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JULY
**18, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
Biden and the Trials of Job
Can Joe Biden keep the faith? Can we?
One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons depicts God confiding to an
angel, "At first I was teaching Job a lesson, but now I'm just messing
with him."
You have to wonder if God (or someone) is messing with Joe Biden, for
the sheer sport of it. Job, you will recall, was a good man who had done
nothing wrong, and then God caused one awful thing after another to
befall Job, to test his faith.
Let's review: In the past week alone, Joe Manchin revealed that he has
been playing Biden for a fool for close to a year. Biden's Middle East
adventure backfired. Though possibly useful for other benefits, the trip
yielded Biden a bad press for sucking up to the assassin Mohammed bin
Salman and produced no concrete commitments from Saudi Arabia to
increase the supply of oil.
Covid is resurging again, undermining the recovery and adding to public
frustration. Inflation is at a 41-year high. Oh, and Putin is evidently
winning his war of attrition against Ukraine.
Job could sympathize.
As with Job, none of this is really Biden's fault. But like Job, Biden
suffers the consequences. And while God was said to testing Job's faith,
these Job-like disasters are testing the public's faith in Biden. Not
surprisingly, that faith keeps dwindling.
For believers, the Book of Job is supposed to be a parable about keeping
faith in the face of absurd adversity. But I've always thought that Job
is a pretty good commercial for atheism. What sort of sadistic Divine
Providence would put Job through these undeserved abuses, except to
"mess with him"?
For me, the takeaway is another aphorism: The Lord helps those who help
themselves.
Even though most of this mess is not Biden's doing, he is the president
and it falls to him to play the hand that history has dealt him, however
unjustly. As we keep writing at The Prospect, Biden could be leading
with more nerve, clarity and resolve.
The Book of Job ends with God, satisfied of Job's righteousness,
restoring Job to health, wealth, and family. No such happy ending is
guaranteed to Biden, or to us.
President Kennedy liked to say, "You make your luck." And as JFK
famously concluded his inaugural address, "Here on Earth, God's work
must surely be our own."
Over to you, Joe(B).
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
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Which we can alter only with politics BY DAMON SILVERS
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