By Bryan Williams

“Discretion is the better part of valor.”  We’ve all heard this line from Shakespeare, and it would appear that Joe Biden put this into practice last week when he pledged to halt all negative campaign ads because of President Trump and the first lady’s COVID-19 infections. I’m sure many people thought, “Oh wow, how nice. This is what we need in today’s coarsened politicking.”  But Falstaff, the Shakespearean character who uttered the famous idiom, was himself a man totally without honor and valor. The definition of valor is, “Great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle.” 

Is Biden’s move courageous or self-serving? Easy answer there. This is politics. This is the race to be the most powerful person on the planet. His move is as self-serving as the soft serve machine at a Sizzler steakhouse. He was hoping this move would get him the slim slice of voters who are still undecided in this race.

While Biden’s campaign may have stopped its negative ads, other Super PACs and organizations did not. Especially the Lincoln Project, a group of “Never Trumpers,” that pledged to double-down on their hatred of Trump and keep the fire of negative ads burning. When I looked up background on the Lincoln Project, I recognized only two people on its long list of founders and “senior advisors”; George Conway (recently departed White House counselor 

Kellyanne’s husband), and Michael Steele. In other words, a cadre of Falstaffs. Negative political ads are not a show of courage or valor.

Then there is President Trump, a man who doesn’t seem to know what discretion is. Upon returning to the White House, he said to the camera, “Don’t let it (COVID-19) dominate you, don’t be afraid of it! You’re going to beat it!”  That says courage to me.

Williams is a mental health professional in California and was a Republican party official working in local, state and federal politics from 2005-19.