Last night, I watched Stephen Colbert’s Late Show with trepidation, this being the show’s first new episode since that infamous debate. Given most journalists’ dereliction of duty, it’s up to late night comedians to provide some sorely needed context and perspective.
So it’s galling when late night comics just uncritically give in to the so-called “common wisdom.” And the “common wisdom” being parroted in the media is that President Biden completely messed up the debate and should step aside. Never mind that such a panic would essentially hand a crown to Trump.
At least Colbert did point out that President Biden has been a very good president. But a lot of the rest of Colbert’s monologue feeds into the false narrative that Biden should step aside. And most galling of all, Colbert closed by saying that Biden has the capacity for self-sacrifice.
Like, a man as humble as President Joe Biden wants a second term in the White House just because of his ego? No, Colbert, bad host, bad host! The egotistical thing for Biden to do would be to step aside and move to a private island, screw y’all, not stay in this ego-bruising campaign.
And, as any halfway decent chess player can tell you, not all sacrifices are equally worthwhile. Because if you miscalculate a sacrifice and don’t get the advantage you had hoped for, then it was probably a pointless sacrifice.
Let’s say, hypothetically, that after we give in to the panic and ditch Biden, we miraculously find the perfect replacement. Republicans won’t let us put him on the ballot instead of Biden. The votes for Biden won’t transfer to his perfect replacement. Losing one state’s Electoral College votes could be catastrophic. It would have been a pointless sacrifice for Biden to step aside.
Somehow I’m willing to cut Seth Meyers more slack, whose Late Night also returned with a new episode last night. Maybe it’s because Meyers mentioned the evil, fascist Project 2025. Meyers mentioned that the dastardly document runs 900 pages, but obviously he only had time to mention three or four of the most alarming provisions.
I haven’t seen or heard anyone talk about the selective enforcement of Project 2025’s rules. Like, who honestly thinks those rules are going to be enforced equally on everyone?
Meyers says that the Democratic presidential candidate should vigorously denounce the evil Project 2025 agenda. But both Colbert and Meyers seem woefully uninformed about the bureaucratic difficulties of replacing a candidate this late in the game (read Sinai’s explanation if you haven’t already).
At least Meyers denounced Project 2025 more forcefully than Colbert. Wait… did Colbert even mention Project 2025? Briefly, maybe.
Colbert is wrong about President Biden. By staying in the race, President Biden is sacrificing himself. Instead of panicking and criticizing his every mistake, we should be encouraging him to stay in the fight for America’s soul, and supporting him.