Joe Poem by Percy Dovetonsils

Joe,
I'm hearing a lot
about empathy.
I don't need empathy.
For me,
you're not personal,
you're a face on TV
addressing 330 million.
Save it for the people
who think they need it.
Or save it for your family.

I need honesty.
After 18,000 lies and counting.
I need the straight goods,
not bloviating braggadocio
and backstabbing.
I need integrity.
Instead of a lost, shifting, narcissism.
I need competency.
Consider what your
predecessor
has done with corona
.....looked the other way,
fostered it, cultivated it.
Tried to exploit it
for political gain.
It's been one botch
after another
for 4 years.

I need a leader
who's not a hatemonger.
A uniter, not a divider.
I need a man,
who puts the needs of the nation
before his own avarice
and hunger for personal power.

I need a leader
who's also a reader.
A man capable of absorbing
and effectively using
new information and old
from his advisers, his security briefers,
his scientists and economists,
not an arrogant blunderer,
crashing, thrashing,
about in the darkness
of his own ignorance and base instincts.

And Joe, I know you,
from your years as VP
and as Senator before that,
can read out loud
from a teleprompter
without utterly slaying
the English language.
This a small thing,
but it bugs the hell outta me
to hear the language
so abused.

I need an American,
not a double agent
servingand admiring
Putin
and other savage autocrats,
undercutting our alliances
with our strongest friends.

I need a democrat
with a small d,
who cares about the welfare
of all the people,
not just the super rich,
the corporate cronies.
D for Decency,
not I for Indecency
and Ignorance.

I need a leader,
with a capital C
who respects
and reveres
The Constitution
and Convention.
A man with Courage,
not a Coward
engaged
in Criminal enterprises.
A man with G for Grace
and M for Magnanimity,
not B for Bullshit
and Bullying,
not T for Thug,
not P for Pardoner
of outrageous
convicts and cronies,
not A for Autocrat
nor S for Saboteur
nor F for Fool,
nor J for Jackass.

I need a lawman,
not an outlaw.
Not a man
who has never respected
the law,
who has always
wiped his feet
on the law,
exploited the law's loopholes,
toyed with the law.

I need a leader
who surrounds himself
with decent, intelligent, competent
lieutenants,
not a ghoulish cabinet
of liars, numbskulls, hacks, toadies,
and worse.

If you want to add empathy,
or warmth, or charm,
to the above,
that will be nice
but far from necessary.
I'll supply
my own empathy.
After years of struggle
with the televised,
tweeterized,

image
of a leader bereft
of empathy,
I've learned
to manufacture
my own empathy....
to empathize with myself
and others.
I don't need
electronic empathy
to survive, thrive,
and prevail.