ArcaMax

WASHINGTON -- Read it and weep.

I mean the newspaper. Every single day, it brings tidings of despair to those who cherish the civilian institutions and agencies of this -- yes -- beloved and beautiful capital.

The Institute of Peace was closed, Gestapo-style, within view of the Lincoln Memorial. The Smithsonian, America's free storyteller, is under siege, including the spectacular bronze-laced African American History and Culture museum. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, about the same story.

Soon, President Donald Trump may decide to cut down the cherry blossoms that soften the pain this spring of seeing him cause misery in mass firings of the federal workforce. (Yet unlike the legendary boy George Washington, he'd lie about it.)

His tariffs and trade wars, too, are sure to wrench Americans where we live, but he "couldn't care less."

Those three words speak loudly: "couldn't care less." Folks, there has never been a president who cared less about public opinion, not even about his voters'. Never.

The reckless revenge tour has torn other sacred spaces, like the Constitution. Trump just made clear the constitutional limit of two terms for a president won't hold him back from seeking to hold onto power.

All this bodes badly for democracy, if citizens feel voiceless and the press feels silenced -- which is what's happening to the White House press corps, afraid to anger Trump with a hard question.

America, these swift steps are what authoritarianism looks like.

Absent an awakening, think what the nation's 250th birthday will be like in 2026. Just as the Lexington and Concord farmers arose and held back the British soldiers at sunrise -- in April 1775 -- we've got to defend what's dear to our way of life. Those shots were the start of the American Revolution.

Now let's turn to the man who owns the blame for this deepening debacle. His name is Joe Biden. Tragically, he didn't know when to leave the party and presidency: after one term, as he promised.

In 2024, the country and the economy hummed along after the global pandemic. So Biden had a proud legacy to leave.

Instead, Biden left the Democratic Party in shambles over the summer, heading into the fall election. Pressured to withdraw from the race after a June debate with Trump displayed cognitive decline, the aging president, then 81, refused until late July.

(Interventions by House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and actor George Clooney gave the final nudges.)

His vice president, Kamala Harris, gamely picked up the pieces to run herself, to no avail.

Here is the perplexing part: the foolish pride in a famously ordinary guy. Biden believed "only" he could defeat Trump.

His longtime loyal aides circled round him in a bubble, according to Chris Whipple, author of the forthcoming book, "Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History."

"Men and women who should have known better were operating in a fog of denial and delusion," Whipple told me. As a former White House colleague said, "Everybody bought into it."

In one winter, Trump withered away Biden's legislative legacy.

If we carry on the path of this thought experiment, it only makes it worse to count the ways -- the governors -- that could have emerged strongly in a straight Democratic primary. (If Biden had done the right thing in the first place.)

The talent on the party bench is historically high from all corners of the country. Among Democrats ready to storm the country last year: Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

All are in their prime. If a handful of these had competed against each other in a primary, the winner would be a battle-hardened candidate to take on the first criminal felon on the presidential ballot -- and defeat Trump.

The winner of such a party contest would not have been Harris, I dare say. She did poorly in the 2020 primary; she is not a natural like the others.

The latest on that talent casting list are two freshman governors: Maryland's Wes Moore and North Carolina's Josh Stein.

Read those seven names and try not to weep.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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