My World
I live in three universes. In this one, the universe of politics, I spend a lot of time listening, reading, and writing about the current incredible changes in American politics and life. The word “incredible”, like the word “extraordinary”, can be both a “good” or “bad” thing. That was an incredibly good piece of pie, or, an incredibly bad haircut. Politics, and politics “writ large” as history, has been a passion of mine since I was three years old, and Mom pinned a “John F. Kennedy for President” button on my blue sweater.
The second universe is the one of our family, my wife and son and sisters and all of their families. We are constantly updating, constantly involved, and constantly considering (also good and bad) what’s going on. And the dogs are a part of that, of course. They too are our family, our constant bed mates; counting on us for sustenance, as we count on them for companionship.
The third universe is the one of track and field. I spent forty years as a coach, and now I’m in my seventh year as a “fulltime” track official. In this universe the world is very precise. We measure time to the 100th of a second, and distances to the nearest ¼ inch. Like any good track official, I can “do” almost anything from firing the gun to start the race, to organizing the heats of runners, to conducting the javelin competition. But my niche in this universe is the vertical jumps, and more specifically, pole vault.
Setting Standards
So I know a whole lot about standards and bars. Not only can I set the bar to the right height, but I can zero the bar to the exact correct spot, and align the standards so that they are mathematically accurate not only in the vertical, but in the horizontal plane as well. I carry precise tools to measure height, distance, and position. And, I finally discovered the answer to the age old high school math question: why do I have to learn this? Well, Mr. Rex Parker, my sophomore geometry teacher (and eater of white chalk), now I know.
And it is in this, the setting of “bars and standards”, that Universe 1 and Universe 3 collide.
Let’s say that in the pole vault, the opening height of the bar is 3.65 meters (that’s about 12 feet). That bar height is the same for every vaulter. While some may decide to skip and pass higher, the minimum standard to “score” in the competition is 3.65. Don’t clear that, and you get the dreaded “NH” on the scoresheet, “No Height”. “NH” denies you even the dignity of a place in the competition, you are simply a name on the list, never fulfilled.
What kind of official would I be if I allowed some to start at 2.50 (a little over 8 feet) while requiring the rest to clear 3.65 in order to gain a place? I would be, correctly, accused of favoritism, or at least gross incompetence. In Universe 3 it’s not something that would ever be considered.
Biden’s Standard
But that is exactly what’s happening in Universe 1 today.
This week I travelled to officiate track meets an hour and a half away. On one of the trips, I listened to a podcast about the “conspiracy” to hide Joe Biden’s aging from the world. The well-known commentators were full of umbrage: how dare Biden “hide” his condition; how dare the “politburo” of Biden family and staff shelter him from “discovery”. And, perhaps as important to the commentators, how dare others took them to task for talking about it. They made it very clear: they place the blame of Trump’s second term squarely on Joe Biden.
There is no question that Joe Biden aged in office. But there’s also no question that it wasn’t a secret. Most of us in Universe 1 were well aware of Biden’s shortcomings, long before we got to that fateful summer of 2024 when the debate confirmed our fears, and Trump was anointed with god-like “immortality” by an assassin in Pennsylvania. It didn’t take a conspiracy of Soviet proportions, the “Politburo”, to fool the nation. We knew what we saw.
We held Joe Biden to a standard. We required him to clear 3.65 to earn his place in the competition. And when we thought he couldn’t, we Democrats went through a heart-wrenching process to replace him. We were right to stand with him, and when he withdrew, we were right to move on. No conspiracy was necessary.
Trump’s Standard
But what standard did we hold Donald Trump to? In fact, what standard do we require him to meet today, as President?
We questioned Joe Biden’s acuity, but gave Trump a complete pass on those crazed speeches during the campaign. We called Biden out for not being more accessible to the press, but we allowed Trump to literally dance in front of a crowd (with Kristi Noem) for forty minutes. So, we required Biden to clear 3.65, but the bar for Trump was even lower than 2.50. It was about a 1.00.
And we are still doing it. Many Americans held Biden accountable for the actions of his son, Hunter. But those same Americans don’t have a problem that Trump himself took over $400 million in “gifts” from mostly foreign investors in a cryptocurrency scheme. He celebrated the “rewards” at a private dinner last night. This week we learned that Trump “accepted” another gift, another $400 million, in a “Flying Palace” from the nation of Qatar. And his son Don Junior, is now profiting from a new “clubhouse” in Washington, where the entry membership is a $500,000. But somehow, we give those known “oddities” a “pass”.
Our Standards
Some commentators hold Democrats to a higher standard. They want penance served for “fooling us” about Biden, some term of sentence. But they fail to acknowledge the lowered bar for Trump. I wish Joe Biden hadn’t aged. I wish America was willing to accept a brilliant woman of color as President. And I wish the Secret Service wasn’t so incompetent in Butler, Pennsylvania, to let a known gunman get in position to shoot at the President.
But what I really wish is that we hold our Presidents and candidates for President to the same standard. In my Universe 3 that’s only fair. And in Universe 1, it would be right for our Nation.
