Does the Democratic Party have an auto-immune disease? If so, we need to find a cure for that now.
Biden’s rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination are busy suggesting either that he is a racist or has been willing to help racists further their discriminatory programs. Evidence for both accusations in tenuous at best. Biden is clearly not a racist himself, and when he says that to get things done in the Senate, you sometimes have to work with people whose views you find abhorrent, he is saying something that is so patently true that it’s astonishing that it should have to be defended, by Biden or anyone else.
I hope that Elizabeth Warren gets the nomination, but since Biden is, still, the likely nominee, I hate seeing these personal attacks on him. Especially disturbing is that these attacks may hurt him with black voters, whose support is indispensible if we are to retire Trump from office.
And that goal is what we cannot afford to lose sight of. Trump is a danger to the whole world and the entire burden of retiring him from public life rests on the Democratic Party. That so great a responsibility should have come to rest on so rag-tag and bob-tail a thing as an American political party is an astonishing and terrifying development, but it is plainly the case.
We Democrats must rise above our usual standard of behavior. This time, we do not have the luxury of being our usual rowdy and contentious selves. We must do everything we can to make sure that John Bolton does not continue to make our foreign policy, Stephen Miller our immigration policy, and Betsy Devos our educational policy. We cannot afford to allow the Federalist Society to load the federal benches with young, healthy, reactionary judges. We have no time to lose in the effort to curb global warming.
Let the candidates for the Democratic nomination debate policy as much as they want, but let’s be careful about making accusations that may end up being used by the Republicans against our eventual nominee. We need to face our frightening responsibility with the sobriety and care that it requires.
jconway says
Where has this happened? Give me specific quotes that accuse Biden of racism or supporting racism from one of his primary opponents.
The first election will be held several months from now in a state where Biden has already seen his lead cut in half. Lieberman was leading the race at this point in the 2004 cycle, so was Hillary Clinton in the 2008 cycle. Sanders was at single digits at this point in the 2016 cycle and nearly toppled Clinton in the end. It’s too early to crown a nominee.
Let’s have debates about issues. Do we want a nominee who recognizes the modern GOP is tainted by racism and a lack of regard for playing fair or a nominee who pines for the times when the good ol boys sipped whiskey and rye in the cloakroom who naively believes he can charm his way past three decades of GOP partisan scorched earth warfare?
The 1970’s are not coming back. That Senate had liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. They don’t exist anymore. The modern Senate is run by Mitch McConnell who will do all in his power to make any Democratic President a one term president and steal their Supreme Court picks.
I want a nominee who recognizes this. Who recognizes that the business community is happy with a racist President going to war by tweet so long as they get their tax cuts and is willing to fight them to regulate and restrain them to save American families. Let’s have a debate and let the people vote. That’s not an auto immune disease-that’s democracy.
jessefell says
No one has used the term »racist » explicitly in reference to Biden, but that is the clear sub-text of the criticisms, made by Biden’s rivals, of his willingness to work with people like Eastland. But as to your point « let’s have debates about the issues ».. Yes to that, a thousand times yes. And a debate about the issues would not be a symptom of an auto-immune disease; it would be democracy, as you say. My only objection is to the personal barbs that the Democratic contenders are throwing at each other. That’s what I’m referring to an our auto-immune disease — an organism attacking itself. We can win on the issues because the public is with us on the issues. So let’s talk issues and send the Big Orange Baby packing in 2020.
doubleman says
Is a candidate’s embrace of the GOP not an issue worth discussing?
What is the issue/personal line for you because it seems to be quite different from where I will draw it.
Is it just policy proposals that are inbounds or can we also talk about a candidate’s general views and even their character – in the same way that Trump’s ignorance, cruelty, and narcissism are just as important to discuss as his immigration policies?
If a candidate has a host of mediocre policies with a history of leading on bad policies and also fundamentally misses the threats we are facing, I think everything should be on the table.
It also seems interesting that these arguments only ever get raised in protection of an establishment candidate while outsider candidates always get their personal failings and motives challenged vigorously.
I worry that our disease is repeating the same things we’ve done before in important elections and losing.
bob-gardner says
You can’t beat somebody with nobody. And you can’t beat Trump with “not Trump”.
jessefell says
All the Democratic contenders are clearly « not Trump ».. In choosing our nominee, we have to =consider both their stands on the issues and their electability. Both are serious, unavoidable considerations. I haven’t figured out how to balance the two concerns, but both are concerns. I give slightly more weight to electability simply because of the awfulness of what we have now.
betsey says
Our responsibility is to nominate the BEST person to represent the Democratic Party – both in terms of the ability to kick Trump to the curb AND to be an awesome President who we can all be proud of, For me, that person ain’t Biden.
jessefell says
Let’s just try to save our ammo for the enemy.
Charley on the MTA says
OK, as I’ve said elsewhere … I’m open to real defenses of Biden’s record, particularly on racial issues. By all means let’s have that conversation. It’s on everyone to use discernment, to keep it substantive, and to be fair. I don’t agree, for example, that Biden was glorifying or celebrating segregationists. The question is whether he’s so eager to get along with everyone that he pulls his punches, or compromises on things he shouldn’t. How to address Republicans is a very live question.
But on the meta-question of how to self-police the debate: “Don’t beat up on Biden [or x frontrunner] because it’s divisive and we’ll lose” … I can’t get with that. That’s what a primary is for — a competition for votes and a hearing for differences between the candidates. Everyone has to defend their record — and learning how to do so is part of the exercise. The primary victor is stronger for having gone through a tough vetting process — and in fact, sometimes through repeated exposure, we get inured to things that maybe should be disqualifying. Better to go through it now, in June of 2019!
Christopher says
I noticed on Facebook that Tulsi Gabbard is strongly defending Biden, along much the same lines as you have. IMO, the most tone-deaf part of Biden’s comments was mentioning that Eastland never called him boy – no kidding, Sherlock, you’re not black!
fredrichlariccia says
David Axelrod on Biden’s boy gaffe : “It wasn’t a window into his feelings about race. It was a window into his ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.”
jconway says
Thank you Christopher and Fred. That’s really all we were saying-what a stupid and tone deaf thing to say. In my view it does not indicate he is racist, it does indicate that he is old and has been around too long. Liabilities usually in the eyes of most voters.