{"id":93810,"date":"2021-01-27T05:53:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T10:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=93810"},"modified":"2021-01-25T07:54:10","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T12:54:10","slug":"you-go-joe-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/you-go-joe-commentary\/","title":{"rendered":"You go, Joe! | Commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Main photo: U.S. President Joe Biden (right) and Vice President Kamala Harris (second from left) with first lady Dr. Jill Biden (second from right) and second gentleman Doug Emhoff (Carolyn Cole \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sally Barnes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear President Joe:<\/p>\n

What in God\u2019s name have you ever done to deserve this?<\/p>\n

After a distinguished career and at an age when you should be able to sit by the fire and enjoy your grandkids and a good book, the world is counting on you for nothing short of a miracle.<\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n

From up here in the Great White North the task looks well-nigh impossible.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re coming at you from all sides\u2014from the batass crazy Trump cult on the right bearing bombs and guns to the self-righteous far left progressives who demand nothing less than creation of the New Jerusalem in your first 100 days in the White House (if it\u2019s still standing by then).<\/p>\n

As your polite and boring kissin\u2019 cousins and partners on the other side of the world\u2019s longest undefended international border, we feel your pain and we need you Americans to get your act together.<\/p>\n

We Canadians we have a lot of skin in this game.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s going to defend us if the U.S. goes belly-up? Living in the shadow of the most powerful country in the world, we\u2019ve always scrimped on defense spending and then bragged about the superior social programs we can afford.<\/p>\n

How about entertainment? God forbid we are left to the slim pickings of the CBC. And who will keep us humble if you don\u2019t beat us at hockey every once in a while?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re already feeling isolated. You need only look at us shivering up here in the cold this winter when we would be on your beaches and golf courses were it not for the pandemic.<\/p>\n

As a veteran legislator, you understand our firm connection on trade and immigration and other matters of state. But you may not appreciate how so many Canadians\u2014especially older generations\u2014share with you strong emotional bonds.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve fought shoulder to shoulder in war and celebrated our mutual accomplishments and good fortune.<\/p>\n

I am among countless Canadians who have stood on Capitol Hill and marveled at the architecture and the history of this structure that is such a beacon of democracy and freedom in the world. We wept with you when armed insurrectionists took over the Capitol on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

We probably know your history better than our own. Suffice it to say (with some embarrassment) that too many of our school kids probably think that our first prime minister was George Washington.<\/p>\n

Far be it from me to give you any advice, Joe. I\u2019ve never been elected to anything but I\u2019ve witnessed a lot of political campaigns in my day and I have a few thoughts to pass along.<\/p>\n

First of all, watch your back. Keeping your own house in order will be a major challenge.<\/p>\n

Your first priority will be to finally bring some national leadership to the fight against the pandemic that has so needlessly killed hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens. But many of your colleagues have their own wacky agendas.<\/p>\n

With Democrats winning the trifecta\u2014the presidency, the House and the Senate\u2014the pressure on you from the extreme leftists in your party will be relentless. For many, this is payback time with big rewards and revenge for the victors.<\/p>\n

You have promised to heal your polarized and fractured nation. Man, that is one deep, festering wound out there, Joe.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, you are a good and decent person with a proven record of forging compromise and getting things done.<\/p>\n

You are wise and humble enough to recognize that more than 74 million Americans voted for Donald Trump, not you. That\u2019s 46.9 per cent of all voters.<\/p>\n

But these Trump voters are not all racist, bigoted, lazy, ignorant white supremacists, as many would suggest. They are not all ‘deplorables’ as Hillary Clinton famously opined. The goons and misfits who stormed the Capitol do not represent rank and file Republicans.<\/p>\n

Millions who voted for Trump are ordinary folks who just want to make a decent living and see their kids have a shot at opportunity and success. They feel disenfranchised, are caught in the widening gulf between rich and poor, see hard-earned money wasted and their own culture slipping away.<\/p>\n

They have lost faith in the democratic process. They have come to believe lies because they have been lied to for so long by so many and social media will remain a frothing incubator of this curse.<\/p>\n

While overfed politicians in Washington squabble like schoolyard bullies, the breadlines grow longer and democracy become more fragile.<\/p>\n

The depth of anger and despair among voters caught you and the media and a lot of other ‘experts’ off guard and you are now both saddled and privileged with the responsibility to clean up the mess.<\/p>\n

Restoring faith in the integrity, safety, promise, and greatness of America both at home and around the world is a staggering order\u2014and not for the faint-hearted.<\/p>\n

In your personal life, Joe, you have overcome setbacks, loss and heartache most of us can only imagine.<\/p>\n

It will take that kind of strength and faith to face and surmount the challenges now before you.<\/p>\n

Your friends north of the 49th<\/sup> parallel wish you and your supporters all the best.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Sally<\/span> Barnes has enjoyed a distinguished career as a writer, journalist and author. Her work has been recognized in a number of ways, including receiving a Southam Fellowship in Journalism at Massey College at the University of Toronto. A self-confessed political junkie, she has worked in the back-rooms for several Ontario premiers. In addition to a number of other community contributions, Sally<\/span> Barnes served a term as president of the Ontario Council on the Status of Women. She is a former business colleague of Doppler\u2019s Hugh Mackenzie and lives in Kingston, Ontario. You can find her online at sallybarnesauthor.com<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Main photo: U.S. President Joe Biden (right) and Vice President Kamala Harris (second from left) with first lady Dr. Jill Biden (second from right) and second gentleman Doug Emhoff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":93812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYou go, Joe! | Commentary - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/you-go-joe-commentary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You go, Joe! 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