Jerry Kremer

Biden and Trump bring to mind Louis and Schmeling

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When I was a child, there were only two sports that captured our attention. One was boxing and the other was baseball. Today you can watch multiple sports on fancy television sets. In my early years, radio was the medium by which we connected to both of them.
Watching the presidential campaign unfold reminds me more of boxing than baseball. Boxing is a brutal sport, just like politics. Some memorable fights lasted 15 rounds, and you could feel every punch through the words of the announcer. Men from humble homes chose boxing because it was their only chance to become someone. Their reward was either a championship belt and a modest purse, or a lifetime of crippling injuries with no financial rewards.
Watching former Vice President Joe Biden give the speech of his life at the virtual Democratic Convention last week was like watching the first round of what promises to be a brutal 10 weeks between now and Election Day. I recall men like Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano, who battled in the ring late into their careers. Joe Biden is at that stage of his career, and this is his last chance to show that he’s a champion.
Donald Trump is today’s version of the flashy newcomer who entered the ring with a lot of hoopla but was often defeated with a series of gut punches. Trump has three-plus years behind him in the center ring, but now he’s facing a competitor who may just have enough punches left to end the reality show in the White House.
Leading up to the Democratic Convention, the street talk by the Trump enthusiasts, and Trump himself, was that Biden was sleepy, too old and way past his prime. I heard claims that he was a socialist, and would turn the government over to the progressives. He was going to raise your taxes and turn the suburbs into places of urban terror. He was mocked for “hiding in his Delaware basement,” with the implication that he was afraid to come out and join the battle.

But the final night of the convention showed that, just like Louis and Marciano, Biden still has plenty of fight left in him to stay in the ring. Unlike the entitled Trump, Biden’s humble background speaks to the people who just want a normal and capable president who will take the punches for them at a time when there’s too much angst and uncertainty in this nation. Biden survived the first round, and showed the nation that he is none of the things that his detractors allege. His words were strong, measured and a call for decency in government. He did not capitulate to any socialist agenda. He was just plain Joe, at his best.
Some great boxing matches came at a time when the nation was looking for someone to emerge as its hero. In the late 1930s, American sports fans were riveted by the rivalry between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, a German boxer who was his nation’s hero. Their matches in 1936 and 1938 became worldwide symbols for the struggle between democracy and Nazism. I don’t equate Trump to Hitler in any way, but his views of the world and Joe Biden’s are a contest, in my mind, between good and evil.
The next round won’t be an easy one for the president. His campaign brings to mind what Richard Nixon did in his campaigns. Biden is running on a platform of uniting America, and Trump is embracing racism and claims that Biden will destroy the country if he’s elected. As the campaign moves forward, the country remains locked in a battle with the coronavirus, which isn’t going away until we have a proven vaccine and enough of it to inoculate millions of people.
There won’t be any knockouts in the months to come. The fighting will be brutal, and Election Day will be Round 15. That’s when the referees, the American voters, will make the final decision. Hopefully, decency and common sense will prevail.

Jerry Kremer was a state assemblyman for 23 years, and chaired the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee for 12 years. He now heads Empire Government Strategies, a business development and legislative strategy firm. Comments about this column? JKremer@liherald.com.