The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
It’s painful for Democrats to see our party so divided at a time when Republicans are marching in lockstep to coronate Donald Trump.
Their convention will be a model of single-minded control, scripted from beginning to end by Trump. They have managed to excommunicate, intimidate and enforce discipline on anyone and any group that might offer a critical word.
The party platform is a Trump stump speech. Marriage is no longer between a man and a woman because Trump thinks that’s a losing issue. The anti-abortion caucus has been silenced; their far-right positions, which were a feature of past platforms, have been replaced by Trump’s formula of leaving it to the states, which he has concluded (wrongly) will protect him from those (the majority) who see that as the problem. There will be no minority reports, no floor fights, no dissenting views welcome.
Meanwhile, Democrats are painfully divided, not only between those who are standing by President Joe Biden and those who believe he should step aside, but also between those who are saying it publicly and those who are only saying it privately.
What those divisions obscure is what unites Democrats: the overwhelming desire to beat Donald Trump.
Biden’s press conference did nothing to bridge those divides.
The president’s most ardent defenders were relieved that it was at least not a repeat of his disastrous debate. They took comfort in the fact that he was able to display the breadth of his knowledge of foreign policy issues and to take credit for the accomplishments of his administration.
The rest of us, who watched at the edge of our chairs, are still at the edge of our chairs. Sure, anybody can mix up a few names — Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump — but when Biden does it, it brings back memories of the debate disaster and reminds us that we are only one more disaster like that away from certain defeat.
And there were other cringeworthy moments — blaming his staff (“they add things” to his too crowded schedule) when their biggest mistake, if you believe news reports, may have been to overprotect him from public scrutiny in recent months so that his obvious decline remained hidden until June 27; and claiming he was suffering from jet lag (“The next debate, I’m not going to be traveling in 15 time zones a week before. Anyway. That’s what it was about”), when in fact, as CNN pointed out, he returned to the United States from Europe 12 days before the debate to attend a fundraiser in Los Angeles, returned to the White House the next day and then spent seven days at Camp David preparing for the debate.
The bottom line is that the news conference won’t move the polls, which are trending against Biden. Three more Democratic members of Congress issued statements calling on Biden to step aside after the news conference ended. There are many more in the wings, saying privately what they are not yet saying publicly.
If the polls are showing an even race, and that is the reading most favorable to Biden, that means that the smaller swing states, which will decide the Electoral College, are trending to Trump even before his forcibly unified convention.
What will ultimately unite Democrats is not Biden but a new candidate who all Democrats can and will unite around, and will have a better chance than either Biden or Trump does of winning the votes of the majority of voters who find both candidates “embarrassing” or unacceptable.
It may be a messy and painful process getting from here to there, but democracy is often a messy process.
Democrats are united in their desire to beat Trump, and a new and younger candidate can not only lead a united Democratic Party but also win the votes of those who remain uncommitted to either of the current choices. Biden will be a hero, his legacy secure, and he will go down in history as a successful president who put the country first.
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