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Replace Biden? One Canuck's POV [1]

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Date: 2024-06-28  

I didn’t watch the debate yesterday—I’d intended to follow the Kos live blog but ended up dragged away by more immediate things to do, so I was rather shocked this morning to see the response on DK and elsewhere regarding Biden’s performance and the—to me insane—push to replace Biden at the top of the Dem ticket.

So I watched some clips, read a variety of think pieces and played with my new kitten.

A lot of this reminds me of when Jean Chretien was in his last term as Canadian Prime Minister. He’d been PM for a decade, mostly with a Liberal majority in parliament, and while he and his government was dogged by some scandal, ole Jean seemed to wear teflon suits in those days. The opposition was (still) in disarray after imploding ten years before and for the most part Canadian’s seemed content to continue with a Liberal government.

Good news for all Liberals, right? Well, not for Paul Martin, the finance minister. He (in a way reminding me of Romney) had the sense that his natural place in the world was as Canadian PM, and after a decade under ole Jean, he was feeling like it was now or never.

So he and his people worked to undermine the Chretien faction in the Liberal party, and—sparing you the messy details—pushed ole Jean out.

Martin became a one term, minority PM, and the Liberal party suffered in the wilderness for a long time because of the damage his coup did to the party and its supporters. Taking down ole Jean seemed to revitalize the conservative opposition and so we got a right-wing PM.

Now this isn’t at all similar to where Biden stand today—except that if the Dem’s undercut their leader and try to replace him with another person it will disrupt the messaging, and machinery of the party in a critical time and re-invigorate the opposition. This isn’t even a don’t-change-the-horse-in-the-middle-of-the-race thing so much as damaging the party machinery and showing weakness to the voters.

When faced with voting for the Liberals after ole Jean’s ouster, Canadian’s seemed to say “If the Liberals didn’t have faith in their leadership, why should I?”

Right now the apparent impact of Biden’s performance is fresh and painful for some. I get that. But eating your own on your way towards and election has never been a good idea, and I’m not sure why some people forget that. Supporting Biden when he’s down projects strength and not weakness to the voting public.

If I have any advice to those who feel last night was a disaster, it’s this: give yourself a few days to disconnect from the emotional impact (enjoy your independence day, pet a kitten or doggo etc.) and then come back ready to support Biden and project the strength of the party.

There will always be worries about how this or that will impact the ‘low information’ voter. Concern on how those things play to such voters is valid, but there are always opportunities to change those perceptions. As many others have said, engage, volunteer and vote—and express to everyone why you’re voting Biden and not the other guy.

Because the other guy is nuts.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/28/2249412/-Replace-Biden-One-Canuck-s-POV?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=community_spotlight&pm_medium=web

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