If It's Biden, Then F*ck It, It's Biden
Who cares who wins the Democratic nomination if they can beat Trump?
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by Ben Cohen
Joe Biden has been on a tear recently. His stock has risen dramatically in the wake of his announcement that he is running for President in 2020, and he now leads the pack of Democrats vying to take out Trump. Biden raised a whopping $6.3 million on his first day, and now leads the race by roughly 30 points. This is an extraordinary lead, and anyone who dismissed Biden’s chances must now pause to reconsider.
The best candidate? Maybe, maybe not
I want to be clear about this: Biden is not my preferred candidate. Not by a long way. I’d prefer to see a President Warren, President Booker, President Buttigieg or President Harris before a President Biden. I think the former Vice President is too old, too close to the political center, and well, too familiar.
After Trump, I believe America needs a younger, vastly more progressive candidate who can move the country in a radically different direction. Trump has done immeasurable damage to the country from both a political and psychological point of view, and it will take a unified Democratic Party under bold progressive leadership to reverse the destruction Trump and his band of neanderthal nihilists have wrought upon the nation. Biden is a 76 year old white man who has a history of making truly awful decisions (siding with credit card companies, voting for the Iraq war, inappropriately invading women’s personal space to name a few).
However, what the hell do I know? I thought there was absolutely no way for Donald Trump to win the 2016 election, and spent months declaring his campaign over after the audio of him admitting to grabbing women by the genitals was released. When multiple women came forward to publicly accuse him of assaulting, I felt that the election was essentially over. America could not be depraved enough to vote in someone as incomprehensibly vile as Donald Trump. Yet here we are, over two years into the most ludicrous clown show imaginable. The truth is, I live in Washington DC and spend my time hanging out with liberal minded people who share many of my values. The rest of the country however, is a genuine mystery to me, and I am giving up on predicting their voting behavior.
If Biden can capture the political center, then he has a very, very good chance of beating Trump in 2020. This might not be what the progressive left wants to hear, but elections are usually won by swaying moderates. And if that is what has to happen in 2020, then everyone opposed to Trump presidency needs to get behind this strategy.
Joe Biden is not Donald Trump
For all his faults, Joe Biden is not Donald Trump. And for that reason alone, the Left should rally around him if he wins the nomination. While Biden’s progressive record isn’t great, it is worth remembering that he:
a) Is a proud supporter of unions
b) Believes in a woman’s right to control her own reproductive organs
c) Will protect the ACA and at the very least support an opt in for medicare (Biden has not released his health care plan yet).
d) Will support stringent environmental regulation.
More importantly though, from early polling, it appears Biden has the ability not to just beat Donald Trump, but annihilate him in a general election. As Andrew Sullivan notes, Trump is well aware of this and is ramping up his attacks on Biden accordingly:
The reason Trump is so rattled is that Biden is seven points ahead of him in head-to-head polls right now, and, after four years of Trump’s assault on this country’s constitutional order, Democrats are likely to turn out in high numbers, and back whoever gets nominated. As it becomes clearer that this president regards himself as above the law, and has an attorney general who shares this view and will also target Trump’s opponents if told to, opposition could intensify. New data from 2018 shows how big Democratic turnout was: 36 percent of young people voted, compared with 20 percent in 2014. Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians all saw their turnout rates soar — up 11, 13, and 13 points, respectively, compared with 2014. When these voters have a chance to get rid of Trump, whoever the nominee is, I have no doubt they’ll show up. If Biden could make some inroads with non-college-educated whites and seniors, it could be another big fucking deal. Adding Kamala Harris as his veep could unify the Democratic base behind the ticket.
Again, this might be difficult for progressives to swallow, but reality is reality, and the sooner Democrats come to terms with this, the better.
Early days
Biden’s extraordinary lead in the Democratic primary could just be a result of his name recognition. The debates don’t start till next month, and a lot can happen over the next year. There are some phenomenally talented candidates running for President who could present a very serious challenge to Biden. Just as Donald Trump upended the Republican primaries in 2016, something similar could happen in 2020 in the Democratic primaries.
Predicting these things basically like reading tea leaves. We only know that conventional wisdom now means very little in the social media age, and Biden could plummet in the polls as quickly as he has risen in them. We live in unstable times, and political candidates are only as good as their last Twitter metric performance.
That being said, all the current data points to Biden winning the primaries handily. While many on the progressive left are angrily denouncing him and poring over his record, it might be a good idea to remember what the country is up against. Joe Biden is not a bad man. He is a decent, kind human being who is genuinely disgusted by Trump’s degrading presidency, and wants to restore the country to some semblance of normality. After the horrors of the past 28 months, that should be more than enough.
(image via Newscom)
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