[after reading please participate in the poll below, with over 10 possible scenarios to consider]
This is an idea that I haven’t seen anybody talk about, and it might be the most powerful solution to the heart-wrenching problem of age finally catching up to President Biden.
Should Dems go all in on a Harris/Biden ticket?
This wouldn’t be putting Joe out to pasture as a failsafe; it is recognizing both his epic legacy and his waning human form. Imagine if they switch places on the ticket but keep Biden largely in charge of foreign policy - with the caveat that Harris obviously can deny aid to Israel if offensive strikes on non-military targets in Gaza don't end.
If this was a decision announced between the GOP and Democratic conventions, it could unify the party before Chicago.
It's the best of both worlds!
Think about it. The forceful, youthful voice of Kamala Harris hitting all the campaign stops and bringing her AG/attack dog mentality to harpooning Trump's simplistic and wild lies. She’d bring a massive flood of new and wishy washy voters into the Dem ranks among people of color, young voters, women, and more liberal Dems and independents.
The elephant in the room on all this, of course, is how would Biden, perhaps in early August, announce all this.
Knowing Joe and his casual, every-man style, it might be something as simple as this:
“Folks, I know that there’s a chance that Kamala Harris might be the first woman president, perhaps only a few years from now. And I’m thinking that it would be more gratifying taking this job on a January 20th like most of us do, rather than taking the oath on a plane or wherever. So when you vote for us this November, it will be Kamala on the top of the ticket, not me. Let’s give her the chance to take the Oval Office by a landslide victory, not as a sad necessity.”
Imagine how the convention would proceed, with universal support of the ticket and acknowledging the bravery it would take for Biden to accept it. The Democratic platform announced there would reflect both candidates, presenting a unified reason for voting for Democrats up and down the ballot.
Harris would position herself as an extension of the Biden presidency in some senses, but with a more progressive twist in both policy and rhetoric. She can legitimately lay claim to some achievements, but with Biden still there doesn’t have to focus on that. They will be an ongoing team.
Harris could add Biden campaign speechwriters to her camp, and together with her own, spend all her time down the home stretch making the case against the Trump/Project 2025 threat. That would be quite a shift from the media covering Biden by only listening for and reporting on every stutter rather than the substance delivered.
Democracy will be celebrated, as victory becomes more and more likely through September and October. There would be a collective sigh heard around the planet as #RepubloFascism lies dying. Along with #DonaldDuce, many of the most infamous GOP cowards will see their careers go down the drain as well, still clinging to Trump’s lead coattails.
Better still: wouldn't this force a new debate? And you know Trump couldn't allow it because he's chicken. When he declines, people will know Trump is too chicken to face Kamala because the thought of being upstaged by a Black woman is his biggest nightmare.
What say all of you? Is this an elegant and honorable path? Would it galvanize the party, and make the Blue Wave a likely shift in American politics, where MAGA and the #RepubloFascist GOP leadership are stomped into oblivion at the ballot box, with more state houses flipping blue?
November turnout would be epic up and down the ballot, with an eye towards:
- election and campaign finance reform with the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act soon to be passed and signed
- confirming Roe as national law
- preserving LGBTQ+ rights
- preventing more Trump/Bush tax cuts for the exceedingly wealthy, instead using proper taxation of billionaires to spread funding into social programs sorely needed
- finally passing the Equal Rights Amendment for women??
- finally subjecting Supreme Court Justices to the same ethics standards of all other judges in America
- impeaching corrupt SCOTUS justices as well as ADDING MORE to the court
And it gets better with huge gains in the House and an end to the filibuster in the Senate. After campaign finance reform happens and ALL state and federal campaigns are publicly funded only, there will be no direct private money on offer for Republicans to hold out their hats for.
Frankly, they won’t be able to count on those millions anyway because they’d be thoroughly out of power with no way to “pay back” on their payola. They’ve been #CORPservative, not conservative all along; in servitude only to their corporate and billionaire donors throughout their careers. Most would consider retiring to lobbying while they can, perhaps even before their terms end.
And next year, Harris could also pick a more aggressive and progressive AG and go after #SeditionCaucus members still sitting in Congress. How’d you like Adam Schiff in that seat?
Some may hesitate on this provocative notion, thinking that Harris hasn’t been established enough within Dem politics to take the top of the ticket.
Are their others that you’d like atop the ticket with Biden as VP? Would that necessitate moving Harris herself to AG?
Please voice your opinion in the following poll with lots of options…