Your patriotic decision

This is going to be hard for our committed Republican neighbors, friends and family members to read, but being in a community and living in a democratic society obligates all of us to accomplish the difficult task of continuing to the end of this editorial.

It seems we have been collectively engaged in an agonizing drama these past three weeks. The world watched and without any hesitation universally agreed that President Joe Biden’s performance in his debate with Donald Trump June 28 was a disaster. More than stumbling terribly, he was a pitiful sight, clearly not up to the task of governing a nation of 330 million people, the greatest country on earth.

So, what did he do? His allies and supporters, some of them lifelong, others colleagues for years or decades, gathered information and shared it with the president. After talking among themselves, listening to their families, polling and taking the pulse of the community, always asking that paradoxical and difficult question, what is best for the country and for my own future, one after another in the Democratic tribe came to a singular decision: Joe Biden was not up to the task of running the country. Independently and collectively their analyses, their smart thinking and their hearts told them they had to report to the president he must end his bid for reelection.

Now switch to the other side. Biden, 81, had become a U.S. senator at age 30. For over 50 years he lived, ate and drank politics. In the past three weeks he was caught in a swamp of his own making. He had stayed too long. He had confused his personal story – his ego – with what he believed was the success and future of the country.

Everyone watched this narrative play out. Let’s consider the process that led to the outcome: Joe Biden read critically, listened to diverse voices, thought way too long for some and hard for himself, and discerned that in the best interests of the country and its future, he could not continue to run for reelection.

Joe Biden’s difficult decision was carefully thought out. Biden acted as a patriot. He modeled good citizenship. He lived small “d” democratic values.

This is all objectively true, a tragedy dramatized in real time on the world stage, his agony dissected under a microscope.

In all this, Biden showed what each and every one of us as voters are able to do: figure out who to vote for by Aug. 6 in the Washington primary by carefully considering our options and continuing to sift through information and opinions before reaching a decision and casting our votes.

The La Conner Weekly News is once again endorsing its readers as citizens who will win every election contest for themselves and their community by their careful discernment and weighing of myriad factors, large and small, personal and global, before they in each case come up with the patriotic decision of putting their community, state and country’s interest first and have that guide then in their decision making process in marking their ballots.

In filling out your ballot you are doing a very important thing. Don’t take it lightly. Don’t rush the process. Be brave.