Dems Can Handle the Truth

Hush All of You Who Think Reflection and Trying to Win Are Bad Things

So, here’s what I think you need to know about some big stores in the news right now.

Let’s start with the furor over the debate. Let’s try to edit the furor out of the picture and just talk about the facts.

• Trump is an existential threat to the United States as we have known it, to democracy and to the world. He is the worst president in our history but he is also almost certainly the worst person ever to hold high office in the United States. Defeating him is and must be the great mission of the current generation of Americans if future generations are to live in a free and prosperous country.

• Biden has done a great job as president. He is probably the most successful president in terms of concrete accomplishments since Johnson. He has rescued the economy, created jobs, restored America’s standing in the world and invested wisely in America’s future.

• Both Trump and Biden are old men. Are they too old to hold the presidency? Reasonable people can debate this issue although Biden’s success as the oldest president ever suggests an answer to that question.

• Trump is nuts. Legitimately insane. Dangerously off his rocker. His mental state is dramatically more worrisome than anything we have ever seen out of Biden.

• The Republican Party is a zombified once great American institution. It is invasion of the body snatchers time over there. The husk looks similar to what it once was. The name is the same. But some virus from outer space has dissolved the brains of the people in charge and put the apparatus in the hands of criminals and idiots.

• In reality, of course, the strings of the party are not being pulled by those criminals and idiots—including Trump who is the idiot-criminal-in-chief. They are operated by opportunistic rich folks who have funded the right for years with an agenda of increasing their own wealth and power and weakening the ability of the government to actually serve the rest of the American people. They are aided by America’s overseas enemies, notably Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which would also like to see a much weaker America and think the MAGA-NRA army of zombified idiot criminals are just the ideal people to help them do it.

• The Democratic Party is more or less the only functional political party in America. It has a pretty good track record recently, winning the greater popular vote in all but one of the elections of most of our adult lifetimes. It is diverse, fractious and deeply imperfect. But it works pretty well most of the time.

• Expecting the zombified-idiot-criminal Republican Party controlled by people who do not want what is best for the United States and in fact have a mission of gutting democracy and destroying our institutions from within to do the “right” thing is loony. It will never happen. Their picking a convicted, felon, rapist, fraudster, traitor to be their candidate should be all the evidence you need on that front.

• As for the debate itself, the main takeaway was that Trump is a menace and must be stopped. But Biden did, as he has subsequently admitted, a terrible job. He did not challenge Trump’s lies effectively. He did not call out the dangers posed by Trump effectively. He did not present his own alternative policies effectively. And he did not do perhaps the single most important thing he could do which is allay the concerns of people who think he is too. He appeared addled and elderly.

• Yes, I know and am thrilled he has done a great job as president (see above). He also was great at the State of the Union, great at the D-Day memorial services in France and was great the day after the debate in North Carolina. That’s good for Americans, good for the Democratic Party and good for Biden’s candidacy. Yay.

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• But is it fair to be concerned about his candidacy in the wake of the debate performance? I would argue yes, for several reasons…

• First, the stakes are high. (See above again.) No, really, really, fucking high. Like we can’t afford to make a mistake.

• Second, victory in the election will hinge on one thing—voter turnout. Trumpers are not going to change their mind about Trump at a debate, especially one that by the way, did really badly in terms of ratings and was primarily watched by olds. Same with core Biden voters. So the whole campaign is about getting out people who would not normally turn out to. That’s been the formula for Dem wins for many election cycles now. I’m pretty sure the debate did not help either side in that respect.

• Watching the debate, some people wondered, perfectly reasonably given the evidence in front of them, would Biden be able to generate the enthusiasm necessary to produce the turnout needed to stop Trump and ensure a Democratic victory. They wondered whether he was up to a grueling campaign. And many of them wondered what would happen if, closer to the election, Biden once again had a cold or got sick or became exhausted or stumbled on the stairs and in the homestretch there was a debate about his fitness to govern until he was 86.

• How do I know? Because I thunk this up at a meeting of the local Punditry and Chardonnay Drinking Society here in Northwest DC? Because I read it on the Internet? No. I know this because in the course of the debate I heard from scores of people—real people—who were deeply disturbed by Biden’s performance and asking the question posed in the point above. These people were very senior officials in the US government…very senior, I promise…they were donors, they were activists across the country, they were just regular voters. Some were even from my home state of New Jersey where we pride ourselves on telling it like it is although often do so with cruder than necessary language.

• So when people on the Twitternet start asserting that anyone asking questions about Biden’s fitness was just living in some pundit bubble or they were high on their own supply, I call bullshit. Indeed, ask yourself what you were thinking.

• Some of the howlers in the socialmediaverse also made it sound like it was disloyal to Biden to ask these questions. Was it disloyal to see what we saw? Loyalty is not the issue. The issue is winning. Democrats have a moral obligation as the last political party standing in America to constantly do what is necessary to defeat Trump, Trumpism, Putin, the Federalist Society, the Kochs, Fox, the Pillow Guy, Stephen Miller, inmate-to-be Bannon, deservedly bankrupt Alex Jones and all those other monsters.

• Part of the reasonable debate to be had was “does Biden’s bad performance matter.” People have fairly noted there have been bad performance in the past from which candidates have to some degree or another bounced back afterwards. Ford, Reagan and Obama were often cited. Well, first of all, Ford lost. And secondly when Reagan stumbled he had a massive lead in the polls and lost a bunch of it after the debate…but still maintained a big enough lead to win. And when Obama stumbled the issue was not whether he was fit to serve, it was why he did such a shitty job at the debate. Which gets to the second point, this is not like those situations. First, the stakes are a fuckload higher. (See above yet again and also note where I am from.) Secondly, the issue of Biden’s fitness has dogged him throughout this election and whether you think that is fair or not, it is there and won’t go away. Further, it is fair. He is visibly slowing down. He has done a spectacular job as president (do I have to say it again? see above) but we all know how getting older works (all too well in my case). What he could do when he was 79 is not necessarily what he will be able to do when he is 84. Being concerned about that is reasonable. Being concerned about what one bad episode might suggest about what’ll happen in four months is essential.

• That is why the questions arose. They are fair questions to ask. In fact, asking such questions about how to best serve the American people is what makes Democrats better than Republicans. The “they have a shitty candidate and no values or judgment so we’re off the hook” arguments just don’t hold much water for me.

• Should Biden step down? What would happen if he did? How would that work? Would that increase or decrease Democratic chances of winning in November? Who would be a good replacement? Why not the Vice President? No…seriously…why not the Vice President? She is the natural candidate. People say she polls like the president. But all VPs poll like their presidents. People say she had a lousy campaign. So has Biden. Several times. People say she has not done a lot. Well, for chrissakes, she was VP and for most of this presidency she has been unfairly kept away from centerstage by shortsighted members of Team Biden. Is America racist? Yes. But Barack Obama was elected. Is it misogynist? For goodness sake, SHE was elected vice president. Already. And she is actually doing a great job as VP. But I digress.

• The point is that these are all reasonable and one might argue really really important questions to ask. And that pushing back on asking them does not help anyone. (Remember: Winning is more important than loyalty even if public displays of loyalty on social media feel so good and help cement you with your base of followers.)

• Does asking these questions mean you will not support Biden if he is the guy in November? Does it mean you won’t support Democrats? Does it mean you want to help Trump? Of course not. But not asking them may mean that someone who is ambivalent about Biden’s ability to lead might not show up at the polls. And that could be fatal.

• Dems can and should and must win in November. Tapping into outrage at Trump’s behavior, his criminality, the Dobbs decision, the threat to democracy will, I believe, make enough of a difference that Dems can carry the key states they must carry and Trump can be put to pasture (problem of the minimum security type) once and for all. But Dems do have an obligation not to take that outcome for granted and to constantly work to ensure that the odds are ever in their favor. That’s why this debate is healthy. That’s why misrepresenting it is unhelpful.

• If, as I have written and said during the past several days, this bad debate performance can result in the Dems reflecting and upping their game—with a new candidate or with a revitalized Biden and a new strategy that is designed to offset some of the concerns that were raised at the debate (like presenting Dems and the administration as a team…which is reality…with a much more central role played by the VP and other stars like her) then this hubbub will all be for the good.