Bigotry, Cassandra, Elections, JOEY B SHARK, Political Crack, Sexism

Are You Not Entertained?

The New York Times continued its assault on democracy by headlining a terrible opinion piece by Ezra Klein where he shared his plan for the Democrats to win the 2024 presidential election. He has decided that the Democrats’ best chance is to run the race without the party’s best asset. Yes, Klein thinks Joe Biden should release all of his delegates at the Democratic National Convention this summer, and let party leaders pick a candidate who can beat TFG.

This is the clearly the take of someone with little-to-nothing to lose if TFG were to get back into office and keep his promise to be Dictator For A Day, and obviously no sense of perspective about the punishment the GOP is deliberately inflicting on poor people, people of color, LGBTQ people, women, and other vulnerable people. There is no way that a serious journalist who opposes another TFG term would suggest this stupid plan.

And in fact, Klein gives the whole game away in the piece. I chose this tweet because while the author is critical of Klein’s suggestions, he misses the most dangerous, entitled, and selfish part of what he quotes from Klein’s nonsense:

“It could make the Democrats into the most exciting political show on earth.”

There it is—the complete cynicism of the I Gots Minez Crew. Let’s throw the entire Democratic nominating process into complete chaos and let’s possibly create rifts that won’t heal in time for the November election–or ever, for that matter–because a comfortable, protected, bored blogger doesn’t want to have to take the time to write actual stories about real issues. Instead, he wants to sit back and simply transcribe what he sees on social media or on television.

And on further examination, his assertions are easily disproved.

Yes we know Biden is old and so there needs to be a contingency plan, and there is:  Vice President Kamala Harris. What’s weird is that the people calling for him to be replaced don’t suggest that he resign now and then let her go into the convention with his delegates and become the nominee. Instead, the plan is for him to wait until the actual convention and then letting his delegates go free.

And there’s no mystery here:  the people pushing this convention chaos plan want to cut VP Harris completely out of the loop. Their biggest problem with Joe Biden’s age is that a lot of people don’t want Kamala Harris to be president. And that is shameful behavior.

As for Democratic voters, they may say Biden’s too old when they are polled, but there were enough write-in votes in New Hampshire to give him a convincing victory. More importantly, and more telling, Democratic voters in Nevada had the chance to vote for “none of the above” and Biden beat NOTA 90-5.

Biden is also supposed to get out there more instead of hiding in the White House. OK, but here’s the problem with that—he is out there. His daily schedule is online. And even saying that, being president isn’t about being on TV. He’s not hosting a late night talk show. President are supposed to work on things that help Americans, and he’s done that over and over again.

And don’t get me started on the optics of the Democratic nominee being chosen by a bunch of unknown party operatives in a closed door process, although the strong push for that outcome betrays the bigotry of the people pushing for it. The Democratic Party is becoming less the party of white men, and increasingly it is the party of Black women, who form its electorate’s core. And all those journalists, bloggers, and strategists who hover on the periphery of the Democratic Party will lose their access as the party’s leadership changes. And they’re big mad about it. Too bad.

The Jam can take it from here:

5 thoughts on “Are You Not Entertained?”

  1. Biden’s problem isn’t his age. Its that he’s willing to lose Michigan and a substantial part of the youth vote, possibly turning the US over to Trump, to protect himself from AIPAC. That is the huge elephant in the room that’s being ignored. Yes I know he talks a good game on Palestine, but from the river to the sea is a founding principle of Likud. There will be no two-state solution until Israel is de-Likudized, andn Likud plays the same part in the eventual solution that Nazi Germany played in German reconstruction. Asking people to overlook genocide is a bridge too far for many, and fairly so. Biden has to decide who he wants to save: America or Likud Israel.

    1. i’m fairly sure there are more choices available to him, and i’m not worried right now about Michigan or the youth vote. there will be big changes to that war before the election.

      1. Nothing Biden can do about 30,000+ dead murdered with US weapons and sanction. When they started demolishing all Gaza City in the north, attacking hospitals, demolishing all civic infrastructure of not military value, he could have picked up the phone and told Netanyahu to stop. He chose not to, and we will all live with the consequences of that action. Asking people to pull the lever for Biden is, at this point, like asking them to throw the switch on the electric chair. If Likud can’t be removed like the Nazis, Biden needs to force (starve if necessary) Israel to the table with the starting point being either one Palestinian or one Israeli state, with negotiations directly with the Palestinians excluding no parties (including the Intifada leaders currently imprisoned) to decide the final outcome.

  2. Ezra started blogging when he was an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz. He parlayed that into being a pundit. The only thing he’s ever done is be an opinion-haver. I think he’s been huffing his own farts for too long and now thinks whatever he writes down is a good idea.

Comments are closed.