Hello, Daily Kos community. I write to you with bittersweet news: After nearly a decade of working here, I'm leaving for new opportunities. I will not be working for any specific news outlet, but I do plan to stay active in terms of writing posts with my personal views (here and elsewhere) and finding other means of contributing to the national political conversation. So please feel free to follow me, @kerryeleveld on X (Twitter), where I remain active, or Bluesky, where I also post but have a smaller footprint.
Though I am excited about the opportunity to use my skills in new ways, I do have some misgivings about leaving the Daily Kos community at this extremely consequential moment. So I wanted to offer some parting thoughts about the current political dynamic that I hope can help us move forward in a clear-eyed and purposeful way:
1) The reason there's a media frenzy targeting President Joe Biden and Democrats is because the Democratic Party is the ONLY party capable of having a real discussion about who's fit to lead the country and best positioned to prosecute the case against the opposing party. Democrats should be proud of that, not demoralized. It is a sign of strength, not weakness. We are carrying a heavier burden because we are the only major party in the nation that is unflinchingly committed to democracy and capable of grappling with complex issues. And while the media glare isn’t fair, it's telling.
2) I personally believe Biden's ceiling has lowered since the debate. I was happy to see his fiery comeback speech in North Carolina and was fine with waiting a couple weeks to review post-debate polling and focus groups, but I now believe the debate did damage with some persuadable voters. That’s not to say Biden can’t win, and certainly people of good faith can disagree on this point. But I think his path to reelection is tougher, and there's no silver bullet here for Democrats. Any path forward has upsides and downsides.
3) No matter who leads the ticket heading into November, we must, at some point in the coming weeks, coalesce around the candidate who emerges. No single Democratic candidate will be so perfectly situated that they can win this thing on their own. They will need a groundswell of support from both pro-democracy and anti-Trump forces in order to prevail. And while it certainly isn't ideal, perhaps there's something poetic about every single one of us, at this moment in history, having a critical and indeed indispensable role to play in saving our democracy.
Whether or not we all agree on the best path forward matters little. What's most important is that we eventually put our heads down and dedicate ourselves to the project of saving democracy together. That is certainly what I will do in the months to come, and I am buoyed by the fact that I will be one of many millions of Americans working toward the same goal.
Thank you all for reading my work over the years, engaging with it, commenting, and adding your insights to these essential discussions. You have made my time at Daily Kos incredibly meaningful, and I'm super grateful to have been given the opportunity to become a part of this vibrant community.
Onward!