Some Democrats want their party to choose a stronger candidate than Biden. That reminds me of Pogo’s comment, “We have met the enemy and they is us.” Decisions are now made in primaries; no organization decides who’ll be the candidates. And nobody wants to run against Biden.
I liked Biden in 2020 though I preferred Elizabeth Warren and many young people preferred Bernie Sanders, despite his age. Democrats had a very strong field. They still have. But Biden came out on top and the others aren’t challenging him. Perhaps they see Biden’s strengths, prefer party unity, or don’t think they have enough support to defeat Biden. But since they’re not running for the nomination, Joe Biden is our nominee.
Let’s be clear – I like Joe Biden. What he’s done would be amazing for someone of any age. Biden made more diverse judicial appointments than his predecessors, and appointed terrific people from all corners of America to government service. He got the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through a deeply divided Congress. Republicans can’t get anything through a Republican dominated Congress but Biden got what the economy needed, avoided the recession everyone predicted, authorized fixing infrastructure that no other president had been able to do and broke a logjam to get the defense policy act passed.
The previous president touted vaccines he thought would be available while he was president but disowned them after Biden’s election. So Biden dealt with the pandemic, did what the economy needed to bring inflation way down and stabilized prices. That’s tricky because increasing prices hurts us all, but decreasing prices threatens recession, and the Federal Reserve’s only tool to bring prices down is to slow the economy despite the risk of recession. However, Biden and the Federal Reserve, working together, brought inflation down while keeping the economy strong. Wow.
There are disagreements with Biden where Americans are torn among themselves. I would be much tougher on Netanyahu, but that would be unacceptable to portions of both parties. Part of a president’s job is navigating conflicting demands. I’ve been a manager and found handling conflicting demands the hardest thing I had to do. I can’t imagine how hard that is nationally. Or why anyone would want that job.
The Democratic Party is a big tent. So those of us who disagree need to focus on convincing the public of our positions. But our political capital depends on our ability to come together. Circular firing squads lose every time.
Republican strategy, by contrast, is my road or the highway – compromise isn’t respected. Their antipathy to compromise underlies why it’s so long since they won a majority of the national vote. Their power depends on the Electoral College, electoral shenanigans like gerrymandering after the 2010 census, and a bought Court that won’t touch their anti-democratic games. Ironically, those most loudly complaining about rigged elections have been using violence against election officials for refusing to alter election totals.
Americans like charisma, actors, TV game show hosts, people who know how to act but have no foreign policy experience, no understanding of economics, law, the Constitution, or how to take care of America. Charisma is often fraud. The Founders would have called charismatics demagogues. People who know how to impersonate public servants don’t belong in the race for president.
Biden, by contrast, is a choice we can be proud of.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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