Political Checkmate
Quick reaction to Biden/Holt interview, debate, shot at Trump
Why did I write this post? It’s pretty simple. I love politics, and I love chess.
As I was watching the most recent Biden interview with Lester Holt, it occurred to me that Biden has found himself in a strategic and political checkmate. Now that Trump has survived an assassination attempt, and Biden has publicly expressed concern and gratitude for Trump’s health, it seems Biden is perfectly stuck.
After the shot at Trump, there was a loud and clear call for both sides to “turn down the temperature on the rhetoric.” But, as was made clear in the Biden/Holt interview, it is tough to “turn down the temp on the rhetoric” while still talking about the evil Orange Hitler every other sentence. I mean, to be fair to president Biden, that is kind of what politicians do, right? But it was particularly fascinating to watch Biden try to thread this needle, especially considering the events from this past weekend and how difficult it is for him to string a sentence together in general.
Seth Dillon from the Babylon Bee put it this way,
“If Trump were as bad as Biden and other Democrats say he is - if he were a tyrant on par with Hitler himself – then why would they be grateful to hear he’s safe and doing well? Either their characterizations of Trump are false, or their sympathy is.”
Checkmate.
Can’t dial up the rhetoric. Can’t stop campaigning. What can they do?
After the infamous debate, I felt that it was impossible for the Biden administration to be backed further into a corner. Turns out, I was very wrong.
Biden expressed this to some degree in the interview with Holt, at one point saying, “How do you talk about the threat to democracy - which is real - when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it might incite somebody?”
Exactly.
I am confident that Biden and his team deeply sense how tight of a spot they are in and are struggling with next moves. Besides pushing some insane conspiracy theory behind the scenes - that Trump hired an expert marksman/martyr to hit his ear in an effort to make him look sympathetic - I am not sure what the next move is.
What was also fascinating about this interview was watching Biden react to the press turning on him. The average difficulty level of the press’s questions in the last few years has been “Mr. President, what is your favorite ice cream?” Then, Biden essentially pantsed the media on live TV during the infamous debate. The entire nation could now see with their own eyes that the press has been covering for Biden and lying to them about his health and mental fitness. So, the media was faced with a decision: turn on Biden and play bad cop for a little while, or lose what very little credibility they have left with the American people.
As you can see in the interview, Biden doesn’t like real questions. He made this obvious a few times when he snapped at Lester Holt, leaning forward, lowering his voice, staring him down, looking equal parts frustrated and confused like he couldn’t believe Holt was asking him some real questions
At one point during the interview, Biden said “What’s with you guys?” in response to a challenging question. Honestly, this response, delivered through a puzzled chuckle, seemed to be a fair question. The subtext being, “Why are you guys turning on me? I thought we had a deal?”
At another point during the interview Holt asked Biden about his debate performance and a visibly frustrated Biden interjected, “Why aren’t you guys talking about the 18, 28 lies he told?” This calls to mind an age old law of political debate; if you’re explaining, you’re losing.
As mentioned, I love politics and I love chess. This situation is a nexus of both. Whether you support Trump or Biden, I think we can agree that Biden has found himself in a strategic checkmate1, with no great options moving forward except to check the board one more time, shake hands and admit defeat.
A Note for Christians
Lastly, what are the implications for Christians here? How do we navigate a political landscape defined by disorienting information wars and heated rhetoric? Why does it matter?
These are great questions and I’m sure many of us wrestle with them often, especially today.
The significance of strategic rhetoric is political in nature. We live in public. Politics is about the social ordering of public life. We are embedded in community. It matters.
We are political animals. It is an inescapable part of who we are.
We as the church clearly have a higher calling, but we still exist in a public and social context; even though we are “elect exiles” as 1 Peter says, we still exist here in the mess. A quietist posture just won’t cut it. You can run, but you can’t hide.
Part of loving your neighbor is remembering that you have a neighbor to begin with, and that you and your neighbor have to figure out how to live together. That is politics in the most basic sense.
I don't think Christians should engage in inflammatory rhetoric in a deceitful or harassing way of course, but I think there must certainly be a place for political strategy and the main (maybe only?) way to do that is through language and messaging.
The church has access to the pre-political, eternal principles of God that should shape our public life. One job of the church is to remind our world of these principles and to be the moral rudder for the institutions that shape our life together.
Thank you so much for reading. If you read this and have a thought, please leave a comment here or email me (below). My primary motivation for writing is to create more good conversation around cultural, theological and political issues. I would love to hear your thoughts.
jeffreycharlescaldwell@gmail.com
This wasn’t the only checkmate Biden found himself in. I have been asking myself why Biden continues to persistently peddle the “fine people on both sides” lie even though just about every press outlet including Snopes (arguably the most popular political fact checking site) has thoroughly debunked it. Biden mentioned it again in this interview, and also released an attack ad recently that emphatically repeats the “fine on both sides” lie. I finally realized why he does this. He does it because he has to. The reason he has to is because it legitimizes his origin story. You’ll notice in this interview Biden repeats his presidential origin story- which is that his son Beau died in 2015 and he - Joe Biden - was not going to run, but when he saw the events at Charlottesville and heard Trump call White supremacist Nazi’s “fine people” (the lie that has been thoroughly debunked), he decided he had to run for president to save the country. If Biden now admits, like all major press outlets and fact checkers have admitted, that Trump did not actually call white supremacist Nazi’s “fine people”, then his presidential origin story collapses and loses its pull. So he will continue to repeat the lie and bet that those who are planning on voting for him are too stuck in their algorithm to notice the lie.
All is well said. I appreciate also your comments for Christians.
Whenever we enter these inflammatory elections like these, I am reminded that the church must/should also talk about politics. Yes, I suppose to some degree we talk about politics as we are given them from our world. But I am reminded that we also believe in kingdom politics. Jesus came and established a kingdom with a completely different political system/thinking. Kingdom politics don't lie, they don't climb over others to achieve their goals. Kingdom politics leads Christ to a cross. Kingdom politics are looking out for the interests of others rather than yourself. Kingdom politics wash disciples feet. Kingdom politics rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.
And yet, keeping kingdom politics in view, we grieve the brokenness of our current political system. We understand it will not ever be what it should be. And yet, as Christian, we vote and pray for things to be on earth as they are in heaven. Remembering the fullness of that prayer won't be a reality until all things are made right.
Thanks for the post. I appreciate the illustration. I posted signs for the LBJ-HHH election a few years ago. I was not of voting age. But, I have always been interested. I have never seen anything like this. I am quite happy there are still people willing to look carefully and respond not react.