Biden Slips a Cog: Second Time as Tragedy, Second Time as Farce, or Each?

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

“Hegel remarks someplace that every one nice world-historic info and personages seem, so to talk, twice. He forgot so as to add: the primary time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” –Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

As a former humanities main, an English professor manqué, and a humble blogger pressed for time and phrases, I strove to keep away from and didn’t yield to placing the phrase peripeteia within the headline, and in the long run succeeded by substituting “plot twist” (from the invaluable TV Tropes):

One of many primary constructing blocks of plot, a Plot Twist is a sudden, surprising change within the fortunes or conditions of the characters, setting, or plot.

Plot Twists are normally primarily based on the idea that there’s something occurring that we, the readers/viewers/gamers, don’t learn about; if we had identified about it, it will hardly be stunning. When it’s revealed to us, we’re stunned and shocked. This contains hidden elements of specific characters’ backstories or their personalities (“I by no means would have thought Alice might kick Bob’s head into the locker!”)

. (There may be additionally the “hidden side” of Jill Biden’s character, which we’ll get to.)

Right here in your viewing pleasure is the plot twist in query (repeating from right here). Biden’s slippage, in his June 27 debate on CNN with former President Trump:

Whether or not or not Biden “slipping a cog” is “surprising” (or maybe “surprising, surprising”) is “surprising” or not (2020; 2024), it actually has shock worth from “setting or place”: seen, dwell, on nationwide tv, by 51.3 million viewers, and by no means to be unseen[2]. So, from the standpoint of sense-making, “Plot Twist” is fairly good. Nonetheless, the Aristolian peripeteia is significantly better, as we will see[1].

On this publish, I’ll current some sense-making instruments for the dramatic sequence of occasions that adopted and can observe Biden’s emission of grinding, clunking, and clashing sounds on the nationwide stage. A caveat: That doesn’t imply I’ll truly have the ability to make sense of the scenario, for causes I’ll clarify. Nonetheless, we will a minimum of make sense of what we space allowed to see as “the narrative” performs out. To assist with that, I’ll first think about Biden’s slippage as a farce; I’ll then argue that Marx’s “tragedy” vs. “farce” epigram, although witty, is fake; and I shall then think about Biden’s slippage as a tragedy, with specific consideration to the people who encompass him. All through, I’ll take up points present within the information circulate; simply not utilizing the frames many are accustomed to.

Biden’s Slippage as a Farce

Think about you might be sitting within the viewers at a play, watching the characters communicate their traces on the stage, having fun with the spectacle. Immediately the surroundings collapses, together with the “legs” that cover the wings, and every part that’s occurring backstage is revealed! Hilarity ensues. Till order is restored, you see frantic stagehands, managers, costumers, make-up artists, possibly even intimacy coordinators and buyers operating round waving their palms and shouting. One thing comparable occurred following Biden’s slippage:

What’s been enjoyable has been to see folks talking overtly and actually, and with ardour, below the idea that what they are saying would possibly matter. And that they’re free to say what they assume.

This rip within the blanket shall be shortly sewn again up, however this real house for genuine…

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) June 30, 2024

In fact, this “real house” shall be shortly suppressed. Nonetheless, the imagined spectacle I simply posited jogs my memory of a beautiful farce known as Noises Off, which I noticed in London again in my touring days. Noises Off is a play inside a play, and it too collapses the excellence between stage and backstage, between on-stage and off. Here’s a pattern from the script (video of the total play, beginning in the identical place). Use Monty Python voices in your thoughts for the characters:

On this rehearsal, we see a course of certainly very similar to that Biden insiders will need to have skilled once they “overprepared” their candidate. In spite of everything, “I open my mouth, and I by no means know if its going to come back out three oranges or two lemons and a banana” describes Biden’s efficiency to a T, doesn’t it? (Dotty speaks “overtly and actually,” which is one motive Noises Off is so entertaining.)

My OED defines farce as “a dramatic work meant solely to excite laughter,” and actually, what else can we do? Wikipedia goes somewhat additional, and defines farce as, amongst different issues, “characterised by heavy use of bodily humor” (Dotty’s sardines; Biden’s slippage. For that reason, farce is taken into account the bottom dramatic type, with tragedy the very best). Farce additionally contains “conditions which might be extremely exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd,” “ludicrous, inconceivable, and exaggerated characters; and broadly stylized performances.” Lastly, in farce the characters are static; they’re implacably who they’re. We don’t watch Fawlty Towers for Basil Fawlty’s character improvement, in spite of everything. All these traits apply to the dramatic incidents following Biden’s slippage which I’ll now current.

(1) Conditions which might be extremely absurd. Donor hysteria:

A debate watch occasion in Los Angeles on Thursday night time occurred to function Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, Pritzker, Whitmer and Beshear. There have been different high-profile attendees – by a number of solutions in, Rob Reiner was screaming about dropping and Jane Fonda had tears in her eyes, in line with folks within the room.

(2) Bodily humor. By way of alert reader randy, from Politico, What’s flawed with the image:

Similar to the sardines! (“Ron, which approach do I maintain the telephone? Did I maintain it that approach earlier than?”)

(3) Conditions which might be extravagant:

(4) Static characters:

4 minutes, no questions. No motion. Simply as static as Basil Fawlty.

A lot for farce. Allow us to now flip to The Bearded One.

Marx’s Epigram is Unsuitable

The nation has had an impaired President whose situation was saved from the President a minimum of as soon as prior to now (if we omit each FDR and Reagan of their final phrases[3]). President Wilson:

Following his attendance on the Paris Peace Convention in 1919, Woodrow Wilson returned to the USA to marketing campaign for Senate approval of the peace treaty and the League of Nations Covenant. Nonetheless, the president suffered a stroke that October which left him bedridden and partially paralyzed. America by no means did ratify the Treaty of Versailles nor be part of the League of Nations, which had initially been Wilson’s idea. On the time, non-interventionist sentiment was robust….. Edith Wilson and others within the President’s interior circle (together with his doctor and some shut pals) hid the true extent of the president’s sickness and incapacity from the American public. Edith additionally took over numerous routine duties and particulars of the chief department of the federal government from the onset of Wilson’s sickness till he left workplace virtually a yr and a half later. From October 1919 to the top of Wilson’s time period on March 4, 1921, Edith, performing within the function of First Girl and shadow steward, determined who and which communications and issues of state had been necessary sufficient to carry to the bedridden president.

The historic parallel between Wilson and Biden (or, extra exactly, between Edith Wilson and Jill Biden) is obvious: The presence of “an interior circle” — that’s, an extra-constitutional entity on the head of the chief department. (Article II, Part 1: “The chief energy shall be vested in of the USA of Ameria.” We elect one individual, not that one individual’s household, pals, or milieu.) Fascinated about this subject makes me queasy: I’m extra used to utilizing instruments like Ferguson et al.’s industrial mannequin, or class evaluation, or institutionalism. In running a blog as in life, I’m lower than snug with small group dynamics, not to mention particular person personalities.[4] Presumably, the humanities can assist me with that! However right here we’re; in a disaster, issues correlate, and I suppose they do correlate within the individuals of people that occur to be “within the flawed place on the flawed time” and embody the titanic forces at play.

Small group dynamics entered the chat simply earlier than the talk on June 18 with a brief Each day Mail story: “‘The one individuals who might drive him out could be Barack Obama, Invoice Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,’ one Democratic strategist advised DailyMail.com. ‘It must be the 4 of them collectively’” (first time I’ve heard a Democrat use the phrase “collectively” in a very long time). The interlocutors on the Biden facet will not be named, however presumably they’re a small group too). Small group dynamics make their subsequent look on June 22 in the New York Occasions:

Interviews with dozens of individuals near the president reveal a reality on the coronary heart of Mr. Biden’s political life: Whereas he’s surrounded by a various and multigenerational crowd of marketing campaign operatives, coverage specialists and cupboard secretaries, he reserves his full belief for a small circle of insiders who’re the definition of old fashioned.

(The three are Mike Donilon, Ted Kaufman, and Ron Klain. Mike Donilon’s brother, Tom, is married to Jill BIden’s former chief-of-staff. Klain, in fact, set the course for Biden’s Covid coverage of mass an infection with out mitigation earlier than Jeff Zients took over. Kaufman, amongst different issues, headed the Biden-Harris Transition Workforce.)

One other small group story got here on June 29, from Axios, this one nearer to the bone: “Behind the Curtain: Biden oligarchy will resolve destiny:”

The one approach President Biden steps apart, regardless of his debate debacle, is that if the identical small group of lifelong loyalists who enabled his run immediately — and shockingly — decides it’s time for him to name it quits. Dr. Jill Biden; his youthful sister, Valerie Biden; and 85-year-old Ted Kaufman, the president’s longtime pal and fixed adviser — plus a small band of White Home advisers [who?]— are the one Biden deciders.

So, though everyone who’s anyone agrees that Biden belief and works in a really small group, no one is kind of clear on who the group members are (Franklin Foer, who wrote a e-book on Biden’s White Home, writes “The group round President Joe Biden is familial to the core,” however doesn’t title the group members (!)). I’m inclined to consider that Axios bought it extra proper than the Time as a result of Jill Biden is a part of the group:

Nonetheless, Joe Biden can also be, because it had been, clan chief of the Bidens, who’re all lending one another no-interest loans and wetting their beaks within the cash stream generated for them by Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling operation. Pricey Hunter! Absolutely they will need to have a consultant within the small group as nicely, and Hunter’s presence is smart from that perspective.

I’ve been making an attempt to consider a phrase for this extra-constitutional entity, this small group that will play — or maybe is already enjoying the identical function within the Biden Presidency that the group round Edith Wilson performed in Wilsons. The Axios URL exhibits the unique headline was one thing like biden-debate-replace-advisers, however the editors jacked it as much as learn “Biden oligarchy.” However that’s flawed; oligarchy is a whole political system. (“Biden oligarchs” may need been OK, however to me, an oligarch is a member of the one small group that actually issues: The squillioniares, and though Biden et al. could service the squillioniares, they don’t seem to be, themselves, squillionaires.) I considered cabal, milieu, gang, clique, crew, faction, staff, troop, membership, coterie, posse, and eventually settled on the time period “circle,” since a circle has a middle (Biden), connotes repetitiveness and stability, and has allied phrases “social circle” and “interior circle.”

So to repeat, everyone agrees that Biden has a good circle, and should be approached by way of it, however everyone is way much less clear about who the members of that circle truly are. To me, that’s an fascinating consequence!

Oh, and the subhead: Marx’s epigram is flawed, as a result of though the Wilson and Biden circles as extra-constitutional entities are historic parallels, the Wilson circle, as far as I can inform (Wilson-era historians please right me) was neither tragedy nor farce, and the Biden Circle is now mired in each farce and tragedy, as I shall now present. (Be aware that I can’t map present occasions to an Aristolian plot line; I’m merely appropriating the ideas and twisting them to my functions.)

Biden’s Slippage as Tragedy

Now we have already spoken of Plot Twists; right here is the extra rigorous Aristotelian principle. From the Brittanica:

Essentially the most highly effective components of emotional curiosity in tragedy, in line with Aristotle, are reversal of intention or scenario (peripeteia) and recognition scenes (anagnōrisis), and every is simplest when it’s coincident with the opposite. In Oedipus, for instance, the messenger who brings Oedipus information of his actual parentage, meaning to allay his fears, brings a few sudden reversal of his fortune, from happiness to distress, by compelling him to acknowledge that his spouse can also be his mom.

We are able to see that Biden’s Cog Slippage was each peripeteia and anagnōrisis. The reversal of fortune: The Biden marketing campaign needed and early debate as a result of they hoped each dispatch Trump and to indicate that Biden’s cognition was unimpaired (as they efficiently did with the SOTU). As an alternative, to anybody however a celebration loyalist, the talk was a catastrophe; it revealed exactly what the marketing campaign hoped to hide. The popularity scene, a number of ranges: Biden himself (“‘I don’t stroll as straightforward as I used to, I don’t communicate as easily as I used to, I don’t debate in addition to I used to,’ he mentioned, as the group chanted ‘4 extra years’”); Biden’s circle; a lot of the Democrat Get together; and plenty of, many tens of millions of viewers all acknowledged the Cog Slippage as critical and simple.

One other Aristotelian time period: hamartia. Once more from the Brittanica:

Hamartia, (hamartia from Greek hamartanein, “to err”), inherent defect or shortcoming within the hero of a tragedy, who’s in different respects a superior being favoured by fortune.

Aristotle launched the time period casually within the Poetics in describing the tragic hero as a person of noble rank and nature whose misfortune is just not caused by villainy however by some ‘error of judgment’ (hamartia). This imperfection later got here to be interpreted as an ethical flaw, reminiscent of Othello’s jealousy or Hamlet’s irresolution, though most nice tragedies defy such a easy interpretation. Most significantly, the hero’s struggling and its far-reaching reverberations are far out of proportion to his flaw. A component of cosmic collusion among the many hero’s flaw, probability, necessity, and different exterior forces is important to carry concerning the tragic disaster.

I consider that the tragic flaw widespread to Biden and his circle is loyalty. From Politico in 2020, “Biden Rewards Loyalty“:

One of the simplest ways to get a job within the Biden White Home is to have as soon as labored for President-elect Joe Biden

That a lot has change into clear this previous week, with 13 of the primary 14 White Home appointments going to former Biden staffers. A number of had been high-ranking officers on the 2020 marketing campaign or had been within the vice chairman’s workplace however many additionally return a long time — to his Senate workplace and even his 1988 presidential run. Biden’s transition staff can also be stuffed with Biden veterans, suggesting many extra are prone to pop up in his administration.

The hires are half of a bigger dynamic in Biden-world: he values loyalty.

President Barack Obama’s Protection secretary, Leon Panetta, who additionally served with Biden in Congress, described Biden’s strategy to politics as “road smarts” versus “Harvard good.” He mentioned that “a part of that road ethic is loyalty to folks and loyalty to pals.”

Biden can generally put loyalty above optics, even when it’s politically dangerous — a dynamic to observe intently for within the administration when a scandal inevitably hits.

Loyalty as one in all Biden’s central values goes again to Biden’s household upbringing. From Marie Claire:

Jean Biden handed away in 2010.

When Jean handed away, she was surrounded by family members together with her great-grandchildren. “At 92, she was the middle of our household and taught all of her youngsters that . She believed in us, and due to that, we believed in ourselves,” the Bidens mentioned in an announcement. “Her energy, which was immeasurable, will dwell on in all of us.”.

“Household is to be treasured, loyalty is paramount and religion will information you thru the robust occasions.” Couldn’t describe the Biden circle higher (and never in a great way). From Individuals:

“My dad used to say, ‘Household is the start, the center, and the top,’ ” Joe shared in a speech on the White Home in 2023.

As Harry Truman is claimed to have mentioned: “If you need a pal in Washington, get a canine.” Actually it’s A Good Factor to not be surrounded by betrayers and schemers. And loyalty, like braveness, is an actual advantage (in fact, some Nazis had braveness, so it’s not the solely advantage). However the loyalty in Biden’s circle appears to be so robust that they will’t bear to take the automobile keys away from him, once they clearly ought to.

Right here, from a supply exterior Biden’s circle, is an outline of Biden’s destiny:

Good morning everybody pic.twitter.com/TxxA87Twn8

— Lindsay Ballant (@lindsayballant) June 30, 2024

That is the half the place “far-reaching reverberations are far out of proportion to his flaw.” Little question the folks in Biden’s circle consider themselves, and wish to be considered, nearly as good, as do most of us. However the elder abuse they’re visiting on Biden is not good, and that’s their tragedy, caused by the tragic flaw they share with Biden.

Conclusion

There may be a lot else to write down; extra-constitional entities making selections for the chief department might actually be seen as tragic by a constitutional scholar[5], however I need to cease right here with a ultimate Aristotelian time period: catharsis. As soon as extra from the Brittanica:

In criticism, catharsis is a metaphor utilized by Aristotle within the Poetics to explain the results of true tragedy on the spectator. The use is derived from the medical time period katharsis (Greek: “purgation” or “purification”). Aristotle states that the aim of tragedy is to arouse “terror and pity” and thereby impact the catharsis of those feelings…. The interpretation typically accepted is that by way of experiencing worry vicariously in a managed scenario, the spectator’s personal anxieties are directed outward, and, by way of sympathetic identification with the tragic protagonist, his perception and outlook are enlarged. .

We are able to solely hope. I’m right here for the pity and terror, however I don’t see when or how catharsis will happen in 2024.

NOTES

[1] My use of Peripeteia is just not the hotdoggery it might appear; the time period is thought within the gaming community, as one would anticipate it to be.

[2] All of the tweets I noticed from the fraction of the political class that desires Biden to drop out medicalized the slippage (“dementia,” “senility”). All of the tweets I noticed from uninteresting normals and muppets spoke of indicators they noticed earlier than they needed to “take the keys away” from an elder member of the family. Right here is the one thread I noticed — not from the political class — that talked about the chance that Biden had suffered cognitive injury from his two Covid infections. See NC right here: “A sociopathic elite is one factor, that we’re used to; however a sociopathic elite with mind injury is kind of one other.” Curiously, Biden touch upon boxing:

I’d say the mind injury counts for one thing with boxing too!

[3] To my shock, CBS: “Physicians recognized Reagan with Alzheimer’s roughly 5 years after he left workplace however the date of the onset will seemingly be contemplated by political historians and medical specialists for years to come back.” Leaving the medicalese of “dementia” apart, it’s not clear to me that Reagan ever reached the “take the automobile keys away” stage. In fact, Reagan had a greater employees, an much more compliant press, and higher hagiographers than Biden has ever had.

[4] I vehemently oppose the “nice man” principle of historical past.

[5] There are slightly lots of extra-Constitutional entities enjoying roles simply now, as if we had an unwritten Structure just like the U.Ok.: Political events, the intelligence neighborhood, even the press…