As Simple as Not Losing (Again)

The argument has been made that compared to Donald Trump, any living, breathing human being is preferable. As of last Tuesday night, we had the beginnings of that living, breathing person -- in the form of Joe Biden -- and by this Tuesday, the picture may be complete. If Biden picks off 4 out of 6 states in Tuesday's primaries, most of us would concede that he is the presumptive nominee. 

The flood of former presidential candidates who have endorsed him over the past 10 days is an indication that the current generation of candidates wants to avoid another catastrophic loss like we felt in 2016. In this case, the reelection of Trump would do serious harm to civilization itself. 

If you had asked me six months ago who my top 4 or 5 candidates were, Biden would not have been on the list. I suspect that is the case for a lot of people. How then do we explain all those liberals' liberals who are now ostentatiously turning their backs on Bernie Sanders to endorse Biden? I suspect that it's strategic thinking of a fairly straightforward order. The danger of handing the presidency to Trump once again is too great to risk over a long-shot ultra-liberal. Better to gain the partial victory. 

In a way, Biden presents an image that shouldn't be too threatening to moderate Republican voters, the ones who voted for Trump out of loyalty to the party but could be cajoled away from him in 2020. I don't know how many of them there are, but it wouldn't take more than a couple of percent to clinch the election for Biden. 

Some years ago, when George W Bush was in office, I wrote an article suggesting that there was a prospect for a long term Democratic majority. The idea was that moderate Republicans, sick of how weirdly right wing their party had become, could colonize the moderate wing of the Democratic Party and thereby create a strong majority which averaged as centrist. It would be a party that supported a strong national defense (ala FDR, Truman, Kennedy) and fought for universal health coverage. In the modern day, it would be a party that was not in Putin's back pocket. 

I also suggested at the time that a lot of voters might prefer to become independent – that is to say, no party registration – and these voters could provide the buffer that leads to a strong Democratic majority on election day. I called these presumptive voters Reform Democrats. It’s an interesting idea that may come to fruition due to the unusual situation we find ourselves in. 

Who are the problem voters? 

Who are the problem voters in the event of a Biden nomination? I suspect that the hardcore progressive activists are the greatest danger -- the ones who can't be satisfied with incremental gain or even just holding their own. They are the ones who want to achieve a European style Democratic Socialist utopia in one fell swoop. Since the United States is not a European style parliamentary system but a tripartite government, this is not going to happen. 

But for the rest of us, it is comforting to realize that incrementalism can work. We are almost at the point where everyone can get health coverage without concerns over preexisting conditions; we just need to create the "public option" aka "Medicare for all who want it." It would require the Democrats retaking the Senate, winning the presidency, and changing a few senatorial rules in the beginning of January, 2021. It's time to increase the size of the Supreme Court to 13 or 15 anyway, which is allowable under the Constitution if you have the votes. 

Last week, I suggested that those of us who have been suffering under the Trump presidency would have a chance to smile a bit, while looking forward to the end of his reign. We've gotten to this point in our own peculiar way, using a primary system that is downright ugly and by enduring a series of debates that became all but unwatchable after the first few times. The failure to provide for a big liberal state in the early balloting may have skewed the results to what we are seeing now: the most leftward candidate is holding on to his one-third of the voters, very much the way Trump is holding on to his own one-third. With so many centrist candidates in the early running, it was all but inevitable that Sanders would finish near the top in the early primaries with what is, after all, a minority of the votes. As the number of candidates has dwindled, that same 33 percent (give or take a few) is no longer a winning number. 

Here's what is important now: We all need to remember how angry we were when Trump won. We have to do now what we failed to do last time, which is to get out the votes in the rust belt states, in Pennsylvania, and in Florida. In order to get out those votes, we need to remind people how bad it's been. 

We need to remind people that presidents are supposed to be presidential, not lazy, moronic, and malicious. It staggered me to realize that when Mike Pence stood at the podium and spoke about the coronavirus, he sounded like somebody who is at least sane and under control. Pence is not my kind of politician (he's not even liked by a majority of his fellow Hoosiers), but when Trump talks about the virus, he's like some angry drunk at the end of the bar -- that is to say, he is pretty much the same as he's been on every other topic, only this time the topic is one of life and death. 

A blood soaked night at the opera 

It was a bloody night at the L.A. Opera, only this time the blood was mine. I rather clumsily put my foot in the wrong place along the steep flight of steps going up to the Music Center, and blam! -- there I was rolling on the concrete walkway. It took me a couple of moments to realize that my knee and elbow were banged up and bloodied. But I had a ticket to Donizetti's Roberto Devereaux, and I just had to limp up those final 75 or so steps. I figured I could ask an usher for a Band-Aid and everything would be copacetic. 

I got through the first part of the exercise. The usher said he would find me a Band-Aid. I went into the restroom to rinse my elbow, and when I came out, there was the usher with some guy in a uniform holding a medical kit. Just then, the announcement went out that the performance would start in two minutes. I asked for the Band-Aid. 

It was then that the term Kafkaesque would have fit. The guy in the uniform insisted that I show him my identification before he could treat me. He mumbled something about it being a rule. I just wanted to get into the show, and if I didn't do it right away, I would be subject to waiting outside the door until a break in the action (this can be as much as 15 minutes -- it's not like going to a movie). 

I also understood intuitively that the showing of identification would be the beginning of additional ritualistic behavior (and wasted time on my part), and I would probably miss getting into the auditorium on time. I just said, "No," and walked up the stairs and into the theater. My jacket covered my bloody elbow and my slacks covered my bloody knee. 

I wonder why they have to make it so difficult just to ask for a bandage. 

Speaking of blood soaked . . . 

As for the opera Roberto Devereux, it was generally wonderful. It is an old style Italian opera from the year 1837, populated by heroic characters who are given long, melodic arias to communicate their woes. (There isn't much in the way of comedy in this grand tragedy.) 

The story centers around England's Queen Elizabeth, now known to history as Elizabeth the First. Sung by Angela Meade, this was a heroically difficult and long role, ending in a sustained finish that (to borrow the old cliché) brought down the house. 

My favorite performer was Ashley Dixon as Elizabeth's friend (and secret rival in love), Sara, Duchess of Nottingham. 

Elizabeth and Sara both love Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex. But he only loves Sara. This is a political problem for Devereux, as Elizabeth wants him as much as he wants Sara, and he ultimately pays with his life. He is beheaded (offstage) in the last act. 

After the opera, out in the courtyard, I chanced to have a conversation with a young man who is listed in the program as a supernumerary. This weighty word refers to the people who play characters onstage, but in nonsinging roles. There is a fellow who portrays Shakespeare, a woman who portrays Anne Boleyn, and there was this young man Eros Mendoza, who explained to me that he was one of the courtiers. This conversation was of interest to me because when he asked whether I liked the performance, it took me a while to explain that doing a critical discussion of an operatic performance has to be couched in the understanding that real opera is so far above almost every other art form that you have to take it at that level. And at that level, this was a pretty good performance, in that it involved marvelous voices in demanding roles, all combined with a terrific orchestral performance. So here's to all the supernumeraries, the people who help carry the story forward. 

And interestingly enough, the conductor was a woman this time. Not only that, but a woman from Seoul, South Korea. Eun Sun Kim is the newly appointed music director of the San Francisco Opera and, we hope, a frequent guest here in Los Angeles. 

What was also interesting about the cast was how many of these grand opera professionals are from the United States. In looking at the program biographies, I notice that Sara, Duchess of Nottingham, is originally from Peachtree City, Georgia, while the Duke of Nottingham is from Honolulu. Two other male leads were from Coral Springs, Fla and from Fredonia, NY, respectively. And of course there is the world famous chorus director (and director of the L.A. Master Chorale) Grant Gershon, from none other than Alhambra, Ca.

(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])

-cw