In the 46 years I've been a registered Democrat, I have seen the party continually snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And it's happening again in 2024, probably one of the most consequential elections in history.
In the 80s, even as a young voter I knew Regan was bad for our country, just as he had been bad as governor of California previously. But because he was a "movie star" people in both parties voted for him. Even in his re-election of 1984, I held my nose and voted for Walter Mondale fully knowing Mondale didn't have a chance. But I did it anyway because it was my civic duty.
One trait I noticed with Republicans was their unity. I had respect for moderate Republicans and could understand their point of view on how the government should work, even though I didn't agree with them on many things. My feeling is that government should work to help the American people and give them a hand up, as opposed to a hand out, along with support (job placement, child care, better public transportation) so that they can be contributing members of our society.
Democrats are very diverse and each representative in Congress has their own idea of how to help our nation, but that also leads to a fracture party. In the 90s and early 2000s, Republicans showed that their unity helped them win presidential elections and slowly changed our government. Corporations now wield too much influence, thanks to Citizens "Companies are people too" United, and have "helped" Republicans in Congress by creating a system where they write legislation (ALEC) and recommend corporate-friendly judges (Federalist Society) so that the politicians don't have to work at all; just collect the money.
Democrats rarely show that kind of unity. They disagree, bicker, and squabble. And right now their squabbling may cost us our democracy. The media's obsession with Biden's age is making them nervous that we can't win in November. Poll after poll after poll of swing states show Biden trailing, however they don't seem to realize that polls are often incorrect. And, more importantly, polls don't vote.
Those calling for Biden to step down are ignoring quite a few points:
-The other guy has been mixing up names since he started campaigning, referring to Nancy Pelosi as Nikki Haley. The media reported it without fanfare and has gone on to mostly ignoring these gaffes.
-Yes, Biden is old but that doesn't disqualify him from being president. Some of the pearl clutchers are saying he can't do the job which is ironic because he's ALREADY DOING THE JOB RIGHT NOW. Including handling serious foreign policy issues like Ukraine and Israel. Trump would let Putin roll right over eastern Europe and Netanyahu bomb Gaza into oblivion.
-We have a vice president on the ticket for a reason. Making Harris the candidate will cause a huge amount of problems for the party. She's already on the ticket and can step up if necessary. As the saying goes, don't change horses mid-stream.
-Misogyny and racism still exists in this nation. There is a lot of unconscious bias out there about a woman being a president. If the nominee is Harris we could see a lot of "no show" voters, which is how Trump won in his first election.
You know who is also old and still working? Mick Jagger, who is 80 years old. And there are many well-known people continuing to work in their 80s and 90s.
It's time for Democrats to stand united behind our candidate and win this election. Once won, it is entirely possible that Biden will hand the reins to Harris and step back. But right now we need him, and he is truly doing an excellent job with our nation. If we give him a Democrat-controlled Senate and House, we really can make America great again.