This morning I awoke from a dream, realizing the awful truth that see you soon is something you often say to people who you may not see again. I was thinking about my mom, and what it will be like once there are no more visits, no more advice. It seems like too often when I am on vacation, loved ones and friends pass away. Maybe it was inspired by listening to the last half of the President’s address, when he announced officially that he would not be seeking reelection. Mom is certainly saddened by the retirement of the President at end of the year. It’s sort of like a death in someways – – everybody expected it – – but it was put off with the President in denial mode until it hit.

Joe Biden was an interim President. Somebody who was to be a caretaker to the Presidency after the COVID, somebody to hold the office until the Democrats found somebody younger. That was his platform in 2020 and something he has repeated many times since. The problem with being an interim anything, is that interim often becomes a permanent decision by default over time. How many times have the life of interim landfills or dirty power plants been extended by expansions and permit extensions? My own run-down interim apartment – – prior to moving out west and building that off-grid cabin and my interim job to get the probation officer off my ass – – seems to been extended and extended.  Biden already pushing his 80s when he was first elected, and it’s not easy job as President. To say he was going to extend his term another 4 years via a successful reelection at his advanced age, just seems fools like errand.

It’s time for a new generation of leadership. The nineteen sixties and seventies are far in the rear-view mirror now that we are in second half the 2020s, The interim has to pass by in favor of the future and permanent. It’s possible to sustain the unsustainable for a long time, but it’s a fools game to put all effort into pushing water uphill as a temporary measure before what is the permanent and the future. Kamela Harris is that future, at least for the Democratic Party, and hopefully for Congress. She represents where the Democratic Party is going, as our country becomes more diverse and the older generation fades away. At some point, you have to bite the bullet and just move on to the leadership of tomorrow, and not cling on to the interim for too long. It’s my generation that is now moving in the driver’s seat – – the baby boomers are fading away. Still it seems awkward to say the least. I do often question my own leadership, as Director of Data Services, when I suddenly find myself as the decider – – who to hire, what contracts to keep or cancel, what projects to advance. I keep looking to previous generation to provide their former leadership, but I realize that they aren’t there anymore, and there is nobody to phone and have them to decide for me.

That said, I did not tune into until the end of President’s very brief address. And I was pretty much repelled by the rhetoric over we can have our democracy, if we only keep it. While that statement is valid, I don’t like how President Biden is innuending that the only way to have a democracy is to elect a Democratic president. That seems anti-democratic to have the decision to made up for us. There are pros-and-cons of both Harris and Trump, and each of us must weight the benefits and risks of each candidate. On some issues Trump is better then Harris, but all the evidence points to Trump having only one term if elected, and that the Democratic Party isn’t going to disappear or not remain a potent force should Trump win. Democracy will go on, regardless of whom the public chooses to lead the nation. And it’s not like Democrats are above manipulating election laws in states they control through redistricting, ballot counting laws, election administration tweaks and other little things to benefit their own party in extraordinarily close elections. In this hyper-partisan world we live in, I can’t imagine one political party just rolling over, playing dead and letting the other side take over without a constant fight to wrest power and control of public policy back to their way of thinking.

In the end, times change. It’s sad to see Joe Biden announcing his retirement at the end of the year, but it’s time for the interim to come an end in favor of permanent – – and the next generation of leadership as represented by Kamela Harris to step up. The days of yore are passing by, and we needed somebody to lead the nation our of the COVID, but we are beyond those days. Good luck, and enjoy you retirement, Mr. President come the end of year and start of the second half of the twenties.