Joe Biden is the most ‘electable’ Democratic nominee?

Give me a break!

If you’ve been following the crowded and drawn out US Democratic primary race recently, you’ll have seen the barrage of polls and news stories making the ‘electability’ case for Joe Biden as the only viable option to go up against Trump in the 2020 presidential race.

This premise seems to ignore the kinds of dirty, kick-you-in-the-guts-while-you’re-on-the-ground tactics we can be sure the White House incumbent will use against his opponent, and what is needed to combat that.

Think back to the day of the second 2016 presidential debate when Trump, in an effort to smear Hillary’s campaign, held a press conference with a panel of women paid to attest that they’d been sexually abused by Bill Clinton.

Now think about the candidate in this Democratic primary campaign who has been consistently poised, focused, and unflappable on the debate stage and on the campaign trail. She also happens to have a lot of comprehensive plans — 56 of them so far— compared with Joe’s 13. Her name is Elizabeth Warren.

Biden is a candidate who mumbles and fumbles around incoherently in primary debates, and gaffed a major Iowa appearance recently by, unknowingly, facing his back to the TV cameras for most of his speech. Who, then, is placing a safe bet on him being the most ‘electable’ candidate, and having the quick wit and political sharpness to withstand Trump’s ruthless tactics? Not this guy.

In Trump’s first smear campaign against Biden — in relation to him and his son’s dealings with the Ukranian gas company, Burisma — the defence against the scandal was, at best, lackluster. This is one year out from the general election. I shudder to think what else Trump has up his sleeve for Biden should he actually win the nomination.

But let’s unpack what, I think, is really meant by the word ‘electability’. Let’s break this down. Electability = Safe bet to win with a middle-aged, establishment politician, heterosexual, white man.

I emphasise ‘heterosexual’ because one of the prime candidates seeking to oust Biden from the moderate lane is the first gay US presidential candidate in history, Pete Buttigieg, currently leading polls in Iowa, but lagging terribly in nationwide polling. Side note — if Buttigieg does manage to pull off a win in Iowa, that may change everything.

Back to Biden — I emphasise the ‘man’ factor because this vague and insidious ‘electability’ argument is the same old, gendered rhetoric that lingered in Hillary’s presidential campaign. Not because she wasn’t the best, most qualified candidate for the job (she was), because she simply wasn’t ‘man’ enough. Even against a candidate caught on tape bragging about groping a woman “by the pussy” without consent.

The problem with hedging your bets on a candidate like Biden who appears ‘safe’, is establishment, white, and male, is that — other than winning the election (if he can do that) — he doesn’t offer much hope of delivering enduring solutions to the cataclysmic moment of global crisis he would face once in office.

As Elizabeth Warren has pointed out recently: “If the most we can promise is business as usual after Donald Trump then we will lose.”

We’re not just talking about losing an election here. We’re talking about losing the opportunity to turn back the clock on the WWII like crisis of our time — addressing climate change.

You might ask why a Kiwi-Australian would choose to weigh in so heavily on US politics. From my perspective, if America doesn’t lead in climate action — with its deep, albeit increasingly fragile, tentacles in world diplomatic leadership and its superior track record of innovation, and given it is one of the largest carbon polluters in the world — I doubt any other nation will fill this colossal leadership void in the very limited time we have to address the issue.

America also has an opportunity to set a pivotal example in addressing wealth inequality instead of the alternative option of oligarchic takeover by billionaires — the 1% — like the sitting President. Not to mention mitigating Russia’s steady pursuit to further its own interests — it isn’t clear exactly what those interests are right now — but I’m going to hedge my own bet that whatever their motivations are isn’t for the greater good of the world, nor humanity, judging by their recent track record.

By now, if you were in the ‘anyone but Trump’ camp, hopefully you’ll be willing to entertain the notion that Biden is, frankly, as flimsy a candidate to go up against Trump as Hillary was.

I was a Hillary fan. And let me tell you something else — I don’t dislike Biden. His heart does seem to be in the right place, he has some basic credibility (aside from recently backtracking on accepting support from super PACs because he couldn’t raise funds through a grassroots campaign), and yes he would be better than the current, narcissistic liar and predator in chief. But he is not the candidate to meet the magnitude of this moment. So, who else might be a viable, ‘electable’ alternative?

Well, as Warren puts it, this is not a moment in history where “nibbling around the edges” will deliver what is needed. We are living in a time where Republicans are at the complete mercy of corporate lobbyists and powerful special interests — willing to throw billions of dollars at them — to serve their own immense gains in the fossil fuel, big pharma, and private health insurance industries, among others. We are way past the time where centrism — or the sensible centre — could be considered a viable solution to the gargantuan problems we face.

The only hope of turning back the clock on the greed-ridden and poisoned politics of today is by truly committing to the realisation of “BIG STRUCTURAL CHANGE” and a society that works for us all — not just the wealthiest of us. Any other defeat of Trump is likely to be a short lived election win, but the battle of our lifetime lost.

Joe Biden is not the most ‘electable’ candidate, he is simply the one many think is ‘safe’ based on deep biases that are no longer congruent with real and much needed progress. Elizabeth Warren is the leadership the world needs right now.