“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.” — Aristotle
Friends, I love you, but let’s stop the madness.
I’ve followed Daily Kos for many years, but this is the first time I’ve been motivated to post. I’m shocked by the extent to which posters on this site seem to have aligned on the “stick with Biden” side.
Sticking with Biden at this point guarantees a loss (likely a landslide), while rolling the dice on Harris or on an open convention at least gives Dems a fighting chance to pull the country back from the brink. Biden’s big donors are backing out, key members of the party are now on record asking him to back down, leakers within his administration have turned on him, the media narrative (whether you think it’s fair or not, it’s a reality) has turned on him, and he was already behind in reliable polling aggregates before the debate, with the polling gap now likely permanently widened (and please don’t give me that “all the polls are wrong...” BS, don’t even go there). Everything Biden does going forward will draw negative coverage and the focus will not be on the act (some new policy, exec order, bill signing, statement of fact) but on how he performs the act, and thus all positives will be drowned out in a sea of coverage concerning his mental abilities. He’s locked into a self-fulfilling feedback loop of negativity.
The saddest fact of all – particularly since I generally like Biden and think his first term was mostly successful – most of those forces now working against Biden are justified. Any clear-headed, rational person who isn’t blinded by partisanship and a seething hatred of Trump can observe that Biden’s cognitive and communication abilities have declined, particularly in the last year; ample evidence for that not worth belaboring here. It is reasonable for people to be strongly anti-Trump (like me) but to also be concerned about an increasingly mentally-diminished president being regularly propped up like a puppet by his family and staff, the decrease in press access simply because Biden can’t handle regular interviews and press conferences, the increasing # of gaffes with actual policy implications that force corrective statements by his staff, the increase in portions of his speeches that are unintelligible due to his diminished speaking skills, etc. etc etc. Communication is a major part of being president, and for 4 years his communication abilities have only moved in one direction and at an increasing rate – downward. It will only get worse, excruciatingly worse, in a second term. Anyone who’s seen elderly relatives decline in their later years should agree, and we’re not talking about our aunt or uncle, but the president of the country. To borrow a Biden quote: all of these concerns are a “big f*ing deal!” It’s not disrespectful to point out these concerns, particularly with the future of our democratic republic and our institutional safeguards on the line. The debate was the tipping point for me and frankly for most voters who supported Biden but were hesitant about his age. Even in the .001% chance that Biden pulls off a victory, his whole second term would be drowned out by coverage of his decline and the country and party would be worse off for it.
Yes Trump says crazy things x10, he lies, he’s a criminal, he does racist dog whistling, he’s a malignant narcissist, etc… I get all of that, but those things are baked into voter’s considerations; Trump saying or doing something marginally crazier than something he said or did yesterday or last week simply doesn’t move the dial anymore. Fair or not, it’s a reality proven out again and again in polling. Meanwhile the extent of Biden’s cognitive and communications issues are now at the forefront like never before, and they very much are moving the dial, and in the wrong direction.
Let’s roll the dice on Kamala, Gretchen, Pete, or almost any other Dem. Hec an open convention would be a blast and stands some chance of ending with a unified and motivated party behind an inspiring candidate with communication skills that can actually challenge Trump’s BS. But let’s PLEASE stop this madness of sticking with Biden. He’s finished, he’s done. It’s over. Case closed. Let’s not waste another moment of time, energy or $$ on a guaranteed loss in November. The party and country may never recover from that kind of disaster. Biden needs to drop out NOW!