My Bedlam Farm Journal – my blog – was inspired by New Yorker Writer E.B. White’s brilliant series of pieces written from his farm in Maine. Blog wrote about dogs, animals, culture, and politics, just like I do.

Politics got too creepy for me in recent years, but re-reading E.B. White’s One Man’s Meat again helped me understand what I should write about.

I will write about politics when I have something no one else is saying. I don’t write as an advocate or ideologue; I am not either. No label will ever fit me.

Can politics mix a bit (not too often) with beautiful flowers? Let’s find out. It sounds good to me.

The media chaos is so intense that it often obscures the news of fundamental importance and significance. That is where I believe I can help. Through the fog is what we often need to see. Journalists and pundits have joined the ranks of extremists on both sides.

They can’t help us to see.

No one label accurately covers my ideas and feelings. I reject any label with all of the contempt I can muster.

People who label themselves or others are giving up their precious right to think for themselves. I won’t do that, not consciously.

I don’t get along well with extremists from either side, and they attack me whenever possible. I’m proud of that.

I’ve been writing on the Internet for nearly half a century; I have the hide of a Tyrannosaurus and am happy to fight for my values. I want the pieces to be short and helpful. I’m often too windy; I want to write tighter and more to the point, especially on politics.

Today is a  good day to jump in. Ron DeSantis’s declaration last night was a disaster, but it is being overhyped and over-dramatized. Over time, it’s no big deal. I’d like to call this feature BTB: Beyond  The Bullshit.

The important story of the moment is this: The Democrats accepted Joe Biden’s reasoning that he could beat Trump despite being popular. This reasoning is no longer valid. Trump is up to his neck in trouble and has lost his mojo. All he seems able to do is insult his creation, Ron DeSantis.

It seems that the dynamic has changed. Many people believe that Ron DeSantis could beat Biden on the strength alone of his energy and focus. Next to him, Biden seems pale and weak, and old. Someone else needs to run for President, someone young, vital, articulate, and eloquent.

Right now, there is only Trump and DeSantis. No one is filling the big hole on the other side; no one is speaking out for democracy, compassion, and the need for a gentler country.

In three weeks, most Americans will have forgotten all about the mess on Twitter. This country can’t pay much attention for more than a few days when children are slaughtered in their classrooms. They aren’t going to pay much attention to the Twitter collapse of last night.

I’ve got a secret for you: Very few Americans are on Twitter. Very few Americans care about it. Musk has screwed up.

Elon Musk’s incompetence ruined DeSantis’s planned campaign launch, but it was Elon Musk’s catastrophe, not his. DeSantis can easily make more and other news.

He knows how to do it.

Ron DeSantis is among the most interesting political aspirants in a century or more. He has a clear and powerful vision for his presidency and some controversial but very effective accomplishments to back it up.

He has done everything he promised to do. He has given himself over entirely to the most extreme element in American politics and the most divisive.

He makes no bones about being an extremist who flirts with fascism. So far, no one has come close to stopping him.

What he does aren’t things I necessarily like. But they are genuine.

Most Americans want their President – a strong and forceful leader with a clear vision for the future, the ability to get things done, and in our time, a sad necessity – the ability to raise countless millions of dollars to campaign with.

He would be unstoppable if he had a tiny dose of humor, history, or empathy. There is just something unlikeable about him, trouble for a national politician. Persecuting “woke” is hardly as stirring as Lincoln’s saving the Union.

Americans have made it clear they want a uniter, not a divider.

But he has earned the right to be taken seriously. And the need to be attacked. If Trump faltered, most Republicans would happily flip over to him. Democrats and progressives are under tremendous pressure to respond.

The alternative would be tough to swallow. Americans have always gone to the center,  at least until 2016.

Trump is evolving into a bumbling old fool; he used to be a happy, entertaining, and charismatic fool. Politically, he is among the walking dead.

His followers are spiritually attached to him but are too few and blind to elect him to the White House. His legal troubles reveal his stupidity and sociopathic tendencies.

DeSantis is honest about what he wants to do and is full of examples of how he can and will do it. And you won’t catch him fondling contestants in beauty pageants or pulling women’s pants down.

Wisely, DeSantis pays no attention to the mainstream media, which makes them love and want him all the more.

If and when Trump stumbles – he is a genius at struggling – Governor De Santis will be in the perfect position to take his place. That’s his bet and gamble. It is a smart one.

If you are a Progressive or a Democrat, you may have noticed that there seems to be no strong, articulate, or clear opposition to Trump, Musk, DeSantis, or the movement they are leading.

Impassioned movements are always stronger than soulless movements. That’s where we are.

Democratic leaders and legislators are belatedly panicking over President Biden’s almost complete inability to project or articulate a strong and clear message.

He seems passive and weak. Kevin McCarthy is beating his brains out with his media handling and messaging on the Debt Ceiling.

It’s suddenly as if there were only one side of this momentous political conflict worth paying attention to.

Biden has a golden opportunity to alert Americans to the irresponsible political extortion and harm a handful of Republican extremists are close to inflicting on the nation over the debt ceiling fight.

Biden has hardly spoken about it with any clarity, and his fragility and 1950s notion of politics. DeSantis and the House Republicans represent something new and powerful that is real, and they have seized the momentum at a critical time for Ameican Democracy.

From a distance, it seems the President should have been on TV long ago alerting the country to their wealth, jobs, savings, and social security dangers. That should be a no-brainer.

My point today is this: Biden needs to go away.

This is no longer a debate; it’s more and more like a rout, or a train racing down the track with nothing to block, slow, or stop it. The Republicans are geniuses at messaging. The Democrats are wrong about it.

As it stands, Ron DeSantis is too extreme to win over new voters. The gaping hole in his campaign is that he has nothing to say to or offer people who are not radical white nationalists and conservatives. That isn’t poor politics; it’s stupid politics. But that doesn’t mean it must fail.

Somebody on the other side has to offer a better, more generous, compassionate vision. And they have to do it every day, on all possible media.

Biden is not able to do that. He has lost any sense of charisma or strength in the modern wrestling match that is politics. If I know this, so do the Democrats. One or two of them will almost certainly campaign against him.

He isn’t up to it.

Most Americans are not extremists, not on the left or right. I’m not, either. Extremism can be defeated, as it was over the past several years. The American sweet spot is center-right. On that score, DeSantis is in no better shape than Trump.

But someone must be strong, articulate, and young enough to take this surging movement on. (California Governor Gavin Newsome is the only prominent Democrat I can think of who can do it. Senator Amy Klobuchar and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg might make interesting vice presidents.)

Joe Biden can’t do it. DeSantis is a strong force, and defeating him will take a solid point.)

My predictions have been pretty good so far.

DeSantis’s Twitter debacle was an embarrassing setback for him.

But it appears to reveal a much bigger catastrophe for Biden. He is losing the fight.

I am no ageist, but I know that at my age – 75 – I could not muster the energy, focus, and commitment to be President of the United States right now. Joe Biden is older than I am.

As one older man to another, it’s time for him to do his country party a favor, move on, and give America the debate, arguments, and decisions it badly needs to make if we believe in democracy, the peaceful exchange of power,  and majority rule.

The next generation deserves better than the mess we have left them with.

I think that was the idea.