Several days ago I posted a diary about ABB — Anyone but Biden and asked who should be considered viable alternatives, as a theoretical exercise. I got quite a few responses and more than a few suggestions, but one of the things that came out of it was there is a great deal of support for Biden here, and Harris as well.
Pamela Paul has been doing her own weighing of Biden, and she starts with this:
It starts with a story of Alfred Hitchcock explaining to François Truffaut how cinematic terror works. A scene has people sitting around a table conversing for a few minutes, when a bomb under the table goes off and they all die instantly. Not much suspense there — the key is having the audience know the bomb is there, and watching people chattering away all unknowing is excruciating. (But you can’t actually blow them up unless you want to make the audience angry at you.)
From there, Paul makes an obvious anology: Trump is the bomb under the table, but America doesn’t seem to be aware of it just yet. Then she goes here:
Still, the Democrats act as if everything is normal. They talk about why to support Joe Biden’s campaign for re-election: He has done a pretty good job, they say. He led the country out of the pandemic and avoided a deep recession. He beat all other primary candidates last time. And he beat Trump before. We should go with a proven contender.
If Paul thinks Democrats are sleepwalking to disaster, she’s obviously not been getting the fund-raising appeals I have. She’s also glossing over the substantial accomplishments of the Biden administration. She then makes this pronouncement of the only course that should be followed by Democrats:
“Stop badmouthing Biden,” some Democrats will say, as if acknowledging reality were akin to arming the enemy. But desperate times call for bucking tradition. What we need are extraordinary measures.
That means Biden voluntarily stepping aside — and not automatically backing his vice president either. What we need is a capable, energetic candidate who can lure the Democratic faithful to the ballot while offering a plausible alternative for independents and non-Trumpian Republicans.
And we have options. Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota has already taken the gutsy step of declaring his candidacy and shown that he’s serious about the effort. A full slate of potential contenders offer the same kind of moderation that propelled Biden to the presidency, but with the benefit of youth and energy: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Even mixed-bag Gov. Gavin Newsom of California or the relatively unproven Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland.
See, what is most important is having a candidate who is “capable” and “energetic”. Never mind that Biden has achieved an extraordinary record to date, and doesn’t have hordes of health experts openly expressing concerns about his sanity, his competence, or his descent into rage, delusion, and paranoia like the other guy. You know, the one who is the bomb under the table, the one with multiple criminal indictments. Paul is reciting the polite version of Republican messaging that paints Biden as a weak senile puppet past his prime.
Never mind that Biden’s decades of experience and character have proven themselves in his steady handling of the near constant crises that have erupted since he was sworn in — not to mention the mess he was handed coming into office, including an attempted coup and the disastrous deal in Afghanistan. Never mind that Republicans and right-wing media have been slandering him with every lie they can throw at him, while actively attempting to block what a clear majority of Americans elected him to do.
And never mind that The NY Times spent four years normalizing Trump and his constant lies, or the party that has become an authoritarian cult around him. The Times still gets hissy-fits if anyone raises the F-word in connection with the GOP. You know, fascism — or in the case of Mike Johnson, Christo-fascism. They’d rather call it “populism’, not that they like that idea all that much either.
In case you were wondering about the body of expertise that allows Paul to make considered judgements like the one in this column, here’s her bio at the Gray Lady:
Pamela Paul became an Opinion columnist for The New York Times in 2022. She was previously the editor of The New York Times Book Review for nine years, where she oversaw book coverage and hosted the Book Review podcast. She is the author of eight books: “100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet” (named a best book of 2021 by The Chicago Tribune), “My Life With Bob,” “How to Raise a Reader,” “By the Book,” “Parenting, Inc.,” “Pornified” (a best book of 2005 by The San Francisco Chronicle), “The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony” (a best book of 2002 by The Washington Post) and “Rectangle Time,” a book for children.
Let me make several points here.
1) Biden has been busy doing his job as President at an especially demanding time. He’s not someone who has to be in the spotlight all the time. He’s not a show pony — more like a draft horse who has work to do.
2) Biden has not gone into campaign mode yet, and given the world situation, that’s the right thing.
3) The media is finally waking up to the bomb under that table and realizing it’s not going to go away on its own. They’re finally starting to talk about it as a real threat, however much it goes against their habits and established narratives.
4) There’s still not quite a year to go. Trump’s health, legal issues, and his own flaws have plenty of time to manifest in ways that could be enough to defuse himself — although nobody should count on it. He has yet to face a primary, and has been dodging debates. He’s also freaking out over what’s happening in court.
5) If Trump was magically removed from the scene tomorrow, there would be no lack of Republican Trump wanna-be’s eager to continue what he started. It’s what the GOP has been dreaming of for decades — permanent rule.
One more thing.
It’s a tell that Paul is putting all the onus on Biden and the Democrats to “do the right thing.” I have a hard time recalling any sustained call from the media to the Republican Party to repudiate Trump and all of his works. While the press can no longer both-sides things as easily as they’ve been doing for decades, they still seem unable to come out and simply say that the entire Republican Party is a bomb now, not just Trump.
It’s as though they have accepted that there is no point in appealing to the GOP’s “better angels of their nature” — because they have none. The Republican Party is an unholy alliance of rich libertarian anarchists, evangelical theocrats, and white nationalists. It has no coherent political principles any more, no ability to govern, and has abandoned democracy for power. The press can’t get past reflex IOKIYAR; it’s baked into their DNA at this point.
Paul’s panic is understandable — the alterntive to Biden is too terrible to contemplate. But, her and too many of her colleagues seem to be like hysterical bystanders at a fire yelling at the firemen while ignoring the arsonists running around setting more fires.
Not helping.