Edited to add (10/15/20): Biden was my last choice in the Democratic primary. As I articulate in this post, I wish he had dropped out, and if he wins I plan to oppose much of what he and the corporate Democrat do over the next four years. And yet… I still believe he’s far better choice for president than Donald Trump, for the reasons I list in this letter.
After a presidential primary that lasted nearly a year and a half, we ended up with Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party—right as an allegation of sexual assault hit major news outlets.
The allegation comes from former Biden staffer Tara Reade and has been corroborated by her mother, her brother, a former coworker, and a former neighbor.
You can hear the allegation directly from her. The details are grim, and the evidence here is at least as solid as the evidence behind the 4 allegations against Brett Kavanaugh or the 23 allegations against Donald Trump.
Yet the DNC is almost uniformly quiet, with party bigwigs still lining up to endorse Biden.
As if that weren’t enough, we’ve known for years that Biden is creepy around women and young girls, fights against assault victims such as Anita Hill, spins false stories about himself, practices nepotism, carves out special favors for the rich and powerful, supports terrible political positions such as the Patriot Act and the Iraq War, is weirdly and needlessly cruel to voters, and so much more. For a full critique, read “Democrats, You Really Do Not Want to Nominate Biden” and “The Biden Trap.”
What’s especially galling about all of this is that the Democratic party united behind Biden when they could have united around any of the other presidential candidates. But they didn’t. Instead, according to dozens of interviews conducted by the New York Times, the party overwhelmingly united against Biden’s nearest rival ahead of Super Tuesday. Party donors told Pete Buttigieg in a hint, hint, nudge, nudge sort of way that dropping out and endorsing Biden would be his best bet for his future. Klobuchar and Beto also swiftly got in line.
Every one of these presidential candidates should be disappointed with the DNC for choosing to rally behind Biden instead of them. And yet they too deserve at least a bit of the blame. Sanders refused to bring up Biden’s worst traits in the primary, preferring to instead say that Biden was a friend. Warren didn’t show Biden the same fight she showed toward Bloomberg or Sanders in the debates, even though she initially got into politics to (rightly) fight Biden’s cronyism. Buttigieg and Klobuchar did little to oppose Biden, choosing instead to attack each other. Yang, who had said that Sanders inspired him to run for president, endorsed Biden over Sanders. And Harris, who was one of the few to attack Biden directly in the debates, quickly lined up to endorse Biden too.
I understand the desire to unite to defeat Donald Trump, a man who gives daily proof that he’s void of the capacity to feel empathy. But the consolidation around Biden reveals that corporate Democrats are still clueless about why Trump appeals to so many Americans. Trump supporters want Trump not because they think he’s a paragon of virtue but because he unapologetically points out the hypocrisy of the mass media and the Democratic party—and people are tired of the hypocrisy of the mass media and the Democratic party.
Sure, Trump also lays bare the hypocrisy of the Republican party—a party of “family values” that elected a serial adulterer and serial sexual assaulter—but none of that matters to the most ardent Trump supporters. They just want to expose the Democrats as phonies.
And with Biden as the presumptive nominee, Trump has been given license to expose the Democrats as phonies from now through November. Want to illustrate how astonishingly incoherent Trump is when he speaks? Good luck contrasting him with Biden. Want to argue that Trump uses the government to carve out special deals for himself and his kids? Good luck with that after ignoring Hunter Biden’s corruption. Want to sponsor another Women’s March in response to the 23 allegations against Trump? Good luck with that after remaining silent about the allegation against Biden.
Democrats must decisively force Biden to drop out. Anything short of that will result in a loss of the moral clarity we desperately need as a nation.
