The Stakes Are Too High to Keep Denying Biden’s Shortcomings by Luke Savage, Jacobin, June 28 https://jacobin.com/2024/06/biden-2024-debate-shortcomings-democrats
*For years, Democratic Party leaders have gaslit the public about Joe Biden’s fitness to lead. After last night’s debate, it's clear that the costs of keeping up the act are higher than the costs of admitting the truth and correcting course.* . . . ... Nevertheless, the signs of frailty and mental decline were so ubiquitous and obvious throughout 2019 and early 2020 that they seemed impossible for anyone to deny. . . . ... Bailed out by the sudden onset of a pandemic that shook the global economy and made traditional campaigning impossible, Biden won the election in a squeaker ... . . . Notwithstanding the laughably pathetic spin from White House officials that the president’s poor debate performance was the result of “over-preparation,” the possibility there will be a genuine effort to replace Biden at or before the Democratic National Convention in August suddenly feels real. Whether such a thing could actually happen remains an open question. Behind Biden’s avuncular, aw-shucks persona there has always been a man possessed of volcanic ego and convinced of his own epochal importance. Absolutely nothing in Biden’s conduct to date suggests he would step aside willingly. Then again, that Biden is president at all owes to the constellation of elite power brokers who first intervened to save his flailing campaign in 2020 and have helped maintain the masquerade ever since. From powerful Democrats like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi to Wall Street donors and obsequious media personalities, the institutions of Liberalism Inc. made the Biden presidency. It’s plausible that they could unmake him just as easily. Whatever happens, last night’s train wreck is ultimately a searing indictment of a Democratic leadership so deferential to corporate America and so cynically hell-bent on resisting change that it was willing to lie to the entire country about its standard-bearer’s fitness to lead. The facade has finally cracked, and we’re now in for a crackup of epic proportions. # # # *DSA Statement on 2024 Election: Drop Out Biden* June 28, 2024 https://www.dsausa.org/statements/dsa-statement-on-2024-election-drop-out-biden/ Last night’s debate made clear what DSA and the hundreds of thousands of voters who supported Uncommitted in the primaries have been saying for months: *Biden must drop out.* Biden was elected in 2020 because young people, people of color, and the working class rejected Donald Trump’s far-right politics. It was these voters who prevented a second Trump term with the highest turnout in an election in decades. Yesterday, these same voters witnessed a man who is unfit to lead. During the debate, both candidates repeatedly fought to appear the most pro-cop, pro-war, and anti-immigration, and ignored questions on issues such as childcare, racial justice, and democracy. Even before this debate, Biden’s support for genocide in Gaza, his enactment of racist immigration policy, and his failure to improve the livelihoods of the working class as millions of Americans continue to struggle economically have made him a pariah to the base that carried him to office. *If Biden is the nominee in November, Trump will be president in January, and corporate Democrats will have no one to blame but themselves.* Make no mistake, a return of Trump would be disastrous for the working class here and abroad. Democratic Party elites have cynically coronated an eighty-two-year-old who is aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide. This is not the candidate for the moment to defeat Trump, prevent the rise of fascism, and fight for democracy in America. ... . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30963): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30963 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/106994799/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
