Imagine if Trump had taken to the debate stage and fell into a coma-like stupor. Do you think Republicans would call on him to step down?
The answer is more than just a little inconvenient. It is full of untold uncertainties, complexities, and opportunities for disaster, underscoring that presidential campaigns are not fantasy sports leagues, with easy levers to pull to maneuver into a more ideal position, including swapping out players. They are long games that benefit from steadiness, resolve, and the willingness to battle. And with the certain threat Donald Trump poses to the country and its democracy, the time for fever dreams is over. It’s time for Democrats to fight like they want to win.
Calls for President Biden to bow out of the presidential race after his disastrous debate performance last Thursday leave a big open question: Then what?
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Nope. They’d make up some lie blaming Democrats for the former president’s unconsciousness and press on. Republicans stood by him after the “Access Hollywood” tape and after multiple claims of sexual abuse including one that ended in a jury verdict. After Trump coddled white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., lied incessantly, was charged with dozens of felonies, and fomented an antidemocratic coup to hold onto power, Republicans dug in and stuck by their man.
That is because Republicans have decided, time and time again, that a Trump victory is in their interest and they will fight for it at all costs, even the loss of their own dignity.
I’m not suggesting Democrats be so dangerously delusional. They don’t have to be. They just have to put the feeling in the pits of their stomachs aside for a moment and look at the facts.
Fact number one is that a candidate swap at this point is a pipe dream.
The fancy of the Biden-must-go movement relies on a number of things falling magically into place without a hitch. Biden would have to agree to end his campaign. Another candidate, so perfect that the vast majority of the Democratic electorate falls almost instantly behind them, would have to emerge and get Biden’s blessing.
Then the 4,000 pledged Democratic convention delegates, who are nearly unanimously behind Biden, would all have to declare in unison: “No problem! We are behind this candidate that 10 minutes ago we had no intention of supporting!”
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Before the new candidate’s convention nomination, Democrats would have to figure out other problems — like how to get that candidate on the general election ballot in the crucial battleground state of Ohio, which has a preconvention certification deadline.
Oh, and then there is that pesky little wrinkle of convincing the Democratic electorate that overwhelmingly supported Biden in the primary to willingly accept mass disenfranchisement and let the Democratic apparatus tell them, “Tsk-tsk, settle down. We know better than you.”
Piece of cake, right? Recall 1980, when jittery Democrats worried about President Jimmy Carter’s reelection prospects thought Senator Edward Kennedy could save the day. How’d that end? With the inauguration of Ronald Reagan and a battered Democratic Party, that’s how. And that was without a MAGA-run GOP machine and its fire hose of disinformation turned on full blast and aimed at Democrats and the American public.
Now let’s return to reality, which is a much, much more beneficial place for Democrats.
They have a well-known incumbent candidate with an actual record of results, including averting a post-pandemic recession, boosting jobs and wages, curtailing illegal border crossings, giving student borrowers relief, investing in infrastructure, and signing into law electoral count reforms that will make another Jan. 6 insurrection less likely — just to name a few. He also appointed a Supreme Court justice who actually understands how originalism works to protect all Americans, as opposed to the three appointed by his opponent that helped strip away 50 years of reproductive rights with the swipe of a pen.
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Yes, Biden is old. So is Trump. But the last time these two old men faced each other, Biden beat Trump handily. Biden is the only candidate who has beaten Trump. That’s important.
Worries about a candidate being up to the task of governing for a full term are legitimate. Lucky for Democrats, the Constitution has worked out a solution for that, and it’s called the vice presidency. So much of the Biden-must-go drumbeat not only ignores the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris has also been at the helm of a successful presidential administration but also that she has her own record of accomplishments. Overlooking her is not only insulting but also shows that Democrats have let the GOP’s misogynoir-driven spin aimed at painting Harris as a feckless do-nothing go unchallenged. Democrats needed more fight in them then to combat that anti-Harris nonsense and they need more fight in them now.
Listen, I know Biden bombed that debate. Watching it was, for me, like many democracy-loving Americans, a gut punch. Biden failed to meet the moment.
But that’s exactly what it was: a moment. Measure that moment in context, against a successful presidency and against Trump’s existential threat. And then fight like hell.
Kimberly Atkins Stohr is a columnist for the Globe. She may be reached at kimberly.atkinsstohr@globe.com. Follow her @KimberlyEAtkins.
Democrats can win with Biden- if they fight
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