Déjà vu all over again
Why Biden is not the candidate for this moment in history
Many voters can’t believe that we are going to have a nightmarish déjà vu rematch for the 2024 presidential election. What these two again? These two candidates are both 12+ years passed when they were first eligible for Medicare. The enthusiasm for a rematch is about what it is to make another Home Alone movie, even less. It may make all but die-hard supporters on each side of the aisle stay home come next November.
Don’t blame any third-party candidate this time around, the parties had a chance to offer up someone else, someone younger and more promising on one side while insisting that the other go to jail for his crimes. Yes, Biden did beat Trump fairly last time (don’t tell him that) but that was then this is now. We better understand the zeitgeist of this election cycle.
The country has marinated in the juices of his lies long enough for him to have a loyal following, enough for another win if the opposing candidate is not strong. Yes, major media outlets may be playing up Biden’s age, but it doesn’t matter, because ask anyone who usually votes Democrat if they are wild about another Biden run and watch their eyes glaze over. Sure, they don’t what a benevolent dictator who will be revengeful plus autocratic, but that doesn’t mean Biden will have them dig in their pockets or take time out to vote.
In this déjà vu scenario we have an embarrassingly popular indicted criminal representing team Republican. They cannot offer up one person in their own party who can touch the numbers of a former president who stole documents from the White House among other crimes. On the other hand, we have an incumbent president who many have been led to believe is the ONLY one who can beat Trump. When a sampling of Democratic voters were asked if they thought Biden should run again, over 2/3 unequivocally said, ‘no’.
Democrats and their loyal supporters must do a better job of reading the tea leaves this time around, even if they can’t stand the aroma. Any sane person who sees #45 as an existential threat to democracy must question why the Democrats are putting up a weak candidate against a popular one. It has nothing to do with logic or sanity, or how good of a job YOU think Biden is doing. It doesn’t matter if you love Jill Biden, and the way Biden works hard in the Oval office. It doesn’t matter if you can’t imagine how anyone would choose Trump over an incumbent president who has mended the country since the former disastrous president was in office. It has to do with the fact that people vote with their emotions. It is also about understanding the math of counting votes and knowing the demographics in swing states.
According to Hanna Trudo of “The Hill”, among others, the swing states, where the election will be decided, are not looking good for Biden. Yes, once again the Electoral College is holding us hostage and this time the focus is on Arizona, Nevada and Georgia where Black, Latino and young voters are no longer reliable constituencies for Biden. The traditional battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania are definitely in play. Added to Biden’s woes this time around is the way many Democrats (51%) do not approve of his handling of the Israel/Gaza war. It doesn’t matter if I think he did a great job, what matters is what the majority think and it makes him an even weaker candidate going into next year’s election.
Even David Axelrod, a long time Democratic strategist, is warning that Biden is likely to lose against the former president who urged his followers to attack the capital. Biden was overheard calling Axelrod the “P” word which indicates no one is forcing Biden to run for a second term. Another Democratic strategist, James Carville, has more depressing news for the country. He is telling reporters that when he says Biden is in trouble in a bid against Trump no one is correcting him they are just saying to keep it to himself because it is upsetting their applecart. Unfortunately, their applecart has failure written all over it.
A moderate governor or senator from a Midwestern state with just some personality might just make some people excited enough to get out and vote to prevent the disaster that lies ahead. Ohio long-time Senator and champion of the working class, Sherrod Brown is just one possibility. No, none of this makes sense, but politics rarely does, just ask Hillary Clinton a former Secretary of State who lost to a TV show host/failed businessman who had never even been elected to a school board. Yes, she won the popular vote, but again that doesn’t matter. A totally unqualified man got the nuclear codes. Remember LBJ bowed out in March of his election year just in time to usher in the Nixon years. But the Watergate break-in and memories of a helicopter taking away a disgraced president was a cake walk compared to a second presidency of the one who threw paper towels to the Puerto Rican disaster victims.
To avoid this likely scenario, Democrats and their allies need to pressure the DNC (Democratic National Committee) to honor what many of the grassroots Democratic voters are saying and stop being so autocratic. They need to support the Democratic process. Instead, they have chosen Biden for us and have suppressed other candidates. They have discouraged any primary challengers as well as debates.
We have less than a year to offer voters someone they are willing to wait in line for especially in swing states where voter suppression has made voting so difficult. We need to make sure that they don’t sit this one out.