‘Goodbye brave Joe, now the Democrats must save us from the MAGA madman’
‘GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS’: President Joe Biden. Picture credit: The White House
The Accidental Diplomat, a column by Paul Knott
After weeks of dithering, the Democrats now have a chance to pick a candidate who can take the fight to the dangerous Trump
Joe Biden is one of the most successful presidents in American history.
His role in leading the US out of the twin plagues of Covid and Donald Trump was a hugely important achievement. This had a big impact on the whole world too because the US is still the most powerful country in it. Its continued collapse into the chaos and pro-Putin dictatorship promised by Trump would have put us all in great economic and security danger.
Sadly, there are two things Biden could not beat, both of which were out of his control. One was the continued hold of Trump’s cult on the Republican Party and a sizeable number of Americans. The other was the clock, because time runs out for all of us in the end.
Like almost every 81-year-old, Biden’s age had started to show more and more recently. This created reasonable doubts about his fitness to lead the country for another four years. In reality, the strength of his team would have meant that he could have slept through those next four years and nothing too terrible would happen, at least in comparison to the danger posed by having a wide-awake Trump in the White House again. But that is a hard argument to make when trying to persuade people to vote and Biden’s withdrawal had started to seem inevitable.
His departure was drawn out for far longer than would have been ideal. Politicians are like boxers in being the people who find it hardest to accept when its time to retire. This is a product of the peculiar sort of self-belief and faith in their own strength that they must have to survive and, in many cases, enjoy the onslaught they face in their respective arenas.
Biden’s Democratic Party have handled this issue very badly too. They should have realised over a year ago, as most of the voters did, that allowing an 81-year-old to put himself through the world’s toughest election campaign would be too risky. Even once they finally did recognise it, they have spent a month dithering in public and burnt some trust in them by pretending everything was fine. But now that they have finally taken a decision and persuaded Biden to drop out, they have a big opportunity to make it work.
Underneath all of the “who is up, who is down” focus on polls, one thing has remained consistent – most Americans were not enthusiastic about voting for either the ageing Biden or insane Trump and wanted to see younger, more stable candidates. Now the Democrats have put themselves in a position to offer them one.
The early signs are that this candidate will be Biden’s current Vice-President, Kamala Harris. This has prompted some initial concerns about her patchy performance in her current job. But every American Vice-President finds difficult to shine in in that role because it lacks clear responsibilities. Previously, as a Senator, Harris showed herself to be a sharp and smart political operator, balanced with an appealing degree of personal warmth.
RISK: ‘A pro-Putin dictatorship would endanger us all’. Picture credit: www.kremlin.ru
Sadly, questions are also being raised about her electability as a black woman because of the ongoing curse of sexism and racism in the US. My view, based on many years of visiting the country, a spell living there and strong family ties to it, is that there more than enough voters who will not automatically be blinded by bigotry. Also, Harris’ primary identity for the election campaign will be as the “anybody but the psychopath” candidate, and there are plenty of people open to voting for that.
The horribleness of their Republican opponents will help Harris and the Democrats. Whilst the level of support for Trump is scarily high, it is not a majority and he is deeply unpopular amongst those who are not his hardcore disciples.
There is also strong majority support for the Democrats’ positions on important individual issues such as abortion rights and gun control. The task for the Democrats is simply to persuade enough voters to recognise that their policies are in tune with the views of most Americans. They must also relentlessly target the Republicans’ lies and extremism. For any halfway competent political party, that is a big and easy target to hit.
We are about to find out if the Democrats can do it. And the rest of the world must hope they can. By repeating Biden’s previous success in stopping Trump, they will save us from the dangerous threat the MAGA madman poses to us all.