Alan S. Austin
Arizona Playwright • Writer • Poet
  

IT'S NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST (1/15)

Jon Gabriel has looked at all the polls and concluded that whatever way you look at it, President Biden is unpopular. The polls prove he is doing a poor job. Nobody, not even his new dog likes him. His wife likes him a bit but she's his wife and a teacher so she doesn't count. You suggest maybe bringing back Hillary Clinton... Oh no! Please... Not her! Afghanistan? The pandemic? Voting rights? Failure, failure, failure. Well, I hate to tell you. Running the United States of America is not and should never be a popularity contest. We had someone trying to do that for the previous four years and look where that got us! That political philosophy is called "populism." The previous President was sensitive to his popularity and had lots of big rallies to prove to himself just how popular he was. In fact, he was very popular in Arizona but did he run the country well? And what about the fact that he tried to organize a coup to stay in power? That didn't work so well. In fact it failed. Personally I don't care if Biden is unpopular. I want him to do the job and put the US back on its feet and stop the ship sinking and bind the wounds. We'll worry about popularity in ten years' time. After all, many Americans did not like Lincoln.