Optimism has the bad press of innocence, the idea that if we don’t see the dark side of life it’s because we lack information, alarmist information, of daily consumption, that warns us of the dangers that threaten our society and the evils habits that shorten our lives, an exaggerated reality that fills us with grievances and anger, a pessimism that makes us clench our fists and demand revenge.
This was the climate clouding Americans in the late 1970s. Then, almost fifty years ago, in the middle of the cold war, after having lost his innocence in Vietnam and Watergate, having endured a severe economic crisis and having understood that oil would, from then on, be a weapon in enemy hands, Americans woke up one day to a screen telling them a story of redemption and the triumph of good over evil that had taken place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars, released in 1977 and subtitled A New Hope, inspired a broken and depressed nation. Luke Skywalker, his heroism and his values ??starred in the greatest patriotic revolution in the history of cinema. The premiere of The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, the second installment of the saga, was followed by the election of Ronald Reagan, the old Hollywood actor who arrived at the White House reminding Americans of what Abraham Lincoln had said of them more than a century before: you are “the last and best hope on the face of the Earth”.
In few nations is optimism, that is, the innocence of pursuing progress and happiness, stronger than in the United States. Joe Biden is an optimist, but not only from innocence, but also from experience. He is not afraid of tomorrow. The world seems out of control, as his rival Donald Trump says, with wars in Europe and the Middle East, unstoppable migrations and technologies that threaten to subordinate humans to machines.
Trump, however, does not look to the future to overcome the challenges of the present, but to the past. He is pessimistic and obsessed with revenge. “2024 – he tells his voters – is the final battle” against “the corrupt, sinister and rotten forces that want to destroy America”, a country he now describes as third world.
The United States actually has the largest economy in the world and is home to leading companies in innovation. It has overcome the pandemic crisis better than Europe and China. The oracles predicted a recession, but the economy is growing above 2%. Inflation is 1.8% and unemployment is 3.7%. The lack of labor drives up wages, especially the lowest. Now, only 7.9% of the population lacks health insurance. The Dow and S
Biden has given unprecedented aid to renewable energy and semiconductors, a reindustrialization that has put Europe and China on the defensive. He promises not to raise taxes on incomes below $400,000 a year. He has revitalized NATO and made it clear that liberal democracies have no alternative but to defeat a Vladimir Putin whom Trump admires. The USA is thriving, but today there is no gratitude for politicians who govern well.
Trump leads all polls. His dominance of the Republican Party is so strong that the primaries have been blowing and blowing bottles. He has swept almost without campaigning. His base is activated and he forgives everything. He believes with his eyes closed that he is the victim of a witch hunt, that there was fraud in 2020 and that immigrants “poison the blood of our country”.
Trump lost 60 legal claims about the results of the last presidential elections and is accused of more than ninety crimes in four open cases. He leads the polls because the lie is powerful and at 77 he seems stronger than Biden. Campaigns – especially the very dirty ones these days – are won by the strong even if they are wrong over the weak even if they are right.
Democrats think Biden is too old. He is 81 years old and walks stiffly due to arthritis and a broken foot. He suffers from sleep apnea, atrial fibrillation and gastric reflux. He passed the last neurological test with flying colours.
The 2020 election was decided in seven states, where Biden won by less than 3% of the vote. Five million young people live in the urban areas of these states and the president needs their support without Britney Spears asking for it.
On Thursday he told them about you. He delivered a State of the Union speech full of hope and energy. He wanted to wake up the Americans who four years ago gave him a great victory – seven million more votes than Trump – and two years ago, in the legislative elections, they stopped the Republican offensive against all odds. Without them, he will not be able to safeguard democracy from the authoritarianism that Trump represents.
Biden is not Luke Skywalker, but neither are Harrison Ford and Mick Jagger, two active octogenarians who still raise passions. Age is not a biological equation and power is better exercised from the wisdom of experience than from the impetus of youth. That is why I believe that the good of Biden will triumph over the evil of the young Trump.
May the force be with you.
