“Yes, we can” was Barack Obama’s very successful 2008 Presidential Campaign slogan. “There is no problem we cannot solve, there is no destiny we cannot fulfill,” he stated in his 2008 speech. Obama had actually used it first after polls showed he was losing to Hillary Clinton in the Iowa primaries. He used it again in his farewell address in 2017, ending his two consecutive terms.
The “Yes, we can” slogan worked well because it fueled hope and echoed the sounds of the American dream, which, despite being criticized, mocked, and tarnished by American literature and film, still serves a crucial part in the hearts and minds of the American people.
That American dream, along with the myth of manifest destiny, is part of what makes the U.S. what it is, for better and for worse. Every child is told that he or she could be the president of the United States one day. They are told that they should dream big, embrace failures and challenges, be willing to take huge risks, and that doing so will pay off one day.
Sometimes it does, and when it does, it pays big. But sometimes it doesn’t. Reality can be changed, rules can be bent, modified, and debunked. But let us also recall the myth of Icarus—flying too close to the sun can burn your wings.
People can’t fly, yet. You can try to defy that fact. You can wave your hands for hours every day in the air, and aside from hurting your arms after a while, it won’t hurt you that much. But if you jump off the rooftop of the Empire State Building and try that, the most likely outcome is that you will fall to your sure death. We say the same things to our children to protect them—don’t put your hands in the oven, or you will get burnt.
The same thing goes for Joe Biden. Assured by his 2020 victory, he is a strong believer in the “Yes, we can” approach. Just like then, he believes the critics, the polls, and his surrounding environment simply do not believe strongly enough like he does. You fall, and you get back up, and one “bad night” does not mean everything.
The thing is, this time it does. This time there’s no “getting back up.” This time, you can’t bend the laws of gravity, and when you fall, you fall hard. The horrendous debate was not just a “bad night”; it was everything. It was ALL that mattered. Yes, Biden’s term as president has had tremendous achievements economically, socially, globally, and politically. Yes, comparing Biden’s term to Trump’s psychopathic, misogynistic, racist, and anti-democratic rule is so self-evident that it is even useless. But precisely because of that, taking such an unbelievable risk as the one Biden is taking now, and having someone like Trump as president now, is exactly like jumping off the rooftop of the Empire State Building. The same American dream that Obama used to plant hope in the hearts of the young is now being used to insinuate the hatred and chauvinism of Trump’s dystopia.
But Biden has nothing to sell now, except for not being Trump. While not being Trump is already an incentive and a good one, it is not enough for winning, and winning now is everything. In this battleground, the winner takes it all, and the loser stands small, and a simple “I tried the best I can” or “at least I am not a corrupted liar and a convicted felon” will help no one.
Now is the time to tell Joe Biden, “No, you can’t.” Yes, you are too old for the job, no matter what you believe. Just like you can’t fly, just like children can’t drive a car even if they really want to, even if they believe they are capable of it. You can’t run because you will lose, and the world cannot afford that; we cannot afford that.
The Known Unknowns 
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