Now that the mainstream media has moved on with the presumption that Joe Biden is the President-elect, the chatter is now about the trappings of his Administration. As the public is growing accustomed to “the new normal”, there is a kerfluffel concerning honorifics attached to the First Lady, Jill Biden. Staff surrounding the wife of the President-elect have made it clear that she be referred to as “Doctor” Jill Biden.
Jill Biden earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delaware in English in 1975. Jill Biden earned a Masters degree in education with a specialty of Reading from West Chester State College in 1981 while working as a teacher. In 1987, Jill got a Masters in English from Villanova University. Years later, she returned to school for her doctoral studies under her birth name Jill Jacobs. In January 2007, she was awarded a Doctor of Education (Ed.D) degree from the University of Delaware in “Educational Leadership”. She published her dissertation: Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students’ Needs as Jill Jacobs-Biden. The thrust of her thesis is that Delaware Technical and Community College (where she was an instructor) needed a Student Center.
So Jill Jacobs-Biden earned a BA, a MA in Reading, a MA in English, and a Ed.D in Educational Leadership. That is a bit of sheepskin to hang on the walls. The specialty education in reading probably was quite instructive as Jill acted as a reading specialist. Dr. Jill prowess as an Education Leader combined with her intimate connection to a 34 year senior Senator from Delaware likely scared up funding for the Community College’s student centers (as there are multiple campuses).
That being said, it seems a bit presumptuous to demand that the public and the pliant press refer to her as Doctor Jill Biden. Being a political junky, I’m reminded of when former Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) dressed down a polite General testifying on Capitol Hill for calling her “Ma’am”, as she had worked so hard to get that title of Senator. Of course, who can forget Dr. Evil from Austin Powers demanding his honorific after six years in evil medical school.
Not all public figures choose to preen their pedigrees. Even though Bill Cosby also earned a Doctor of Education degree, he did not insist on being addressed with the honorific “Doctor”. Then there is Ben Carson, a world wide renowned brain surgeon who served as President Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In his many media appearances, how often was he called Doctor (despite his medical degree) or did he insist on being addressed by that title?
America’s incoming Gaffer in Chief Joe Biden once explained why his wife sought higher degrees:
“She said, ‘I was so sick of the mail coming to Sen. and Mrs. Biden. I wanted to get mail addressed to Dr. and Sen. Biden.’ That’s the real reason she got her doctorate.”
It is unclear if Joe Biden followed that up with his patent “I’m not joking.” In some senses, the quote might have been intentional deprecation to charm a lunch bucket audience. Still, Joe often says uncomfortable off scripted things which reveal truths so judge for yourself. But Joe does not seem impressed by the aura of Dr. Jill’s status.
When a Wall Street Journal opinion writer penned a piece mocking Jill’s people insisting that she be called Dr. Biden, it created some controversy. Those prone to support a nascent Biden Administration defended Doctor Jill, claiming that calling her anything less was misogynistic.
Tucker Carlson bothered to read her thesis and found it riddled with typos, creative math and extremely awkward phrasing, which seems striking considering her Master’s in English.
Some parts sound slapdash and poorly edited. Still the University of Delaware awarded her a Ed.D.
Tucker Carlson rejected inevitable claims of sexist and affirmatively asserted that Jill was much smarter than her husband Joe. Carlson’s conclusion was that the controversy swirls around classism, that there are expectations of a certain sort of person that they have the right credentials, be they academic or accorded by a prestigious professional position, not to create but to lord over you. They have the presumption that their titles and status gives them “gravitas”.
While I can appreciate Tucker Carlson’s populist points, I believe that is only part of the story. Culture plays some part in the application of honorifics. In Latin countries, there is the tendency to address someone with a degree as “doctor” to lend credence to their arguments. In Poland, they are sticklers in demanding the use of honorifics for doctors, academicians and professors. But America was founded in an egalitarian environment which eschewed peerages and fancy titles.
Generally, in our culture we reserve the honorific Doctor to those with medical degrees. In academic circles, they may apply doctor to give their dissertations distinction. For some clergy who have garnered advanced degrees, such as the Dr. Martin Luther King, we accord that honorific. If one sought to be accurate, lawyers who have earned a Juris Doctor would be lawyers, but calling them Doctor would seem pretentious (especially after receiving their bills). Even attorneys would insist on signing with Esquire or JD are deemed kind of pretentious.
Following George Washington’s wishes, even the US Chief Executive is given a diminished honorific “Mr. President”, although we accord it much more prestige due to the power he (or she) wields.
But the presidential honorific is tempered with the esteem of the occupant. Many feel that President Trump did not receive “all due respect” from a contemptuous press. And after the shenanigans of the electoral Compromise of 1877, many referred to President Rutherford B. Hayes as “His Frauduency”. I fear that unless the questions about election irregularities are cleared up before Biden’s inauguration, that mocking title may make a revival.
Being a denizen of the District, it is easy to see most things through a political lens. Thus I believe that narrative is another important element of entitlement. More than just Tucker Carlson’s assertion that people of a certain class are expected to have certain trappings, political opinion makers can spin them to give additional gravitas to those with whom they give favor. President Barack Obama was portrayed as being a Constitutional because he taught at The University of Chicago. But if one digs deeper into that assertion, Obama was only an instructor and his curriculum was more about Saul Alinsky and being a community activist.
Defying Biden’s bumbling reputation, Joe Biden is esteemed in academia. Joe Biden has honorary degrees from the University of Scranton (1976), St Joseph’s University (LLM 1981), Wiedener University Law (2000), Emerson College (2003), Delaware State University (LLD 2004), Suffolk University Law (2005), Syracuse University (LLD 2009), Wake Forest Univeristy (LLD 2009), the University of Pennsylvania (LLD 2013), Miami Dade College (2014), University of South Carolina (DPA 2014), Trinity College, Dublin (LLD 2016), Colby College (2016), and Morgan State University (DPS 2017). See how smart you can look giving commencement speeches.
But Joe Biden’s academic prowess does not stop there. For years, Joe Biden co-taught a political science course at Wiedener University on Saturdays. Joe Biden raised enough money under his name for the University of Pennsylvania to create the The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Joe also joined the University of Pennsylvania Annenburg School of Arts and Sciences as Ben Franklin Presidential Practice Professor, but it is unclear if he actually taught anything there or if he served in other ways.
The University of Delaware named their School of Public Policy after him as he donated his nearly half century of papers to them. Some scholars wanted access to Senate paperwork during the campaign but they were off limits. Enquiring minds want to know why.
In the minds of opinion makers, one has respectability with lots of degrees or holding diplomas from prominent schools, which can elicit the cynical retort: “Oh sure, but he went to Harvard”.
However, such respect is not accorded to those on their political naughty list. Consider President George W. Bush. As a Republican, one is typically typecast as evil or stupid. In the case of “W”, it was the latter. Bush was painted as being stupid, despite being an alum of Yale and earning a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard. He went to the “right” schools but Bush isn’t a Democrat so he was demeaned as a dummy. In fact, while occupying the Oval Office, President Bush read a book a week. But that did not go with the prevailing narrative.
Ronald Reagan did not have storied academic career, earning a BA from Eureka College. Reagan was typecast in critical conventional wisdom as an amiable actor who knew how to read his script in “B” movies, the TV teleprompter and on the radio. Yet after his death, it was discovered that his weekly scripts which delved deep into political conservatism was written by his own hand. But that contradicted the narrative foisted upon the public by elitist opinion makers.
This shaping of narrative is not limited to intellectual perceptions. Opinion makers can shape public perceptions of First Ladies too. When she was First Lady, Michelle Obama was a fashion plate, adorning the covers of numerous magazines which glowed about her stylings, despite having a more muscular figure. Then there is Melania Trump, who truly was a fashion model prior to coming to the White House, yet she has not been in one fashion magazine photo shoot or cover. Some critics have criticized how the Slovenian immigrant can’t speak English well. Of course that naysayer omitted that she speaks five languages. But pushing the narrative is more important.
To be fair with First Ladies, this narrative is not just shaped by the press or conventional wisdom. Pat Nixon did not want to be in the spotlight and wanted to support her husband’s middle class public persona. So as early as the Checkers speech of 1952, she was content to wear that cloth coat and steer clear from fashion coverage. President George Herbert Walker Bush’s wife Barbara cultivated the nickname “The Silver Fox” because of her grandmotherly demeanor. “Bar” was happy to play up the perception that her wardrobe mainly consisted of clothes from the Sears catalog. Those narrative nuggets demonstrate how some choose to deprecate themselves rather than emphasize entitlement.
Normally, narrative is entitlement in action by opinion makers. I suspect that Jill’s insistence at being called "Doctor Jill" may be more than just an ego message. Considering her degree in Educational Leadership and her numerous side-by-side appearances with her husband at their sparing 2020 campaign appearances, the public may be being set up for a more active role in a presumptive Biden Administration. Doctor Jill may seek to have a guiding hand publicly as well as privately, for educational policy. There has been Democrat talking points about making Community College free to students and the pandering promise to wipe out student debt.
To paraphrase Dr. King, I personally wish for a world in which people are judged by the content of their character rather than the title of their honorific. And what a wonderful world it would be.
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