Member-only story
The Asymmetry of Delusion
Behind two suffocating political vanities: the ‘circular firing squad’ and the ‘cult’:
July 5–8
With reference to the Biden team reaction to the aftermath of Biden’s performance June 28, one hears the term “Shakespearean.” Everyone’s ‘career’ in DC is playing before their eyes. For Biden, he seems to have circulated more passion about his golf handicap and aversion to the editorial board of the New York Times than the voting public or for that matter his career in DC.
Consider how no one has convincingly weighed in on what the June 28 look-see means for the Presidency and the public’s approval of a President’s performance. Perhaps, as Biden later conceded, his critics’ political passions align with their election outcomes not the party primary outcomes.
In England ruling parties exit the political stage and are replaced in less than a fortnight; in France one recites the number of “governments” that have “fallen” (and risen). Another French election has transformed the power balance on the eve of the Olympic torch arriving at the Place de la Concorde. In both countries the political winds have shifted convincingly leftward.
Cnsider that behind the “optics” of a poor debate performance — as Ben Rhodes points out in a recent article in Foreign Affairs (1) — not much in the world these days is…
