While watching the president of the United States take questions from members of the media Thursday night, I had a revelation. To be more accurate, I had two revelations in rapid succession.
The first has to do with the 2024 presidential election. For months, and maybe more than a year, rumblings have echoed from every part of the political ecosphere that the Democrat Party was planning to dump Joe Biden for another nominee/standard bearer in the general election. I held off from believing that could be true; the Democratic political machine, the legacy media, and Biden's inner circle have been so steadfast in propping up the man, it just seemed like a case of over-the-top wishcasting by a gaggle of talking heads and pundits.
But a split-second on Thursday changed my mind. Something on the scale of a knockout punch shocked my system, as Biden crumbled while answering basic questions about Special Counsel Robert Hur's report. I thought: They're actually going to dump a sitting POTUS. For posterity, RedState Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar chronicled the capsizing of a presidency in real-time, including Pres. Biden's speech and the Q and A from the assembled press members. While mentioning the latter, Van Laar wrote:
The first question was asked by Fox News' Peter Doocy; Biden replied that his memory was bad enough that he allowed Doocy to ask a question.
When asked additional questions related to the classified documents being found in his office, his home, his garage, Biden blamed his staff and became increasingly combative with the press corps. He also claimed that he did not disclose classified information, though the report plainly says he did.
I bring up this incident between the White House press corps and the 46th president of the United States while also remembering the church services of my youth, as a member of the United Methodist Church. (I started attending a new denomination in recent weeks, which I'll write about in an upcoming "Higher Culture" column.) There was a tradition in our church that some of you might find familiar: the corporal recitation of a general prayer on the Sunday falling on the week of Presidents' Day (the third Monday of February) for our elected officials on all levels of government. The words were specific and unequivocal, regardless of the party affiliation of the representatives: We asked for God's blessing on the president and his Cabinet, members of the U.S. Senate, and members of the House of Representatives.
Today isn't a federal holiday, but the same need sorely applies--which neatly dovetails into that second thing that struck my head (then my heart and soul). We are being called as Americans to pray for our president, Joe Biden, right now. We are being called to pray for our Congress and our Supreme Court. We are also being called to pray for our nation. And in a moment like this, these are all inextricably linked.
Am I saying that Republicans, libertarians, or others unaffiliated should support the policies of Biden and his progressive hangers-on? No. Am I saying that anyone ought to vote for Joe Biden in November? Absolutely not. But what I am saying is that Biden is clearly an ill man. No one but the gullible, misguided, or willfully dishonest keeps any illusions about that fact. Am I implying that Biden is not worthy of scorn for being a corrupt politician? Not at all. These things can be true at the same time—as other, more eloquent voices have said before; someone can be worthy of both our pity and contempt. I'm adding here that that same person can be worthy of grace.
There's one basic commandment after our loving God; after loving his Father, the similar commandment that Jesus Christ tells us to follow is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Matthew 22:34-40 (NKJV) reads:
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Once or twice, he also might have said something about how Christians should feel about our enemies. That, too.
Regardless, this is where we are, America. We won't have a say again until November 2024 on who will sit in the Oval Office; in the meantime, we can pray for the health and well-being of the one God's providence has given us.
