We are seeing increasing attacks on the President from Democratic sources. This is a real conundrum for the Democratic Party. This is clearly a result of President Biden stating that he is not dropping out. As I see it, a large portion of the party wants to stick with Joe Biden. But a significant and increasing portion of the party wants to replace Biden (for example, Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rep. Adam Smith, David Axelrod, Michael Moore, Rob Reiner etc.). The most obvious prospect would be Kamala, but the name of the replacement is certainly not the immediate problem. The issues is that a great many of the Dems calling for a switch are prominent, influential and respected by many within the party (albeit not all) and that is causing a lot of strife and internal damage. In about a week, the defectors have gone from “I’m 100% Joe” to “Great job, but time for a switch”.
For his part, President Biden has dug in and said clearly that he is not stepping down. He points out that he received 87% of the vote in the primaries and thus the democratic choice of the people. But leaves the Switch Brigade in a position where they need to either accept that Biden stays on, which they believe will cause loss of the presidency and also harm Dems up and down the ticket, or they initiate a deliberate friendly fire assault to discredit Biden and force him out. Over the past week, we’ve seen exactly that. Dem insiders have used highly damaging internal information to harm the President politically. For example, there were leaks from a senior WH advisor last week anonymously alleging serious cognitive problems at everyday meetings. Today there were leaks showing large text visual aids to showing the President how get to and from podiums, and over the weekend there were multiple outlets are now running stories sourced from Dem staffers inside the WH claiming Hunter Biden has become a top advisor to his father’s campaign and is making key decisions.
The problem with the situation is obvious. Friendly fire is not good under any circumstances. Attacks on the President are certain to harm the party as a whole, even if they try to narrow their focus to the president alone. Further, if they push too hard, Biden is likely to return fire, which creates the spectacle of an open Democratic Party civil war just weeks before the convention. All of the damage that is currently being done and which may be done in the future will come down like a rain of little political cluster bomblets, causing damage to Democratic candidates everywhere. It seems that we are considering taking steps that will cause damage to the party up and down the ballot, in order to remove Biden from the ballot, in order to prevent his continuing presence on the ballot from harming the party up and down the ballot. As you can imagine, this is very frustrating to a lot of Democratic Party supporters who have worked hard to promote the party and its policies.
As I see it, the party needs to stop all infighting, have a single high level meeting with the President and his team and leading top level representatives from Democratic Party stakeholders everywhere. It would include select Dem leaders in Congress, governors, state legislative leaders, mayors, union leaders, civil rights groups, and other key constituencies. The party needs to sit with its leader, hear what he has to say while he hears what they have to say, with all parties committed to doing everything in their power to come to a consensus and then backing it in a unified and dignified manner, whatever the decision may be. As I see it, the most likely alternative scenario will be fighting, chaos and ultimately Republicans in the WH and a sizeable GOP majority in both the House and Senate, plus state-level losses. Everyone involved needs to consider the stakes and how our actions can cause harm.
I’d love to hear the thoughts and (hopefully better) ideas of others. Many thanks!