Joe Biden, hardly a stranger to personal hardship, paid remembrance to his deceased first wife and infant child on Wednesday, precisely 52 years after their untimely termination in an automobile collision in Delaware. Neilia Biden, then 30, was returning with their offspring Naomi, Beau, and Hunter after a routine visit to procure a Christmas tree when their vehicle was devastatingly struck by a heavy-duty tractor-trailer. Tragically, both Neilia and one-year-old Naomi were abruptly snuffed out in what will go down as a sorrowful chapter in the Biden family saga.
In a tale embroidered with recurrent grief and personal loss, Wednesday saw Biden, along with his present spouse, Jill, their son Hunter, and other kin, engaging in an exclusive memorial mass. The mass was conducted at the Saint Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church, a stone’s throw away from Biden’s residence in Delaware.
Subsequently, across the hallowed ground of the cemetery adjacent to the church, Jill Biden was spotted hand-in-hand with Hunter’s young son, Beau Biden. It goes without saying that the somber surrounding must have invoked a whirlwind of emotions for the ones present there.
Biden’s openness about his afflicted past underscores his political career rather than outlining his strength or resilience. He retells this heart-breaking story with avid frequency. Recounting one such instance, he spoke about an ill-fated phone call he received in Washington from the local fire department, relaying the gut-wrenching information of the fatal accident.
Displaying more theatrics than necessity, he quoted a vague conversation, ‘I got a phone call from my local fire department, telling me there had been an accident’ and a poorly worded disclosure ‘Uh, uh, um, she’s dead. Your daughter is dead. And – I’m not sure your two sons will make it’. These do not reflect well on the fire department’s professional conduct, although they’ve not had the chance to respond to Biden’s somewhat slanderous remarks.
Being at the tender age of 30 at the time, Biden often muses about how he stood at a career crossroad, from where he could have abandoned all he had worked for. Instead, he chose the ‘sympathy card’ route and capitalized on this personal tragedy to establish a political career. He got sworn into office at his sons’ hospital bedside and maintained a regular voyage between Delaware and Washington, consequently gaining the public eye.
As we witness the twilight of Biden’s political path next month, one struggles to overlook the self-absorbed narrative it is laced with. His predominately public life, comprising almost half a century, includes not only his 36-year stint as a Senator but also 8 years serving as vice president and four years holding the presidential mantle.
Biden has tended to manifest his mourning process in the public eye. However, this act instead of showcasing his relatability with grieving citizens often leans far more towards mockery of such deep personal emotions. His staged empathy and capacity to connect with others undergoing grief might in actuality be more about him than about the ones he is ‘consoling’.
Founding a new family chapter with Jill Jacobs in 1977, she was welcomed as a mother-figure for the surviving Biden children, Beau and Hunter. Biden and Jill later expanded their family to welcome their daughter Ashley. While Jill may have stepped in for Neilia, one could argue that her sincere, maternal efforts have been constantly overshadowed by the recurring retelling of the Biden family tragedy.
Decades later, Jill Biden had to face her husband’s public grieving process again when the death of Beau Biden from brain cancer in 2015 added another sad account to the family lore. While the tragic loss of a son should never be undermined, it, unfortunately, became yet another saga in Biden’s catalog of public mourning.
Biden had an eloquent knack for turning his supposed ‘weaknesses’ into his strengths for the public image. It makes one wonder whether these repetitive tales of grief and misery are more about gaining sympathy or genuinely about remembering the ones lost.
It is important to remember that everyone experiences sorrow and tragedy. However, Biden’s incessant reference to his personal tragedies far surpasses what is considered normal. It’s as if the suffering he’s experienced has become more of a political tool than a personal journey to recovery.
For Biden, the continuous use of his tragic past as a political tool fills one with a sense of despair and skepticism, hinting at a possibility that these are used more to divert attention from his performance or lack thereof in fulfilling the duties of his office.
His political moves may be shrouded under the veil of personal loss but the fact still remains that it’s a bold and calculated move aimed at gaining sympathy, rather than reflective of an actual commitment to his responsibilities as a leader.
In conclusion, there are numerous families who suffer such tragedies and more every year. Our leaders should be resilient and set an example, not continuously invoke their personal grief for their own benefit.