A famous phrase conjured by T.S. Eliot in his poem <em>The Hollow Men</em> springs to mind as the most apposite reaction to the news that President Joe Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 US presidential race, though at the same time I am reluctant to use it.
That the re-election bid by only the second Catholic president to have served the United States is ending “not with a bang but a whimper” is all too true. But it also recalls the dreadful fact that the presidency of America’s first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, <em>did</em> end with the bang from a sniper’s rifle, as <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/donald-trumps-bloody-ear-and-the-prayer-that-preceded-it/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Donald Trump's run for re-election nearly did too</mark></a>.
Despite that overbearing shadow of US presidential history, it cannot be denied that this description of a mournful whimpering demise accurately characterises the unraveling of Biden's attempts to run for president again in November's forthcoming election.
It's all very sad, whatever your political persuasion. Biden has become the epitome of the Hollow Man – many would say of a hollow Catholic too – and his necessary departure from the race, not to mention how long it has taken to occur, is both an indictment and an embarrassment on many levels, spanning from the human to the national.
At the same time, there is also a sense of relief, not just for the US and for its democratic system – who has really been in power; who has been directing a president who appeared increasingly incapable of sustained coherent thinking or of even running your average-sized high school, let alone the great Republic? – but for the man himself. Anyone with an elderly relative, parent or friend could not help wincing at the dreadful spectacle of it all.
At the same time, some honest things need to be said about how Biden's re-election narrative was managed before suddenly coming to an end – especially given how long the preceding charade was allowed to continue – as the shoddy process illuminates many of the problems that bedevil contemporary US politics.
It's highlighted how the world’s most powerful country is ruled by a gerontocracy – on both sides of the political aisle. Even more intransigent – and old – than Biden is the former Speaker of the House, 83-year-old Nancy Pelosi, another hollow Catholic for many, who still wields enormous power and influence in the Democratic Party (there are reports that it was her intervention that sealed Biden's fate).
The Republicans, meanwhile, have 82-year-old Mitch McConnell as Senate Minority Leader (though he has said he will step down come this November, he reportedly plans to remain in Congress through the remainder of his term into 2027). And of course, Donald Trump is 78 years old and would enter his eighties if re-elected as president and he served another full four-year term.
Those are three of the most obvious cases, but around them swirl of mass of aging men and woman who won’t let go of power and ignore that most simple and well established of adages that power corrupts. And it seems very hard to do anything about it in US politics. Hence the political myopia that led to Biden initially becoming the Democratic Party's favoured choice to run this November (the same criticism can be levelled at the Republican Party concerning their choice of Trump too).
At the same time, the role of mainstream media has, yet again, been revealed to be worryingly disingenuous and biased.
They are still so caught up in Trump Derangement Syndrome that, based on a judgement of what they deem the lesser of two evils, these media continue to defy impartiality and justify going against journalistic professionalism and integrity on the basis that it has to be done to "save America". <br><br>Hence such journalists and editors wouldn’t report on Biden accurately and say what everyone else could see was blatantly happening until the final moment, when, post that disastrous televised debate, the lie of omission could not longer be maintained: resulting in the equally unpleasant sudden media pile on that has been another big factor in forcing the Democratic Party's hand and getting Biden out of the race.
Then, of course, there is the money, which underwrites so much of the above. Morals have gone out the window in US politics. Money is what matters. It drives all of it, with a corrupting influence on par with the unchecked power.
On top of all of this, is the sheer scale of cynicism and ideological bias and mania that has taken root in US politics – steeped in an increasingly libertine and progressive society that appears driven by a godless, decadent and hyper-competitive culture and ethos – that so elevates achieving your agenda at the cost of everyone else, no matter what. <br><br>And the rest of us, certainly in the UK, should not feel relieved or smug as we look on aghast at the “<a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-aggressive-absurdities-of-us-presidential-politics-hit-catholics-hardest/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">aggressive absurdities</mark></a>” of US politics: the same thing is happening here.
We just had a General Election in which, faced with the "fabulous disconnect between the ludicrous proposals of all of the parties and the reality of the state of the nation", <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/a-clergyman-reflects-on-the-fabulous-disconnect-of-uk-politics-as-we-vote-for-more-of-the-same/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">we voted for more of the same</mark></a>.
But back to the US and its problems.
As one supposedly Catholic "standard-bearer" politician leaves the election race – having already disappointed Catholics across the country through leading "the most aggressive anti-Catholic administration ever known", <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-aggressive-absurdities-of-us-presidential-politics-hit-catholics-hardest/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">as Ken Craycraft puts it</mark></a> – in comes another: JD Vance, and who has a pretty decent chance of eventually becoming the third Catholic president of the United States. <br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/what-are-we-to-make-of-jd-vance-including-his-turn-to-catholicism/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">What are we to make of JD Vance, especially his turn to Catholicism?</mark></a></strong>
Whether Vance will manage to prove any different at the top-flight of modern US politics and can remain above the torrid mess currently being enacted, remains to be seen.
But the <em>Catholic Herald </em>noted that it welcomes his nomination as Donald Trump’s running mate “not from a partisan perspective, but because it is good when thoughtful Catholics become involved in politics".
Joe Biden, sadly, is no longer a thoughtful Catholic in US politics. And he is not alone.
But Biden, at least, has done what was needed, and should be given some credit for that, notwithstanding the fact his decision may have been mainly <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/comparing-benedict-xvis-resignation-and-bidens-withdrawal-what-lessons-are-there-for-the-democrats-and-us-democracy/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">due to the “political math” of it all</mark></a> and the attendant political pressures bearing down on him as a result; as opposed to doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing, and doing the right thing for the Office of the President and for the more than 300 million American citizens that rely on their government. <br><br>With about four months to go until the US election, there is still plenty of time for politicians to do the right thing – or to not do the right thing in shaping America's future.
Already the unimaginatively by rote Democrat endorsements appear to be piling up for Kamala Harris to replace Biden as the party's presidential nominee come November. It may well prove that the Democrats have exchanged one liability for another. Harris has proved one of the most unpopular vice presidents across the demographic board in America during her tenure, and has generated enough of her own perplexing moments when on stage and mouthing off stream-of-consciousness-type rhetoric that sounds close to unhinged.
That said, as a former state attorney general she is clearly capable and can handle herself and would be a more formidable opponent for Trump. She can also draw on better public-relations optics too: a woman of colour, taking on an entitled old white man, etc. The disappointment, if not disgust, that many US Catholics have felt at the way Biden has governed could pale in comparison to a President Harris, given she has shown herself to be even more rabidly progressive in her outlook on societal issues.
Harris is a particular "champion for reproductive freedom" – that wannabe upbeat-sounding and generic modernist description/sleight of hand that covers a lot that goes against Catholic social teaching – in the words of Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer when <a href="https://x.com/gretchenwhitmer/status/1815408498420707623"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Tweeting</mark></a>, in the aftermath of Biden stepping down, that she is "fired up to endorse [Harris] for President of the United States", as well as "proud to serve as a co-chair of her campaign".
Recently, Whitmer was being talked about as a potential successor to Biden for the Democratic Party were he to go. She has presumably subsequently been told what's what regarding Harris and to toe the party line.
That might still change given that the Democratic National Convention, when the party will officially nominate its candidate for the next US presidency, is still nearly a month away on 19 - 22 August in Chicago. <br><br>Might. Never has the political machinery of the US seemed so staid, inflexible and devoid of wholesome vigour and of intelligent imagination.
All of which takes us back to the cautioning words of T.S. Eliot:
<em>We are the hollow men<br>We are the stuffed men<br>Leaning together<br>Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!<br>Our dried voices, when <br>We whisper together<br>Are quiet and meaningless<br>As wind in dry grass<br>Or rats' feet over broken glass<br>In our dry cellar <br>Shape without form shade without colour,<br>Paralysed force, gesture without motion...</em><br><br>Do those headpieces filled with straw and meaningless voices apply more to the Democratic Party or to the Republican Party? In the spirit of that impartiality which seems so lacking from the journalistic landscape in the US today, let's just say it is a close call between the two.
<strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/how-catholic-philosopher-rene-girard-could-shape-us-politics-now-jd-vance-on-republican-ticket/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Catholic philosopher René Girard could shape US politics now JD Vance on Republican ticket</mark></a></strong>
<em>Photo: US President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the White House following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Washington, DC, USA, 14 July 2024. Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images.)</em>
