An Open Letter to President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

 

Dear President Biden,

 

                Like many Americans I have watched the disarray in the Democratic Party and in your campaign with dismay. You know that the stakes in this election are enormously high. If Donald Trump is elected in November, democracy in America will end, and our nation will careen toward catastrophe. I do not understand why the millions of Americans who plan to vote for Donald Trump do not understand this, but facts past and present make it clear.

                In that light, I would expect you to show more urgency than you have. You have been negligent in your duty to the voters, and that negligence continues. If the performance that you gave in the debate was the best that you possibly could have given, you should not have gotten on stage at all. It would have been better for you to plead illness, and let Donald Trump crow about how you were too old or sick to face him, than to present the image of fear and frailty we all saw on our television sets on June 27th.

The debate was an enormous opportunity. If you had appeared relaxed and jovial, it would not have mattered what you said. If the transcript of the debate were unchanged, but your demeanor had remained cheerful and your voice confident throughout, you would have been perceived as the winner, and Donald Trump’s campaign would be in freefall now. Instead, you handed him free corroboration of all the preposterous lies he has been telling about your health and fitness, so that now every time you misspeak the media seizes upon it as “proof” of your incapacitation. That is a trap of your own making, and it will not be easy to escape. Shame on you!

As disappointing as your debate performance was, your conduct since has arguably been just as bad, or worse. You have not in any way given the appearance of a man who knows how much trouble he has put the country in. An interview with George Stephanopoulos? A press conference? Those efforts at damage control were feeble. If you want to undo the harm of the debate, you must create an event that will draw as much viewership and media attention as it did, which will be almost impossible. Perhaps an open town hall in which you fielded questions from voters would create the right atmosphere of spectacle, but even that might prove inadequate.

The way that you have been communicating with the public makes you seem obtuse. Telling people that you will not withdraw from the race because “you have to finish the job you started” is simply not acceptable. This is not about you. This is about the country. The only reason anyone would want you to stay in the race is if they think it presents the best possibility of defeating Donald Trump. If you can make that case to the people (“anyone who might replace me would not be able to raise money fast enough,” “a fight over my replacement would split the Party”), fine. If not, you should withdraw.

In all honesty, from where I sit it seems too late for you to redeem your campaign. So many leading Democrats are showing such overt signs of demoralization. It appears that you have lost the confidence of your Party, and you cannot get it back.

While the case for your withdrawal grows ever stronger, it must be admitted that your withdrawal from the race will inevitably cause as many problems as it solves. If you do withdraw, you must do so quickly, and in a way that preserves the unity of the Party and lays the groundwork for victory in November. The most important principle to underscore is that you are not withdrawing because of Donald Trump. You were, you are, and you will ALWAYS be a better choice than Donald Trump. As a matter of plain fact, the people of the United States would be better served by leaving the office of the presidency vacant for four years than by electing Donald Trump, and it behooves you to say as much to the American people whether you withdraw from the race or not.

But if you do withdraw, it is vital that you stress the fundamental merit of your administration. Your health might prevent you from campaigning effectively, but the record of your accomplishments is clear. Vice President Kamala Harris is thus the only legitimate candidate who can replace you on the ballot. To pass her over in favor of anyone else would be to lend credence to the lies that Donald Trump persistently tells about your tenure in office. This should be your forceful message to the Democratic Party, in the event that you decide to withdraw.

Please think carefully about this, Mr. President. If you are going to stay in the race, start acting and talking as if you understand the emergency you have created. If you are going to leave the race, do so soon, and in a way that unifies and energizes the Democratic Party for the struggle to save our democracy.

Thank you for your attention to this letter. I hope that it finds you well.

 

Sincerely,

 

Andrew Meyer

 

Once Upon a Time, in an Alternate (and Sane) Universe

Jake Tapper:  Ladies and gentleman, good evening and welcome to the first presidential debate of the 2024 election. President Biden, first question to you. Inflation has slowed, but prices remain high. What would you say to voters who feel they are worse off under your presidency?

Joe Biden: That’s a good question, Jake, but before I answer it there is business to clear up.

(Turns to Trump)

Donald, will you finally tell the truth and admit that you lost the 2024 election fair and square?

Trump:  What? Huh? That’s against the rules! He’s not allowed to ask me any direct questions!

Joe Biden: Rules? You are gonna give a lecture about rules? What a bunch of malarkey! Answer the question, Donald! It is long past time that you told the truth!

Trump:  You know that election was rigged!

Joe Biden: Don’t tell me what I know, asshole. I know that you are a disgrace to the office you once held.

(Turns to Tapper)

Jake, there is no point debating a man whose whole candidacy is premised on a lie. I’ll be back at the White House if anybody needs me.

(Walks off stage)

Tapper: Wait! Uh….ladies and gentlemen….uh…..

****FIVE MONTHS LATER*******

Tapper:  Ladies and gentlemen, the polls have only just closed in California, but our projection desk is ready to call this a landslide for the Biden-Harris campaign. It was close until June, but after Biden simply spanked Trump in June’s debate, the country seemed to wake up from its walking coma and realize that Trump is just a worthless sack of…..

Stale Bread vs. Cyanide

 

It was a stunning debate last Thursday, June 27. But its aftermath was even more shocking. For 90 minutes we heard one of the candidates lie breathlessly and repeatedly, declaring (to name just a few examples) that constitutional scholars universally desired the repeal of Roe v. Wade, Nancy Pelosi confessed to responsibility for the January 6 terrorist attacks, and undocumented workers are receiving social security. In the wake of such monstrous assaults on reason and decency by Donald Trump, an authority as venerable as The New York Times editorial board called upon his opponent to withdraw from the race. What an age of wonders we live in.

What did Joe Biden do that so offended The New York Times? He looked old and tired. He had trouble rushing to finish his thoughts in two minutes, and was unprepared for the sheer level of poisonous bullshit that spewed from his opponent's mouth. 

Still, for a man who had to overcome a childhood stutter and has always been prone to gaffes, Biden got off some impressively coherent assertions. He pulled out a campaign staple: the 400 billionaires who live in the US pay an effective tax rate of 8.2%, If that could be raised to be on par with the 25% effective tax rate most people bear, the US could raise $500 billion in revenue. You can disagree with those numbers (and many economists do), but you must admit that anyone who can recite them from memory under hot lights and enormous pressure looks like he has pretty good command of his faculties. 

The cable news shows have continuously  replayed the end of the segment I cited in the last paragraph. In that snippet, Biden mumbles something about "when we broke Medicare" and trails off as his time runs out. But that is not the effects of age or dementia. That's just Joe Biden. The guy who back in the 1980's was such a poor public speaker that he had to plagiarize the speeches of Neil Kinnock, head of the UK Labor Party.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is waging an all-out assault on the foundations of our democracy. That is clear from many signs ("Find me 11,000 votes," January 6, "Project 2025," "I will be a dictator on day one...," etc.), but was reinforced during the last debate. Some of his lies were not viciously toxic, just totally disqualifying. Any person who doesn't understand that the principle of "the buck stops here" precludes shunting responsibility for January 6 onto Nancy Pelosi doesn't belong anywhere near the Resolute Desk. But all of the toxic horseshit about how undocumented immigrants are bankrupting Social Security and Medicare is pure fascism. Trump needs one half of the country to feel it is at war with the other half. Otherwise Trump's fecklessness and lies would not stand a chance against anyone with any knowledge, experience, or sense of decency. 

 What The New York Times and others don't seem to understand is that Trump is not waging a campaign against any particular candidate. He is waging a campaign against our system of democracy itself. That is why his story about Joe Biden now is the same as his story about Hilary Clinton then: "S/he is crooked! S/he serves a rigged system! Oh, and by the way s/he is unwell and not up to the job of serving a crooked system!" 

People find it difficult to believe that Trump is campaigning against democracy itself because he is such a boorish character. How could such a clown have any ideological beliefs? But one doesn't have to believe that Trump is ideological to understand that he is out to break the system. Whatever his personal beliefs may be (and I am not inclined to think that he has any), he is smart enough to see that he does not have the knowledge, skills or temperament to be the president of a democracy. So he must break the democratic system. He set out to do it in 2020, and he will finish the job beginning in 2025 if he is re-elected.

Trump's followers by and large know that the destruction of the system is the end game. They have various reasons for wanting to see the system destroyed. Some want a theocracy in place of our secular democracy. Some want to see white supremacy written into law. Some have endured brutal economic hardship (seeing their local economies destroyed by technology or globalization) and believe that any system would be better than the one we have now. Whatever their grievance, they will never trust anyone who speaks against Trump, who has become the embodiment of their rage. Biden could have done handsprings and recited Jabberwocky from memory and Trump's supporters would still deem him too old, and crooked to boot.

The idea that replacing Biden will increase the Democrats' chances against Trump is dubious. Trump will begin to tell lies about his new opponent. He is not very imaginative, so many of these lies will be the same. It will be interesting to learn how someone 30-40 years Biden's junior is nonetheless too infirm to be president, but Fox News will find the footage to demonstrate that. Moreover, because it was never about Biden, it was about the system, all of the lies that Trump tells about that new opponent will land with virtually the same impact as those he is telling now.

What can the Democrats do? Biden is still their best candidate. He may look old, but the choice between him and Trump is like the choice between a stale piece of bread and a cyanide tablet. Anyone who prefers the cyanide tablet to the stale bread is going to be dubiously persuadable even if you offer them a nice fresh croissant. 

The strangest thing in the wake of this debate is the enthusiasm for the candidacy of someone like Gavin Newsom. The impulse to appease Trump's voters is shockingly resilient. Never mind that the Democrats nominated a conservative white man in 2020 who the Trumpkins proceeded to paint as the devil incarnate, if we only give them a slightly younger version this time, they will be mollified!

The only person who could possibly replace Biden on the ticket is Kamala Harris. If Biden withdraws in favor of Harris, the story that he did so only because of his age remains plausible. If Biden withdraws in favor of anyone else, the Trump campaign and the right wing media will crow continuously (and until November) about how Biden's withdrawal constitutes a "confession" that his was the "worst, most corrupt administration of all time." 

This is not to suggest that Trump would not say the same thing about Biden withdrawing in favor of Harris. He will say that and other lies, and  a Harris campaign (as would be so in a Newsom campaign, or any other)  would find itself struggling in the polls just as Biden is now. Such difficulties might be partly offset if Harris made a bold choice for her running mate, like Gretchen Whitmer. Watching Trump try to run against two women might almost be worth the risk of seeing Biden withdraw. But in any case, the idea that Biden's age poses a greater threat to the Republic than the walking tornado of toxic shit named Donald Trump is patently ridiculous.