I almost published a diary in January pleading with everyone not to vote for Joe Biden. I know this is a hard-care Democratic website where people generally support party leaders, so I was under no illusion that I would sway people who think that Medicare for All is a pipedream to vote for Bernie. But I drafted a “Please Not Joe” diary. After Iowa and New Hampshire, I assumed that the anti-Bernie candidate would be Amy Klobuchar or Mayor Pete. I never published it because I assumed the party would coalesce behind one of them, but here we are. After South Carolina, the centrists dropped out and endorsed Biden and he is the presumptive nominee.
But he isn’t the nominee yet. And that brings me to Tara Reade.
She is not a perfect survivor. Few are “perfect” survivors. That is because they survived. We don’t call them “thrivers.” Is her story perfect? No. The assault allegation came after her initial harassment allegations. Does Biden have people defending him? Yes. But she has receipts. It’s not just the famous phone call her mother made to Larry King, but now court documents filed in 1996. She isn’t the ideal victim, but do we need to wait for the perfect person? Remember, many victims experience post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health disorders. Is it fair to demand perfection?
And let’s get real. He hasn’t been a lifelong champion for women. He couldn’t bring himself to actually apologize to Anita Hill and he made jokes when he was accused of making women uncomfortable. The cool side-kick Joe memes from the Obama years were funny, but he wasn’t always Obama’s VP. And assuming that the Obama vetting would have caught EVERYTHING is a cop-out. The 2008 campaign preceded #MeToo.
Nobody reading this—assuming you’ve made it this far—is going to vote for Bernie Sanders. I know the culture of this website. But it doesn’t have to be Joe Biden. If Joe were replaced with one of the other moderates, like Amy Klobuchar, you get the same ideology without the baggage. And also someone who is good at campaigning. Yes, Joe got more votes than her in the primary, but let’s get real. He won because the other moderates dropped out and endorsed him. He won votes in places he never visited. His image, his story, the mythology won. And that is now being chipped away.
If Amy (or another centrist) replaced Joe at the top of the ticket, a minority of Sanders people would never vote for her. However, those same people are already planning to vote for Howie Hawkins or write-in Bernie. I know those people very well. What Democrats can still do is nominate someone without Joe’s baggage. Give the people appalled by Joe Biden someone to vote for. No sane person wants another four years of Donald Trump, but you cannot assume that Biden is going to be acceptable in a country where 1 out of 6 women are victims of sexual assault.
You can convince yourself that this is a nothingburger, but you do so at your own risk. Joe Biden is the worst possible candidate at this moment, and a female VP will do little to mitigate that risk. Even if he is the worst possible candidate, he might still win. But that doesn’t mean that Democrats—and the American people—don’t deserve better.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There is still time.