07/13/2024
OK, it’s been a week, and here are my opinions from assessing it plus gut feelings. Please note that my gut is not very well informed and isn’t brains, at least at first glance.
I think the present attempt/set of hockey checks to remove President Biden from the Presidential ticket will continue through the Democratic Party Convention. We won’t really know until it’s over who the final Presidential nominee will be, but it will be President Biden or Vice-President Harris – any other attempt to create alternatives dooms the 2024 election and likely the Democratic Party coalition.
This is horrible for the obvious reasons that, first, to some extent it projects weakness for the entire Democratic Party and not just President Biden, and second, every day our side or the press spends their energy, or just does nothing as a result from frustration regarding this battle of uncertainty, is energy not going toward winning the 2024 elections.
In one sense, it might – might – be useful. I’ve felt for a while now that the alliances that make up today’s Democratic Party NEED to have a public debate/battle every four years over who the Presidential nominee will be, or one or another of that alliance will find something else to do that inevitably hurts our chances in Presidential elections. (Consider it a variation of the political adage that, regarding the press, “You must feed the beast.”) The factions NEED to feel that they fought the good fight before they rally around the final choice.
We didn’t really have that opportunity during the primaries. We saw a lot of folks get deep into the War in Gaza and expend their energies on that. Now there is the question of President Biden’s viability for office now and over the next four years, compounded by the very strong desire by at least a solid plurality of those who are aware of politics to be led by a new generation of leadership. (Yes, this is happening with the Republicans as well, but on their side it’s increasingly about domination and if necessary, eliminationism, shrouded often in fascism and Christian nationalism.)
In a sense, this battle is happening now, though it’s more what I would call largely a group of moderate to “money” Democrats against Biden supporters and a broadish faction of “Don’t rock the boat – we made the choice already” folks. Because of the vague-ish lines of “us vs them” it’s not as satisfying as the usual set of primaries, usually a progressive versus a moderate to “money” candidate, but it may be a way to get that sense of a need to thrash it out of our system.
But it only works as long as President Biden doesn’t fall into a series of continuous, horrible gaffes. Misnaming people at the recent NATO conference is a byproduct of his stutter, but the rest of his remarks were sharp and insightful. He has to hit his mark consistently where it counts.
And I think most of the American voting public WANTS an alternative to Trump, but some have to be sold on the alternative. His staff has figured out that it's going to be impossible to get past 47% of the vote in his favor by acquiring new voters, so this is part of a larger strategy of getting to 50%+ by increasing the level of despair to where many potential voters for Biden simply don’t show up. And given that we’re at the mercy of states like Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, it could work.
So our side must do what we can to not allow it to work.
94-95% of this nation’s voters know who they’re going to vote for – they aren’t moving. We need to reach out to the 5-6% that aren’t keeping a fully cognizant eye out regarding the issues of the day, are typically busy enough dealing with their lives as is but might be persuadable to vote (or to stay home, given the Trump campaign’s strategy).
1) It’s Biden or it’s Harris – talk both up.
2) We emphasize what the Biden Administration has done, every day, to our undecided or despairing friends.
3) We emphasize what Donald Trump and his minions has threatened to do if re-elected, and what they have already done, to our undecided and despairing friends.
4) Use humor when available. Disarm our weak points and emphasize our strong points.
For myself, my watchword is – “Vote for the stutterer – it’s important.” :-)
We work together to elect Democrats who support progressive policies that value equality, justice an And, please be sure to VOTE in every election!
