The Joseph Biden Paradox
Posted: 08 Nov 2020, 02:08
By the time I scribble this opinion, it is old news that the former Vice President of the United States of America, Joseph Biden, has become its President-elect.
I can hardly relate his namesake and heritage with the story of the Biblical Joseph because I hardly know his biography. However, like many others, the Biblical Joseph is seared into my memory, in my case because of a poetic religious story about him that I read as a young boy. This religious book, which was the first book that I read in my life, was titled: የሴቷን ፈተና ኣለፈ በደህና። The book was one of several short story religious books stored in a box at my family's home. No one had told me where they came from nor was I asked to read any of them. My curiosity about reading a book after I learned how to read made me pick up that book.
The former Vice President, now the President-elect, has expressed publicly that he got into the race for the President of the U.S. for a battle for the soul of the nation. Evidently, the majority of the electorate in the U.S. has heard the call and voted to give him that privilege and honor. By the latest count that I have seen, he has won 279 electoral college votes, more than needed to earn the mandate to govern the nation.
I see no paradox in that.
The paradox I see is in what I heard him shamelessly pronounce on various occasions to lead the world. Every time I heard him say it publicly, I ask myself what he sees as the source of his mandate to do so. I do not have enough reading of the works of the founding fathers of the U.S. So, I wonder if there was ever a suggestion by any one of them to lead any nation beyond the Republic for which they wrote a constitution, in addition to leading a war for its independence. Some have argued that, if anything, they were looking over their shoulders the Roman Ceasars and labored to put in checks and balances in the constitution by way of the three branches of government.
If I am not mistaken, Joseph Biden has Irish heritage. So, here is the paradox that I see. What makes Joseph Biden, a U.S. citizen of Irish heritage, entitled to lead the Republic of Ireland, let alone the entire world?
I am assuming that the battle for the soul of his nation gets more meaningful if it also incorporates soul searching in order to answer the question of the source of entitlement for a U.S. citizen of Irish heritage to assert an entitlement to lead the Republic of Ireland. Can the new President-elect go to the United Nations, look the delegation of the Republic of Ireland in the eyes, as the people of Ireland and delegates of other nations to the U.N. watch from afar and near, the source of his mandate to lead the Republic of Ireland, let alone the world?
In my view, for people who have a cursory understanding of a Republic and a Kingdom, it is not very difficult to navigate between the two. It is by way of that navigation that I try to understand the once upon a time King of the United States of America, Donald John Trump. I remember that even before he became the king, he asserted that he would attack even Germany if he thought it was necessary, a Republic in which he claims heritage. That is king think that puts himself above his heritage even it meant hurting it. As he acknowledged and respected those he considered other kings, King Putin, King Xi, King Un, and others, the reality TV show star became the Alice in Wonderland in a Republic of checks and balances that its founding fathers wrote.
Evidently, it appears that the President-elect's battle for the soul of the nation is to sway it back to the Republic instead of navigating between a Republic and a Kingdom at the same time. The learned Americans who don't seem to be tired of surprising the world now appear to be surprising it again by gravitating toward the Republic by responding favorably to the call by the current President-elect.
Now, he is duty-bound to clarify and live by his promises. In my view, clarifying this paradox is one of the duties he is bound to in the years to come.
For all the years he has been a member of the political leadership of the United States of America and all his life he carried with him his Irish heritage, it is not clear at all if he has managed to give leverage to the Republic of his ancestry in order to become a member of the five-eye countries, which I heard about in the news recently. If it is true that he hasn't been able to help provide that leverage to his ancestral land, what would make anyone else think that he hasn't been sitting idly by while a five-eyed monster may have been having a grip over his own heritage?
It is true that many people around the world, including myself, have looked at the moral fortitude of the United States of America for the democratic ideals of its learned people. That was, at least for me, before the era of its once upon a time King Donald John Trump. That was before its own citizens talked about capping a duly elected and sitting governor of one of its States. That is an expression I do not wish to repeat but doing it here only to reflect my reaction upon hearing it, which is that you can bring a medieval man out of medieval Europe, but you can't bring medieval anarchy out of a medieval man. This is only one exhibit out of the era of the once upon a time King of the United States of America.
So, if it is concluded positively that the new President-elect of the United States of America fails to substantiate the source of his mandate to lead the Republic of Ireland, isn't it a paradox that he shamelessly pronounces to do so? I think it is and, as an observer, I have called it the Joseph Biden Paradox.
I can hardly relate his namesake and heritage with the story of the Biblical Joseph because I hardly know his biography. However, like many others, the Biblical Joseph is seared into my memory, in my case because of a poetic religious story about him that I read as a young boy. This religious book, which was the first book that I read in my life, was titled: የሴቷን ፈተና ኣለፈ በደህና። The book was one of several short story religious books stored in a box at my family's home. No one had told me where they came from nor was I asked to read any of them. My curiosity about reading a book after I learned how to read made me pick up that book.
The former Vice President, now the President-elect, has expressed publicly that he got into the race for the President of the U.S. for a battle for the soul of the nation. Evidently, the majority of the electorate in the U.S. has heard the call and voted to give him that privilege and honor. By the latest count that I have seen, he has won 279 electoral college votes, more than needed to earn the mandate to govern the nation.
I see no paradox in that.
The paradox I see is in what I heard him shamelessly pronounce on various occasions to lead the world. Every time I heard him say it publicly, I ask myself what he sees as the source of his mandate to do so. I do not have enough reading of the works of the founding fathers of the U.S. So, I wonder if there was ever a suggestion by any one of them to lead any nation beyond the Republic for which they wrote a constitution, in addition to leading a war for its independence. Some have argued that, if anything, they were looking over their shoulders the Roman Ceasars and labored to put in checks and balances in the constitution by way of the three branches of government.
If I am not mistaken, Joseph Biden has Irish heritage. So, here is the paradox that I see. What makes Joseph Biden, a U.S. citizen of Irish heritage, entitled to lead the Republic of Ireland, let alone the entire world?
I am assuming that the battle for the soul of his nation gets more meaningful if it also incorporates soul searching in order to answer the question of the source of entitlement for a U.S. citizen of Irish heritage to assert an entitlement to lead the Republic of Ireland. Can the new President-elect go to the United Nations, look the delegation of the Republic of Ireland in the eyes, as the people of Ireland and delegates of other nations to the U.N. watch from afar and near, the source of his mandate to lead the Republic of Ireland, let alone the world?
In my view, for people who have a cursory understanding of a Republic and a Kingdom, it is not very difficult to navigate between the two. It is by way of that navigation that I try to understand the once upon a time King of the United States of America, Donald John Trump. I remember that even before he became the king, he asserted that he would attack even Germany if he thought it was necessary, a Republic in which he claims heritage. That is king think that puts himself above his heritage even it meant hurting it. As he acknowledged and respected those he considered other kings, King Putin, King Xi, King Un, and others, the reality TV show star became the Alice in Wonderland in a Republic of checks and balances that its founding fathers wrote.
Evidently, it appears that the President-elect's battle for the soul of the nation is to sway it back to the Republic instead of navigating between a Republic and a Kingdom at the same time. The learned Americans who don't seem to be tired of surprising the world now appear to be surprising it again by gravitating toward the Republic by responding favorably to the call by the current President-elect.
Now, he is duty-bound to clarify and live by his promises. In my view, clarifying this paradox is one of the duties he is bound to in the years to come.
For all the years he has been a member of the political leadership of the United States of America and all his life he carried with him his Irish heritage, it is not clear at all if he has managed to give leverage to the Republic of his ancestry in order to become a member of the five-eye countries, which I heard about in the news recently. If it is true that he hasn't been able to help provide that leverage to his ancestral land, what would make anyone else think that he hasn't been sitting idly by while a five-eyed monster may have been having a grip over his own heritage?
It is true that many people around the world, including myself, have looked at the moral fortitude of the United States of America for the democratic ideals of its learned people. That was, at least for me, before the era of its once upon a time King Donald John Trump. That was before its own citizens talked about capping a duly elected and sitting governor of one of its States. That is an expression I do not wish to repeat but doing it here only to reflect my reaction upon hearing it, which is that you can bring a medieval man out of medieval Europe, but you can't bring medieval anarchy out of a medieval man. This is only one exhibit out of the era of the once upon a time King of the United States of America.
So, if it is concluded positively that the new President-elect of the United States of America fails to substantiate the source of his mandate to lead the Republic of Ireland, isn't it a paradox that he shamelessly pronounces to do so? I think it is and, as an observer, I have called it the Joseph Biden Paradox.