The Biden Mask

 I've come to very much enjoy wearing my Covid mask when I go out grocery shopping or running into the bank for a little personal business.  I like it not for any real or imagined efficacy in reducing viral spread.  Rather, I like the delicious feeling of anonymity it conveys. My inner policy wonk is pleased to note that privacy advocates are reporting that Covid masks render nearly useless the facial recognition software algorithms sneaking glances at us in public spaces.  Like a Shakespearean character at a masked ball, I can operate in public with little fear of discovery. Only when I remove my mask am I revealed as who I really am.

Progressive Democrats like their masks too.  They are especially fond of their Joe Biden mask.  Biden is not a candidate for president so much as he is a mask the progressives in the party are wearing until after the election, when he will be discarded.  

People who consider themselves moderate Democrats or possibly Independents look at the Biden mask and convince themselves it's the real man.  Good old avuncular Uncle Joe will move into the White House and tone down mean Mr. Trump's rhetoric.  Biden's a known quantity, been around the block a time or two, and has given most of his adult life to public service.  Sure, he might be a little threadbare, but he's an affable guy who smiles a lot.

Only he's not, not really.  Behind the Biden mask hide the progressives, and not all that effectively if you're paying attention.  In early August  Bernie Sanders said "As progressives, we will do everything we can to make the Biden administration the most progressive administration that it can become."  Back in July he proclaimed that the Biden mask would be "the most progressive president since FDR." MoveOn.org, hardly a centrist group, is emailing and texting its members urging them to vote for the Biden mask.  The Black Lives Matter corporation, in between riots, has added a donation button to their website at blacklivesmatter.com.  Contributions there go, not to BLM, but to ActBlue, a group whose political contributions this year go to, guess who?  Democrats running for president, including Uncle Joe.

The biggest difference between my Covid face covering and the Joe Biden mask is that when I'm wearing a mask it's obvious that I'm doing so.  You can look at me and know something is hidden.  It's a bit tougher to make that distinction with the Biden mask, but when you look at it, know this: the progressive face hiding underneath seethes in discontent, waiting only for November's election to fully reveal itself.

Vote for whoever you want to, but understand the difference between the mask and the movement that hides behind it.