Everyone loves a good “where’s my $2,000 check, Joe” tweet. Like so many moments in the Twitter universe, it has inevitably evolved into an Olympic event. Whoever can take a tangentially connected image and add their best creative commentary on the President owing them a stimulus check is our gold medalist. It’s having a remarkably long shelf life when you think about it; need I remind you that Bernie at the inauguration was boiled to a froth in less than 7 hours. Its longevity lies in its ability to morph. It has undergone a sort of heel turn from funny and playful ribbing to a painful reminder and proxy-accountability method. Actually, where the fuck are these stimulus checks now that you mention it?
There, from the ashes of a reasonably funny Twitter inside joke, birthed the Left’s quasi accountability and confusion critique of the Biden administration. If one were to create a pie chart of the movement’s growing frustration with the administration, 30 percent would fall into “I don’t like what’s happening” and the other 70 percent would be “I have no clue what’s happening”. What was once a pillar of his appeal has become a detriment to his ability to lead and govern. Subconsciously, what attracted most Democrats to Biden was his ability to say nothing at all. It was a brilliant strategy when running against a man who was sucking all of the oxygen out of the room. While most campaigns are a scorched-earth-bare knuckle fight, the Biden camp ran an avant-garde suicide operation. Allow the opponent to dig their hole and watch them jump in from a safe distance away. Those campaign videos were simply a political orgy of patched-together clips where Donald Trump would impressively shove 25-30 different shoes into his mouth over 2 minutes. And then it would end. Not a word from Joe Biden. It was so strange. It was so good.
But Joe Biden is not running for office anymore; he is the office. His silence or inability to communicate any type of clarity or vision is wearing down those who supported him or, at the very least, were hopeful for his administration. If you put ten politically savvy Americans into a room and asked them, “where are we on the stimulus package?” I am not sure you wouldn’t get ten different answers. Or simply ten different facial expressions of exasperation. I still have no idea why we are bombing Syria and I haven’t missed an episode of Rachel Maddow in thirteen years. When you leave a narrative void, others will gladly fill it with their version of what’s happening. What is happening right now seems to be a deadly concoction of nothing and everything. Of all the Presidential sins, confusion and uncertainty will oftentimes be the greatest in the eyes of the American people. Tell us something, Mr. President. Just make sure it includes an explanation for where my money is at.
The Griddle 