Karine Jean-Pierre, former White House Press Secretary under President Joe Biden, has shocked her peers and the political world by announcing recently that she’s abandoning the Democratic Party and declaring herself an independent. And I’m happy to say, “Welcome!”
Born in Martinique, Jean-Pierre attended – among other colleges – the New York Institute of Technology (from where I earned my B.A. in English) and had been a registered Democrat her entire adult life – well, until now. Like most people in the maelstrom of the American political arena, she had to conform to certain party ideology and maintain a specific persona. After her brief stint as Biden’s Press Secretary, however, she apparently couldn’t tolerate the deception any longer.
I have to admire her candor. She’s one of the few people in recent years to step forward and be so blatantly honest with her sentiments. The truth always hurts, and Jean-Pierre has taken a sledgehammer to a migraine.
I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 because I didn’t feel she was the right leader for the nation. I only voted for Biden in 2020 to keep Trump from winning another term, but I reverted back to the Green Party last year and voted for Jill Stein. Trump still won, since the U.S. is not quite ready for a president with vaginal attributes – unlike many other nations in the Western Hemisphere, including our two bordering neighbors.
Jean-Pierre has notably critical of Biden’s mental and physical health – something his opponents had frequently cited from the moment he declared his candidacy. American politics is such an ugly venture. It’s always been nasty, but I feel it became especially toxic after the Watergate scandal. I’ve said for years that the worst thing the Democratic Party could have done in the run-up to the 2020 elections was to stand by as Biden and Bernie Sanders announced they were seeking the U.S. presidency.
As the 2020 presidential race commenced, the Democratic Party presented the most diverse gallery of candidates of any such contest. Then, like their Republican counterparts, they ended up with two old White men at the top. Biden’s only saving moment was selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate. It was an odd pairing. Harris became the first female Vice-President in U.S. history, while Biden eventually became the nation’s first octogenarian Commander-in- Chief.
During Donald Trump’s first term, I often told people – both supporters and detractors – that I felt the U.S. was essentially leaderless. Trump pales in comparison to many of his predecessors. On the other hand, though, his Democratic counterparts have their own share of failures. When the Democrat Party elected Ken Martin its new chair this past February, the news arrived with the same bravura as paint drying. The longtime leader of the Minnesota Democratic Party, Martin hopes to lead his constituents into a future filled with greater accomplishments (wins) across the nation.
“Donald Trump, the Republican Party, this is a new DNC,” Martin told reporters after his election. “We are not going to sit back and not take you on when you fail the American people.”
And I wish for the blind to see and the lame to walk.
*YAWN*
Wake me when something really important happens.
Like Jean-Pierre, I certainly won’t hold my breath. The Democratic Party needs a hell of a lot more than a new chairperson. If they’re prudent, they’ll heed Jean-Pierre’s not-so-subtle warning.
Chief Writing Wolf 