It’s maddening to see skepticism of ejecting Biden treated like cultish loyalty. Some of us have been out here saying Biden’s too old for years. The problem is that what is being proposed is a shocking, almost unheard-of remedy, and every historic precedent tells us it’ll end in catastrophe.
It’s very, very clear that the loudest voices calling most excitedly for this remedy are not especially politically sophisticated or even worried about Biden losing - that’s why they didn’t freak for the months of lagging polls and why they’re doing nonsense fantasy-draft replacement picks.
Many people are feeding this frenzy because they love the drama or think it makes good TV or have hated Biden as a neolib sellout for years or have some score to settle, and thus haven’t even ATTEMPTED to step back and understand the larger context, or next step.
In other words the hysteria is being largely fed by reckless people whose objective isn’t beating Trump, but tanking Biden, and are thus being totally uncautious with their words, claims, and accusations. E.g., is Biden just old, or does he have dementia? Many people don’t seem to care, really.
Then there’s the other class of people, real Democrats, who are just scared. I talk to dozens of these people every day on the doors in my district. They don’t know what the best path is, they’re desperate to win, and it’s not making them reckless, it’s making them CAUTIOUS.
Some of these people want Biden to go, others are scared, many aren’t sure. But they’re not going online or in the newspaper and gleefully spinning stories about his infirmity because they don’t want to make the damage worse.
The problem is, among many folks spun up on anti-Biden revolutionary zeal, the confused and worried are now being treated as the hopeless old guard, who can’t see the old order must be destroyed. To these types, the solution is so obvious and anyone standing in the way is part of the problem.
Anyway, I don’t know what the right solution is. The debate was bad but the hysteria has transformed it from a half hour of jumbled answers from an old man with a raspy voice to 90 minutes of on-air catatonia. That never happened. I certainly want to see how Biden handles his interview tomorrow.
But the weird iconoclastic drive that has sprung up among the Twitter punditry and media class is NOT HEALTHY. It is not helping us think through the process more clearly. It is doing untold damage to Dems, no matter who the nominee is. It’s a massive boon for Trump. Of that I’m certain.
I scrolled through their page the morning after and saw that row of editorials & columnists all saying “Biden must go!” and I haven’t clicked on another article since. Only glanced at the headlines to see if the UK results were in. I have a subscription but really oughta cancel.
There’s value to a subscription, but I just couldn’t get past the irredeemable awfulness of the political coverage. I want good media, and the Times does some things well, but they are as complicit in the degradation of our politics as Fox.
Watching people on Twitter that are normally thoughtful rage about how they feel gaslit and betrayed by Biden and claim he’s “incapacitated” has been kind of shocking.
The damage has been done: the thing about the guy we saw in the debate is that he can’t win. This is not just about the coverup (the real reason everyone’s pissed, because we got played by our own side); he can’t effectively campaign or debate, so he’s done. It’s that simple and the remedy clear.
Now, the fantasy draft part of this is very stupid and driven largely by people I will generously call uninformed. It was always Kamala and will be Kamala, for infinity obvious reasons. But it can’t be Joe because the Joe that could come back from this no longer exists.
I will say it was not totally impossible to think he was still there somewhere in the first 24 hours. This went out the window when he did 0 unscripted media and placed 0 phone calls *to Dems* for almost a week. He didn’t do a big interview the next day (political malpractice) because he’s incapable
Right now he’s trying his best to talk to anyone who will have him - but for no more than 10-20 minutes at a time, and he’s slurring words and losing his train of thought. Not entirely new but much worse than before.
Just not a guy who can win anymore, and therefore there is no alternative.
i think you’re downplaying how bad he was. many saw something far more concerning than just a “half hour of jumbled answers” and it’s not because they hate biden and want him to lose. the way he behaved would be concerning coming from any elderly person, coming from the potus it’s deeply disturbing
I’m of the belief that a Harris nom wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for a campaign that seems incapable of winning over voters determined to hate it, but anything beyond that involving some DNC nomination fest during protests will lead to nothing but chaos.
