Biden might win in 2020. Then what?
The Democratic Party is alienating the people it desperately needs. That’s going to have consequences.
Joe Biden: I’m Better Than Trump.
It might not be an inspiring campaign slogan, but right now, with the government’s response to the coronavirus being so thoroughly botched, it just might be enough.
Millions of Democratic voters will sigh, look at their ballots, wish it said Warren, or Harris, or Buttigieg, or Bernie, or… god, anyone but Biden.
But for fear of allowing Trump to be re-elected, most of those people are going to vote for him.
That’s good.
After all, that not-very-inspiring campaign slogan is also completely true: the guy is better than Trump. But the damage this is going to do to the Democratic Party cannot be understated.
Take the recent revelations in the Tara Reade case, for example, and the campaign’s lackluster response to them.
If Biden wins, he will be our second consecutive president to sexually assault someone.
The Democratic Party—even Bernie—has, by now, lined up to bow down at the feet of this man, Joe Biden, who is credibly accused of sexual assault.
And everyone can see that.
This is just one of the many ways Biden is woefully inadequate to represent what is becoming an incredibly diverse party, both in terms of identities and in terms of politics.
Look—I’m not saying I’m not going to support him, and I’m not saying that anyone shouldn’t support him. Everyone should support him, over Trump. But it leaves a foul taste in my mouth.
When Al Franken resigned over allegations far less serious than the ones that Joe Biden faces today, I thought, as I’m sure many others did, that the Democratic Party was Different.
That this party would care about something like that.
That they wouldn’t just fall in line.
Now, unless something truly extraordinary happens, the next president, be it Biden or Trump, will be a sexual predator. And the same excuses that were trotted out when it was Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh are being rolled out today by Democrats.
If I were old enough to, I’d vote for Biden against Trump, of course, despite all this, because Trump is indeed worse.
But… I’m not sure I’d vote for Biden against Mitt Romney! I don’t think voting for a sexual predator when there’s someone else on the ballot who’s not one is acceptable.
By nominating Biden, the Democrats are losing any moral high ground that they might otherwise have been able to claim. They’re proving the Republicans right: #MeToo is only something the Democrats like when it’s convenient for them.
Biden has other issues. He’s not a very good speaker, and it really does seem like he’s getting worse. It’s unclear what he stands for, or even why he’s running besides a vague sense of it being ‘his turn’. But, again, as has been the common refrain:
He’s Better Than Trump.
But “Better Than Trump” is not what we need to lead our party into the future.
Biden is not just a slap in the face to the progressive wing of the party (though he certainly is that).
He’s a slap in the face to the party’s future, the youth who supported Bernie all the way.
And if it were anyone except for Trump, if it were any threat except for this, the most dangerous president in modern history, I suspect many of those Bernie voters, disillusioned with the Democrats, wouldn’t vote for Biden.
Where would they go? I’m not sure. Maybe to the left, to the Green Party or another independent bid. Whatever they do, it’s not going to be good for Democrats.
And if Biden wins now, in 2020, 2024 is going to be a very different story.
In 2024, I’ll be old enough to vote, and four more years of my generation who couldn’t vote this time around will be voting for the first time with me. As you can see by that support breakdown, that’s going to tilt the balance further towards progressives.
But with an incumbent Joe, it’s not likely that the Democrats are going to be getting serious about progressivism anytime soon, and Bernie’s certainly done in politics at his age.
Who will take the mantle of the young, progressive voters?
And will they even be Democrats?
I don’t think so, personally, but I’d be happy—more than happy—to be proven wrong.
If the Democrats can truly build a coalition with all of their voters, uniting the young progressives and the older centrists and everyone in between, they will be able to trounce Republicans.
If not? If they cling to the center like it seems like they’re going to do? Then somebody else will come and take that youthful energy, and the Democrats, like their remaining base, will die out.
Joe might be good enough for 2020, but once Trump’s gone, his weaknesses will show.
The pressure that led people to unite under him will be gone, and I don’t know where they’re going to go after that, but I doubt it will be good for the Democrats.
