Here’s some headlines from the digital NY Times front page this morning, July 78, 2024 around 1000 hrs EDT:
The Struggles of President Biden and the Truth About Aging — Rachael Bedard M.D.
Dr. Bedard is a physician and writes about medicine and criminal justice.
One by One, the Reasons to Stick With Biden Are Failing — Michelle Cottle
How Biden Can Win Over Young Latinos — Jean Guerrero
Is Kamala Harris Underrated? — Ezra Klein with Elaina Plott Calabro
The political journalist Elaina Plott Calabro traces the political trajectory of the vice president — and why her 2016 image may be just right for 2024
Who Should Lead the Democratic Ticket? Six Columnists Weigh In. — Charles M. Blow, Ross Douthat, David French, Nicholas Kristof, Pamela Paul and Lydia Polgreen
Gretchen Whitmer, Kamala Harris, President Biden — who is best positioned to beat Donald Trump in November?
In the U.S. Politics Section:
Major Democratic Donors Devise Plans to Pressure Biden to Step Aside
The president appears intent on remaining on the ballot, while wealthy donors are discussing plans to put their money elsewhere. — Kenneth P. Vogel, Theodore Schleifer and Lauren Hirsch
Biden Campaign, Sticking to Its Playbook, Will Spend $50 Million on Ads This Month
The new ads are part of a push by Mr. Biden’s campaign for stability at a time when some members of his party have called for the president to drop out. — Nicholas Nehamas
President Biden is said to be weighing his political future after his halting debate performance. Here’s a roster of some possible backup candidates. — Chris Cameron and Adam Nagourney
Republicans and Democrats live in radically different universes, interpreting the same set of facts through radically different lenses. — Peter Baker
The evidence of things not seen shows how unbalanced the news coverage is. President Biden and Democratic angst is dominating the news cycle while largely ignoring Trump exulting in dominating the debate and promising new outrages. The press disregards it as just “Trump being Trump and Republicans being Republican.”
SMH
If all you look at are the headlines, you are not getting the full story. While nearly all of the headlines above seem collectively to be bad news for President Biden and Democrats, most of them are more nuanced than you might expect — if you take time to read them. How many people actually have time to do that these days? How many are motivated enough to do so?
Since the debate, Trump has almost disappeared from media coverage. In part it’s because he supposedly want the headlines to be all about Biden’s senility narrative — in part because Trump being Trump is normal and not news, so far as the media is concerned. (Digby brings up what we’re missing from news coverage. If the press wants to focus on fitness, there’s plenty of material to work with.)
I’m not going to provide gift links to all of The NY Times pieces above, with one exception. Peter Baker. (As of 1120 hrs EDT, it’s at the top of the Times digital front page.) He writes about how differently the supporters of the two candidates act. If there’s one thing he doesn’t discuss, it’s how the media is mirroring them, but it’s still something lost while everyone piles on Biden.
One of America’s political parties has a presidential candidate who is really old and showing it. The other has a presidential candidate who is a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, business fraudster and self-described aspiring dictator for a day. And also really old.
One of the parties is up in arms about its nominee and trying to figure out how to replace him at the last minute. The other is not….
...But the distinction of recent weeks has been striking. After Mr. Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies by a Manhattan jury in May — a verdict that came after civil judgments against him for personal and professional misdeeds — there was no significant groundswell within the Republican Party to force him out of the race in favor of a less-tainted candidate. [There was also no wave of editorials in the media calling on him to withdraw — xaxnar] Even though many Republican officeholders and strategists privately loathe him, they fell in line and made clear they would stick with him no matter how many scandals piled up.
Until last week, Democrats had also resigned themselves to a candidate many considered far from ideal. Mr. Biden and his allies had effectively squelched any internal dissent, forcing Democrats to stay quiet despite fears that his age would ultimately undercut his campaign. After last week’s debate showcased concerns about his mental sharpness, however, the conspiracy of silence was broken. Suddenly, a wide swath of Democrats concluded that he was no longer viable and mounted an effort to pressure him to step aside for a younger candidate.
Tom Sullivan at Digby’s Hullabaloo explains the difference today July 5, 2024 in Behold The New Mad King.
A reliable feature of our politics is that people from the center to the left, including the press, direct more fire at Democrats than at Republicans. It’s not that Democrats deserve more criticism. It’s that the aggrieved see more chance that their complaints will leave a mark on the left than on conservatives better armored against them. If shamelessness is conservatives’ superpower, giving a damn is the left’s kryptonite.
Protecting our freedoms matters. Improving other people’s lives matters. A more perfect union matters. Equal justice under law matters. Just not to our opponents, if ever it was.
Joe Biden’s terrible debate performance bleeds, so it leads. The media feeding frenzy is dispiriting in the extreme. Some Democrats tearing out their hair in panic and others circling the wagons around Biden makes quite a messy show. Pixels and ink, eyeballs and clicks.
And while the piranhas chomp away at the party that actually gives a damn about salvaging a country once aspirationally dedicated to the proposition that all menpersons are created equal, supposed Real Americans™ who never accepted that proposition (except as a marketing slogan) march towards reformatting the United States as a monarchy similar to the one we declared ourselves free of on July 4, 1776.
emphasis added
Another way of putting it is “Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line.” Democrats put a tremendous amount of energy into searching for flaws in their wanna-be political idols and seeking reasons to be disappointed. If a candidate has One Single Issue they don’t like — that’s a deal breaker. We can seek better — but we can’t forget the alternative from the GOP side will be worse. Republicans have perfected a state of mind where no matter how bad their candidate might be in multiple ways, at least he/she isn’t a goddam wishy-washy weak librul America hater. They don’t care how they win as long as they win. Democrats need to be prepared to fight it out.
Horse race political thinking turns everything into which candidate looks like the winner — losing sight of what that person will actually do with power. In a diary I posted the other day, I suggested 3 things:
- Democrats need to make this about more than a contest between Biden and Trump — they also need to make it about the people they bring to the job. Compare Trump’s constant turnover of people during his reign of error with Biden’s selection of people who get stuff done and are working for America, not themselves. Personnel is policy. Trump says only he can fix things; Biden can say “It’s not just about me — I really DO have the best people and they are all working for you, every day.”
- Democrats need to make this about party versus party. What the two parties are promising, what they are working to accomplish, what they have done — it should be no contest. Republicans have spent decades demonizing the Democratic Party; Democrats keep trying to apologize and ask what they could do to win the GOP over. Red states versus blue states is a game Republicans play by lying about how blue states are crime-ridden hell holes. Democrats have no shortage of real horror stories about what it’s like the live in a red state — they should be pounding those stories hard. Why they don’t is political malpractice. It’s not just about reciting facts (a Democratic compulsion) — it’s about simply telling real stories about real people that are easy to grasp and go right to the gut. Not just minds but hearts is where Democrats need to focus. (See the next point.)
- Work the refs — by which I mean recognizing that the press is not the friend of Democrats. Republicans have spent decades attacking the “Liberal Media” and now calling it “Fake News”. They’ve constructed their own “Mighty Wurlitzer” to spread disinformation and attack Democrats 24/7. The mainstream media has reacted by bending over backwards to avoid provoking further attacks and the appearance of bias. Long ago, when the Republican Party had legitimate policies to promote, it was reasonable to report on their talking points and provide balance with Democratic positions. That ship has sailed. Giving equal coverage (or more) to GOP talking points from a party that lies by reflex is about as fair and balanced as serving up a meal that is 50% (or higher) garbage and toxic waste. Democrats also need to suppress the compulsion to run to the press to talk trash about other Democrats, just to appear ‘principled’ or a ‘savvy insider’. This is about being a team player — and remembering the press is always happy to let someone hang themself. If a Democrat must complain about something to the press, don’t do it without first being able to clearly state why it’s a worse problem for Republicans, and why aren’t they doing something about it?
President Biden is going to be making public appearances and doing press interviews in an attempt to mitigate the damage from his debate performance. We need to allow him to make his case and stop with all the handwringing. He’s not just running against Trump now — he’s running against a media horse-race narrative that will be all about is he still capable of beating Trump at the polls.
(And if he does step down, the press will automatically switch to asking can his replacement beat Trump?)
It won’t be about what Biden would do with 4 more years. Not what Trump is threatening to do with 4 more years. Not how critical control of Congress is going to be whoever wins. Not what is going to be done about a thoroughly out of control Extreme Court. Not about a radical blue print for “a new American Revolution” in Project 2025. Not about the continuing rise of Christo-Fascism in America. (Full access link to a story at The NY Times — something that should get more than occasional mention in the news.)
Forward — Into The Past!
...As Mr. Trump barrels through his third presidential campaign, his supporters buoyed by last week’s debate, many of the young activists and thinkers who have risen under his influence see themselves as part of a project that goes far beyond electoral politics. Rather, it is a movement to reclaim the values of Western civilization as they see it. Their ambitions paint a picture of the country they want should Mr. Trump return to the White House — one driven by their version of Christian values, with larger families and fewer immigrants. They foresee an aesthetic landscape to match, with more classical architecture and a revived conservative art movement and men wearing traditional suits.
Their vision includes stronger local leadership and a withered national “administrative state,” prompting them to celebrate last week when the Supreme Court effectively ended the “Chevron deference,” which could lead to the weakening of thousands of federal rules on the environment, worker protection and beyond.
Fed up by what they see as an increasingly hostile and disordered secular culture, many are moving to what they view as more welcoming states and regions, battling for American society from conservative “fortresses.”
One more thing.
Democrats need to stop acting like a single election can solve everything for all time. We need to stop demanding that our candidates be in perfect alignment with our every desire and perfect in every way or we won’t support them.
Republicans now are on the verge of permanent rule because they take the long view. They grind it out for as long as it takes. They have spent decades getting to this point. They will not compromise. They are very clear about it.
The world is made by the people who show up for the job. We need to show up every day. The job will never be finished because the world never stops changing. This is what being a citizen is all about — and not the subject of a would-be king.