I’ve spent much of July 4 so far chatting here with a lot of folks in the DKos majority who stand strongly with Biden. I was bombarded with angry comments to a post early this morning, titled “Why Lawrence O’Donnell Is Wrong About Biden.”
I responded to many of them and got into several long “conversations.” It has proved valuable and interesting.
We are actually all on the same team, those few of us here at DKos who suggest Biden should step down and the majority who insist that loyalty to our almost certain candidate is essential. We all want to elect Democrats to office, especially to the presidency, and to see MAGA Republicans and Trump defeated by the largest margins possible.
We argue over how to get there.
Most folks here take Biden at his word that he won’t step down. They may be right, and he might not.
But I see something different. I think the denials we are hearing are largely performative. I see plenty of signs that the conversation about Biden stepping down is going on. But it is understandably very delicate. Nobody wants for it to look like Biden was pushed out, least of all the Democratic governors, for example. The hope is to convince Biden that it is in his own best interest to be remembered as the president who saved democracy by knowing when to quit … and not the president who ended democracy by stubbornly refusing to acknowledge reality, handing the election to Trump.
That can’t be accomplished by wholesale threats to withdraw support from Biden, so that’s not what is happening much, publicly. There’s just enough angst expressed to keep the issue at a low boil, which is essential to keep people like me feeling hopeful. And though the average DKos member may find it hard to believe, those of us concerned about Biden’s electability after the debate is a substantial majority of voters, including, crucially, the double haters, who hate Biden and Trump equally and who will decide this election.
It is these double-haters, not the famous handful of voters in a few key swing states, who will really decide the election. They need a reason to vote Democratic, against Trump. If they do, we will win in a landslide. And that is what we need to truly save ourselves. A narrow Biden victory wouldn’t do it. Not with the Supreme Court we’ve got. Not with obstructionist Republicans in control of the Senate, if not the House. Not against MAGA terrorists armed with AK-47s equipped with bump stocks.
I have a double-hater for a neighbor. Before the debate, I had him convinced that he would “probably” end up voting for Biden, because it was less risky than Trump. Plenty risky, in his mind, but less risky. The morning after the debate, he texted me that he had changed his mind. He was horrified by both men on the stage. He can’t vote for either of them, he said. He will write in his own name, instead. He might come back to Biden. But probably not. It would be hard to get him there.
Believe me, he is far more typical of the American electorate than I am or than anyone reading this is. There are many millions of centrists like him who want to keep both parties in check.
Before the debate, Biden’s age was already by far his biggest weakness. The campaign sought the early debate precisely so he could address that weakness. Instead, he was so bad that he poured gasoline on it. That is what makes the debate so devastating. It was anything but one bad night. It was the death of his campaign, live, before a national audience. I believe he knows that by now.
His timely withdrawal would change everything in an instant. It would allow Biden to be the president who saved democracy by knowing when to quit, not the president who ended democracy by refusing to face reality. It would allow the entire Democratic Party and the replacement presidential nominee — almost certainly Kamala — to campaign as defenders of the public interest, not any candidate’s personal interest. This sharp contrast with Trump’s Republicans is exactly what we Democrats need.
I believe that a plan for how and when to announce the withdrawal is being formulated now, so that it can be done efficiently, with answers to all of the questions that are being raised about what a Biden withdrawal would look like, in hand.
We’ll learn that Biden is stepping down, probably endorsing Kamala, and the process that the party will follow before and at the convention, all at the same time. He could even resign the presidency, allowing Kamala to run as an incumbent. This will all be designed to prevent the party rift that so many of the folks I chatted with here this morning are understandably concerned about.
We will be united like never before. We will win a vast majority of the double-haters. We will win in a landslide.
This plan is the real hope for defeating Trump and saving democracy and more. Saving the international system and all life on earth, all of which Trump threatens.
This may sound like wishcasting. But I honestly don’t think it is. Because Biden’s disaster was just too disastrous to get past. And because a narrow win at this moment in time is almost as bad as a loss. We need the landslide.
Our Democratic leaders know all of this. They are acting on it with boldness and discretion.