Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
A popular Nevada writer for whom I have much aloha opened his latest column with this feel-good myth:
Sherman Frederick
“President Joe Biden did a selfless and patriotic thing when he announced he wouldn’t seek re-election.”
Whatever gets you through the day, my friend.
The idea that Joe Biden voluntarily stepped down from the 2024 campaign is a fabrication so the party faithful don’t think too much about what really happened.
Joe Biden got shoved out.
He didn’t volunteer.
He went kicking and screaming when Democratic Party leaders short-circuited the Democratic process and told him he had to step down or become a hated loser. This was widely leaked to friendly news organizations who dutifully reported the coup, blow by blow, until Mr. Biden could no longer resist.
I very much understand the urge to add sugar to mask the bitter taste of what the party faithful were forced to drink. It was nasty, undemocratic stuff.
Unlike LBJ who decided not to run in March of an election year because he had grown weary from the weight of the Vietnam War, this was the forced removal of an actively campaigning president by a panicked party watching a big Trump storm on the horizon.
History will not whitewash this as selfless patriotism. It will be seen for what it was — mutiny aboard the USS Biden with the captain forced to walk the plank at sword point, blubbering all the way.
That’s the unvarnished truth.
GOODBYE, CATTLE CALLS
I spent most of my business life standing in lines at Southwest Airlines flying between Reno and Las Vegas. The “A” group is fine. The “B” group works, too. But, oh no, I’m in the “C” group. That means a middle seat with the left tackle for the UNLV football team on one side, and a turquoise bejeweled woman with a lap dog on the other.
Now, Southwest is ending the cattle call seating strategy and going the way of “normal” airlines — assigned seating. Can the apocalypse be far behind?
(Thanks for reading. Remember to laugh a little, avoid soreheads and always question authority. You can get more Properly Subversive wit and wisdom at shermanfrederick.substack.com.
ONE MORE THING
— It’s weird that the same people telling you vote for a woman for president are the same people who can’t define what a woman is.
You are wrong. Joe Biden did a selfless thing, putting country before his own preferences. He’s an honorable man with a lifetime of service. The Republican nominee is a congenital liar, a convicted felon, a sexual predator, and a failed businessman who does not pay his bills. It’s sad that he is the best the Republicans can come up with.