Joe Biden Believed In Our Better Angels

And he will be the 46th President of the United States.

Joe Biden Told Us the Better Angels of Our Nature Were Still There to Guide Us Home At the moment, we have a president*.   In a few months, it appears, we will have a president.   The asterisk is dead. May god have mercy on its soul.   I stayed up until 5 a.m. on Friday morning, just long enough for Joe Biden to pass El Caudillo Del Mar-a-Lago in the remarkable state of Georgia, and he did so with votes from Clayton County, the late John Lewis' old congressional district. I was asleep when Pennsylvania finally flipped after the sun came up. I did what every true American patriot has done all week—curse the Electoral College for murdering sleep—and realized that I'm going to be working against muscle memory every time I type the word "president" for quite some time. I apologize to President-Elect Biden in advance in case I occasionally drop the asterisk out of habit, until I get used to the idea that this president* and his awful family and his terrible administration* are vapor.   Joe Biden has come through a lot of history, and not unscathed, either. I applied to be one of his speechwriters in 1976, fresh out of college. (I didn't get the gig, which is why he hasn't built his library already.) Since then, he's run for president three times. In 1988, he was sunk by a plagiarism scandal brought to light by operatives in the employ of Michael Dukakis. (When Mike Dukakis oppo's you out of a race, it's like losing a fistfight with Plato.) In 2008—Twenty years later!—he was swept aside by the phenomenon of Barack Obama, of whom he memorably once said: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."   And this is why campaign aides jump out of windows.   Obama, of course, held no grudges and, by picking Biden as a running mate, revived his career as cool Uncle Joe, one of the more remarkable charisma transfusions in the history of American politics. There is no question that Biden was transformed by the vice presidency, making him the first vice president to be elevated rather than minimized by that office, at least without the president's having died. The gaffe-ridden friend of the Delaware financial-services industry slipped on the aviators, unleashed his killer smile, and found his way back to being the decent guy, friend of the Amtrak commuters, damn fine Dad, that everybody who really knew him always said he was. The guy who choked so badly during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings was sent to wrangle votes for a stimulus deal and the Affordable Care Act, and generally was one of the great wingmen any president ever had. So, when he announced he was running for president again—32 years later!—and when he said he was doing so to recapture the soul of America, people bought it. Even when he barely crawled through the primary processes in Iowa and New Hampshire, he clung to that message—that we are somehow better than the president* we had elected in 2016, that the better angels of our nature were not taking a few years off. The message found an audience as soon as the primary electorate became less Caucasian, especially in South Carolina, where Congressman Jim Clyburn pointed the way. At which point, the country's simple desire for cool and blessed normality asserted itself. I freely admit that I underestimated the political salience of that simple truth. Read the Full Story from Charles P. Pierce How to Survive the Next Few Weeks With Grace Acrimony and political tribalism are currently poisoning our shared humanity, driving us further apart from our neighbors. A pandemic is threatening lives and the jobs that sustain us. Climate change presents an existential emergency. And journalism and social media have become weaponized, leaving us ill-equipped to differentiate between objective fact, partisan fiction, and outright conspiracy theory. Indeed, the consequences are dire: a dismantling of trust in institutions and each other, and a complete breakdown in our ability to effectively communicate. Meanwhile, we struggle, some with valor, others in bilious, bad faith. Everywhere we turn, we see fear, anger, confusion, anxiety, disenfranchisement, division, depression, disillusionment, and sometimes even despair. It's a condition we medicate by doubling down on outrage. Addictive, incessant scrolling. Netflix and chill. Shitty food. And, when that doesn't do the trick, there's always booze and pills. Rich Roll knows. He's been there. And now he's here with some advice on "letting go of the uncontrollables," and a few more tips to make it through the next few weeks without losing your mind. Trust him, he talks about this sort of thing for a living.   Read the Full Story Come Hell or High Water, L.L.Bean's Chamois Shirt Is Always a Good Move The chamois shirt dates way back in the L.L. Bean archive, developed more than 90 years ago by the actual L.L., Leon Leonwood Bean. (Great name? Great name.) And there's a reason this thing has stuck around for so long. It's versatile, for one thing. The brushed, heavyweight flannel is sturdy enough to stand in as a jacket on days that are merely brisk, but soft enough to serve as a normal shirt when it's truly cold. It's comfy, protective, and it invites all kinds of interpretations, from core colors like tan and navy to checks a-plenty. "Flannel" may be a stand-in for "plaid shirt" in a lot of guys' minds nowadays, but that just ain't right. Whether solid or patterned, this is flannel. This is the OG. Here's Style Director Jonathan Evans on why it's earned our latest Esquire Endorsement.  Read the Full Story The 7 Best Desks For Working From Home Right Now Settle in. This extended, necessitated period of working from home isn't wrapping up anytime soon. And even after offices reopen and commuters once again crowd freeways and subway platforms, many of us will choose to work remotely for the convenience and freedom of it. That said, the kitchen table—or your lap—aren't the most deluxe work stations for your computer. The time has come to commit to a desk. The following are the best desk options for a number of different situations. After all, you could have exactly two square feet of floor space to dedicate to a desk, or you could be looking to remodel an entire room into an amenity-rich home office. Start your search here. Once you get the desk set up, branch off into office chairs, laptop lifts, and iPad stands. Like we said, settle in. Read the Full Story Here Are All the States That Have Now Legalized Weed in the U.S. In the U.S., recreational marijuana legalization is slowly eking out victories on a state-by-state basis. In the 2016 election, which was bad for most reasons but good for this one, four states got on board, raising the total to eight states to legalize since Colorado kicked off the movement in 2012. On the first day of 2020, Illinois became the eleventh state in America to legalize weed, with lines snaking along blocks for hours on day one. And then, on Election Day 2020, with the presidential vote still infuriatingly undecided either way, another four states added their numbers to the growing pack: Arizona, New Jersey, Montana, and South Dakota. Here's the full list of where weed is legal right now. Read the Full Story The 50 Best Gifts That'll Impress Any Guy Men are notoriously difficult to shop for. There's the husband who already bought himself everything he wants. The boyfriend with mercurial tastes. The son who completely blanked and forgot to send you his wish list. The dad who insists that believe him, he's quite happy with nothing at all, as if that's a viable option. Pains in asses, the lot of them. However, all is not lost. Here we've collected a master list of the 50 best gift ideas for men—men who like sneakers and watches, men who like tinkering with smart tech, men who like roughing it outdoors or lounging around the house. Finding that gift, especially if it's a holiday gift meant to brighten the end of an otherwise crap year, suddenly feels a lot less daunting.    Read the Full Story   Follow Us     Unsubscribe  Privacy Notice   esquire.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019