Democrats Have a Chance to do the Right Thing
But their recent track record says they won’t take it.
This whole Biden thing has made me insane.
Reason 1
The American people have known for months that Biden was unfit to be President for four more years. Not because of the year he was born, but because of the mental decline that has accompanied the first four years of his presidency. This mental decline is a trademark of aging, but happens to some more than others, so to say “Well Trump is old” as many Democrats are now doing, is disingenuous and stupid. Anyway, for months poll after poll showed the American people didn’t want Biden, but Democrats didn’t listen1.
They could have held debates months ago between Biden and Phillips, they didn’t. Democrats who have been meeting privately with Biden for months and knew what state he was in could have said something sooner, they didn’t. Biden could have listened to the American people and kept a vague promise he made to be a transition candidate, he didn’t. Obama and others who definitely knew could have stopped fundraising with him, they didn’t. The press could have taken seriously people’s concerns about Biden’s mental state, they didn’t. This could have been over months ago. Democrats could have had an actual democratic process, but instead they all fell in line behind a man they knew wasn’t capable and asked us to do the same.
Now, they have a chance to put someone on the ballot who is popular, competent, moderate, bipartisan, polls better than Trump; they won’t. Because these people don’t care about “country over self” or even party over self2, if they did, we wouldn’t be in this mess. They are self-interested actors and will fall in line again and endorse Kamala who, until a few weeks ago, consistently polled worse than Biden against Trump. And it’s not her numbers that have changed.
Reason 2
I now see Democrats falling into line calling this move by Biden “brave.” This is anything but, Biden is anything but. Biden stayed in this race for too long because of his hubris and pride. He dropped out too late for it to really do any good, not because he suddenly realized it was the right thing to do, but because he lost his donors and the support of his party. Democrats gaslit this old man into thinking he could beat Trump and then when it became apparent that the American people weren’t going to go along with the lie, they bullied him into dropping out. If finally doing the right thing after it has become clear that you have no other option is brave, then Biden is the bravest man alive. Because you can’t describe this as anything else with any degree of credibility.
Reason 3
Nobody is going to be held accountable for the statements they made in defense of Biden prior to the debate. I don’t have the time or patience to go through and find all the times top Democratic leaders defending Biden when some people did bring up his age. “He’s the smartest person in the room behind closed doors,” was said all the time. I remember Pete Buttigieg talking about a time Biden asked a question so detailed and insightful, they had to call someone else. It’s just another datapoint in a long trend of elites not taking accountability for anything and I’m sick of it.
Sorry this is disjointed, I just needed to get my thoughts out for my own sanity. I’m actually working on a more thoughtful, non-reactionary post, so if you are still reading, thank you. I’ll be back.
And to be fair, while polls showed people didn’t want Trump as President, he did at least win a fair(ish) primary.
I want to be clear. I am not saying Democrats don’t love this country. They very much do. But they are not doing what is best for this country. If they were, they wouldn’t even be discussing Kamala.