with Biden. Even if it’s a rough ride.
I’ve ricocheted back and forth from reluctantly wanting Joe to resign to resigning myself to his inevitable candidacy, to cheering on the “Go Joe Go” team full throttle.
The head-spinning dizziness that thinking has created, has been echoed in the dizzy state brought on by COVID. And the solution to all seems less clear, Paxlovid notwithstanding. Even the cure for COVID-19 comes with its own big pitfalls, as it seems does every option concerning Joe.
This past week, I have been heavily socked in with COVID brain fog. But even without it, there is so much disjointed, disconnected, divergent thinking about Joe Biden and his ability to proceed as the Democratic nominee for President.
The News of Record is a Broken Record
The news I’m ingesting feels slanted and the truth is hard to parse out over so many voices.
An echo chamber of misinformation and conspiratorial lies has made truth and reality as fuzzy as my head feels. All while ignoring that elephant in the room Donald Trump.
The red light green light See Joe Run See Joe Stop nature of my social media feeds has only accelerated.
The pundits and journalists are top-heavy with doom and gloom.
And that is news worthy.
Something important, nearly imperceptible and subtler is shaping the way all of us perceive what’s happening now. Shifts in editorial standards and a series of biases in reporting and especially amplification are moving the news in one direction.
Everything you see now describes panic, chaos, and backbiting. Reporters are looking for those things that they are getting in print, headlines and clicks and everything else is getting twisted, downplayed, or cut.
It has been distorted on Biden, Trump, and our Democracy
We seem unable even now to shift news coverage consistently towards the unprecedented unrolling of democratic and constitutional norms and the impending crises.
The media is not just reporting the news they in fact are driving it.
The Great Panic of 2024
I admit, I fell prey to the media’s onslaught of panic about Joe Biden calling for his immediate removal after his disastrous debate performance.
Even through my brain fog, it was clear to me last night’s press conference was a success for Biden. His command of the subtleties of issues and foreign policy was quite impressive, masterful even, and impressive for someone 20 years his junior. Joe has always made gaffes, but you can’t beat him on substance.
And isn’t that what we want in a president?
We don’t need to Make America Great Again, Biden has already quietly been doing it.