Democratic Party Paradox
If Trump Is a Uniquely Serious Threat to Democracy, Why Run Biden/Harris Again?
I can’t count the number of articles that tell me that Donald Trump’s reelection in 2024 would represent the end of democracy in America. That Trump would institute fascism, that he’d persecute and prosecute his political enemies, that he’d round up ten million undocumented immigrants and deport them, that he’d end Obamacare and destroy what little progress the Democrats have made toward protecting the environment. And he’d announce he’d become Dictator for Life.
Yet, if Trump’s reelection would truly represent a death blow to America, why is the DNC insisting that the unpopular Biden/Harris ticket is the best and only way to prevent this blow from landing?
Consider Joe Biden. If reelected in 2024, he’d be turning 82 years of age and would have to serve until he’s 86. Biden is not a man in his physical and mental prime. He doesn’t inspire the youth vote nor is he that attractive to independents. His steadfast support of Israel, the blank checks of support he’s issued irrespective of how many innocents Israel murders, have contributed to serious slippage in his poll numbers. Arab-Americans, African-Americans, and other voting blocs are showing more interest in Trump or third-party candidates like RFK Jr.
Is Biden really the best candidate to prevent Trump from winning in 2024?
Consider his VP, Kamala Harris. She’s a polarizing candidate with high negatives. She isn’t that skilled politically. She doesn’t inspire confidence as Biden’s successor, the woman who’s a heartbeat away from becoming president. Is Harris really the best vice presidential candidate to help prevent Trump from winning in 2024?
The paradox is apparent: Trump, I’m told, represents fascism. Corruption. Nihilism. The end of everything noble and sacred. Yet the Democratic dream ticket to prevent utter disaster is, yet again, Biden/Harris.
If Democratic Party officials truly feared that Trump was about to lock them up in jail on Day One of his inauguration, I’m guessing there’d be a bit more effort to find more vigorous and compelling candidates than Biden/Harris. Since the DNC is actively discouraging rivals from running against Biden in the Democratic primaries, despite Biden’s deepening unpopularity and his ongoing mental and physical decline, I must conclude the Democrats doth protest too much about their fears of a Trump victory.
Priority One for the DNC is ensuring no big-name progressive challenger is allowed to run in 2024. It appears that mission has been accomplished. Priority Two is ensuring “nothing will fundamentally change” for party elites and America’s owners and donors. That goal is assured whether Biden wins or loses. If Biden wins, the same old same old will prevail. If he loses and Trump wins, the Democrats will present themselves yet again as the saviors of democracy against Dictator Trump, fundraising off the usual excesses of Trump’s rhetoric and of the hard-right Republicans with their own scores to settle.
Thus the paradox of running weak candidates (Biden/Harris) against the alleged existential threat of Trump 2.0 is resolved. Powerful Democrats don’t fear Trump; they’re not worried about being rounded up and sent to the gulag. What they really fear is progressives within their own party and the possibility of a compelling third-party candidate like RFK Jr. eroding their power.
Again, if Democratic polemicists truly believed the reelection of Trump would be an epochal event—the fall of America and freedom and its replacement by Amerika and tyranny—shouldn’t they be advancing the very best, the most dynamic, the most popular and vigorous and charismatic, leaders to challenge Trump in 2024?
I’d say so. And in that case it wouldn’t be Biden/Harris.
they think Biden can be victorious against a Trump challenge. Like you....I have my doubts. The echo chamber inside the belt line is deaf to those living outside of that loony farm.
I agree with you - the Democrat's rhetoric doesn't match pushing the incompetent Biden/Harris ticket as the only salvation of the country. But what is the focus of their argument?
For all the fear that is stoked about Trump as the Great Disruptor and The Greatest Threat Ever to Democracy, his first term showed him to be rather conventional like all modern Presidents - he passed a tax bill that favored the upper classes; he had Soleimani assassinated; and he allowed/pushed a huge government takeover of health care through the COVID pandemic. About his only real crimes were his boorishness and his inclination to go off the reservation at times and tell the truth - both of which caused the heads of the DC elites to explode.
A second term likely would be more or less the same. He will provide unquestioning support of Israel (just like Biden); nothing will fundamentally change for the elite class (just like Biden); and there will be the same questions about personal enrichment (just like Biden).
Perhaps the question of illegal immigration and the border - both which need addressing - would be a difference, but he lacks any philosophy of governance and self discipline to push something to completion.
He may surround himself with people more determined to seek revenge on his persecutors that would please his base, but at some point the emerging economic conditions (i.e., recession and collapse of the dollar) will overshadow even those witch hunts.