Pivot already, goddammit
It amazes me how many people have become political experts with the unfortunate advent of social media.
It has been less than 24 hours since President Joe Biden announced he would not seek a second term in the White House, making it one of the most consequential days in American history, and those so-called experts and “influencers” are literally everywhere, and having a real time of it.
They’d like you to know that they have already conveniently processed everything so you don’t have to.
All you have to do now is take their word for it, and run in the direction they are pointing — and just as fast as possible.
They are currently mainlining coffee and are positively in the zone offering their sporty declarations, opinions, outlooks, points of view, angles, podcasts, slants and judgments …
There are scolding, urging, rebuking, admonishing, and chastising ...
READ: Trump’s life is still in danger
They are screaming, begging, yowling, grousing, urging, and grumbling …
Mostly, they are impatiently telling us all that they are pivoting … and we must, too. It’s time to pivot, people!
Forget everything we’ve said, written, posted, published, tweeted, spouted, or announced up until yesterday, because today everybody must shut up and pivot, but quick! There’s no time to waste!
Have YOU pivoted yet? What are you waiting for? Pivot already, goddammit, PIVOT!
This morning, I am thinking of a scene from one of my favorite movies The Paper when the Executive Editor of the fictional New York newspaper in the movie, Bernie White, played by the great Robert Duvall, makes it clear he, too, has had enough of all the damn “experts” and their opinions.
"I hate columnists,” he hollers. “Why do I have all these columnists? I got political columnists, guest columnists... celebrity columnists — The only thing I don't have is a dead columnist. That's the kind I could really use. We reek of opinions. What every columnist at this paper needs to do is to shut-the-fuck-up.”
Amen, Bernie.
And, by the way, this movie was released in 1995, before the blasted internet …
I’ll be honest with you, friends, after the past grueling month or so on the political pitch, I feel like I have been beaten with a baseball bat.
I am tired, and I am angry. I am trying to sort things out.
What I don’t need right now are people screaming from the rooftops, and pushing me to do ANYTHING. It is not helpful.
Can we PLEASE just chill out, and process what has happened without banging people over the head to just just shut up and fucking pivot?
As you get older, you understand how easy and potentially destructive it is to break things. Building something worth lasting takes time. It is far trickier. It takes good planning and care. It takes thoughtfulness, love, and just the proper amount of force.
Mostly, it takes trust.
As of July 21, 2024, the Biden/Harris administration has a definitive end date. It has been broken. This could well be the best thing in the long run, but at this very moment, but 22 hours from the split, NOBODY on earth knows for sure.
Now that Joe Biden, an undeniably good man, has told us his intent to relinquish the most powerful position in the world, it will be up to the party’s presumptive nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, to carry the mantle, and build a team she trusts that will maximize her many skills.
She is being asked to do a job that nobody is properly prepared for. She is taking on a gargantuan responsibility, and has no choice but to be up to it.
And the wolves will be at her door. You can already hear them. The despicable Joe Manchin came for her last night, and there will be other attention-seekers just like him, who tell us they know better than we do.
All I know right now is this: Vice President Harris has my full support.
I will be looking for the rainbow after this angry storm we’ve been through, but right now I am going to just sit with all that has happened, and let things be.
I’ll pivot in my own way, and on my own good time, thank you.
D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. Follow @EarlofEnough and on his website.