I was quite shocked yesterday afternoon when I learned that an African American state representative in Georgia was endorsing Trump. Is this happening a lot, that Democrats are endorsing Trump? I don’t see it. And while some people support Jones’ decision, others do not.
You can start with a list of Bernie college organizations who say that they aren’t backing Biden. Others say things like: “I stand with Bernie Sanders, but I also stand with Joe Biden because our country can’t afford another four years of Trump, especially for people of color.” And 57% of Americans say that a third political party is still needed. There is certainly no runaway support for Trump against Biden or Biden against Trump.
Someone posted in Facebook something that said, “Don’t vote for Biden if you don’t want to.” This drew the following comments: “I think Biden will be lucky to win 10 states. It’s going to be a bloodbath. When the Dems start blaming the Left, just remind them that they had a candidate we would have supported.” And “Any vote not for Biden is for Trump. Those are the facts unfortunately. It’s incredibly irresponsible to do anything that will promote the current administration.” And “I’m going to hold my nose and vote for him. I’m so afraid for this county right now.” And “If you think the first term was bad, just you wait until he gets his hate-fuck on.” And “Then you must like the present joke. Good for you. You have learned absolutely nothing since 2016.” And “I will maybe vote for Biden. But WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK does the DNC think is going to make this a winning campaign ? And why do you think hhhe can win? Just about everyone else that ran was better than him besides Bloomberg. We are screwed either way. Fuck this shit! You Biden bros are horrible!”
That’s probably a pretty good selection of the mood among Democrats. From this, I wouldn’t say that Biden can count on an enthusiastic group of Democrats coming out to vote for him. The ones who do are convinced that the most important things is to get rid of Trump. But few of them think that Biden is going to change the political scene.
My own question is: how important is it to Biden to win the election? Rumor hath it that the DNC would like to replace him with Cuomo or another candidate with more power. Yet Biden survived a contest against twenty opponents, including the popularity of Bernie Sanders. How did he do that? The mob of opponents beat each other up until Sanders began to win some of the early contests. Yet few in the mob were pulling votes from Sanders, as only Warren and Gabbard were truly progressives. So when the mob began throwing in the towel, the votes that would have been split among them went mostly to Biden. Meanwhile, Warren hung in, drawing votes away from Sanders. Finally, she quit, too, but the tide had turned to Biden, and Sanders could no longer win. Eventually he quit, too, and also endorsed Biden.
Yet during the weeks of the active campaign, more and more people became aware of Biden’s bumbling speaking style, until people began to say that “Biden’s mental health should be on the table,” “Biden’s cognitive issues can no longer be ignored,” and “Biden’s mental decline is an open secret.” It would appear obvious that Biden cannot stand up to Trump in an open debate. Trump, whose way of dealing with opponents is to heckle them, would have open season on Biden.
It’s not hard to see what the DNC will do. Biden will be allowed to be nominated, and he will select as his vice president Cuomo, or some other replacement figure (hopefully not Clinton). Within a week of the start of the general election campaign, Biden will be found to be mentally or otherwise ill, and the vice-president will quickly ratchet into lead position. This will avoid all controversy or accusations at the DNC.
The vice-presidential candidate as presidential candidate has the advantage and disadvantage of being unknown. But it will be difficult for Trump to heckle him (or her). The candidate is unknown, neither hated nor loved. Trump, on the other hand, is roundly hated by many, and one should pay attention to Allan Lichtman ‘s “keys,” which say that Trump will probably lose. Trump could avoid that prediction through a storm of heckles, but without that weapon at his disposal, he probably would lose.
I just wonder if Biden will cave in? Perhaps he will get a group of doctors who swear up and down that Joe just has a stutter from when he was a child, and that he is perfectly sane and clear thinking. And if Joe should do this, there’s a chance for the Bernie-ites.
I keep writing words like these, yet they haven’t caught on. But if Joe needs help to save him from the DNC, it’s the Bernie-ites that can give it. They’ll do a horse trade with him. “Joe, make your platform this way, and put these folks in your cabinet, and we’ll tell every Bernie-ite out there to vote for you.” What’s wrong with that? The Bernie-ites are in no position now to nominate someone for President, but they have numbers, and if they can coalition (and maybe add some Greens and other third parties) they can get promises that will really hold.
Everyone says, “Joe will do whatever the DNC wants him to do.” And that may be true. But if he really wants to be President, and if he thinks the DNC is doing him wrong, then the Bernie-ites are his only hope. He wants something, and they want something. It’s a deal. As long as in the details we find a way of enforcing the promises, we can do it.
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