Perfection no standard for re-election

Are we picking kings and queens,/ Or defending democratic dreams?

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If not a rational, adult leader, then what? 

To smartly understand the world,
Dismiss bombast and online swirl;
Across the noisy right and left
Fault-finders leave reality bereft.

Selecting the top leader’s no frolic,
Uniting the real and symbolic;
Grace under pressure suits one Joe— 
Not idiocy from a bad game show.

Thus must reason and reason negate
The mindless, right-wing caliphate.
Defying the Big Lie as the Big Con—
Twaddle from would-be Genghis Khan.

Heartfelt lefties push different frames:
Clamorous, judgmental blame games;
Aghast at open primary choices,
Relentless fervor drives their voices.

No Dem incumbent’s good enough:
Too old, too wimpy, a spineless bluff;
To back with arms a besieged ally
Convicts a “genocidal” bad guy.

Estrangement fans perfection,
Inclined to moralize each election;
Isn’t Biden a facile sitting duck, 
A centrist driving ideologues amuck?

Compare Biden not to the almighty
But a crazed, convicted thuggee;
What candidate is ever perfect,
So pure we all must genuflect?

To cast Biden in the harshest glare
Engulf the politics of despair;
Are we picking kings and queens,
Or defending democratic dreams?

The vexation that fuels sophistry 
Contorts our complex history;
Imperative real-world choices matter— 
And so must comfort zones shatter.

To desecrate a rational winner
Empowers a cutthroat sinner;
Sane realists favor a flawed champ,
Over Trump’s vengeful prison camp.

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For over a decade, Robert S. Becker's independent, rebel-rousing essays on politics and culture analyze overall trends, history, implications, messaging and frameworks. He has been published widely, aside from Nation of Change and RSN, with extensive credits from OpEdNews (as senior editor), Alternet, Salon, Truthdig, Smirking Chimp, Dandelion Salad, Beyond Chron, and the SF Chronicle. Educated at Rutgers College, N.J. (B.A. English) and U.C. Berkeley (Ph.D. English), Becker left university teaching (Northwestern, then U. Chicago) for business, founding SOTA Industries, a top American high end audio company he ran from '80 to '92. From '92-02, he was an anti-gravel mining activist while doing marketing, business and writing consulting. Since then, he seeks out insight, even wit in the shadows, without ideology or righteousness across the current mayhem of American politics.

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