And that's the double truth, Ruth
Progressives need to step back from the ledge of blaming leftists for Biden's mistakes
In some corners of staunch progressivism, it appears that there is a consensus beginning to form, at this very early stage, that those who are organizing amongst themselves in an Abandon Biden movement are “astroturfed”: that is, they cannot and should not be taken as a legitimate, organic movement. Instead, they must be an artificial construct by some monied person, a bit of agitprop to divert attention or deflect energy.
It’s a ploy, in other words. That’s what some people are thinking. And they’re starting to convince their fellow progressives that this thing that they’re seeing isn’t really real.
1) Let me just say, on the record, that I am not part of the Abandon Biden movement. I do think that he should step aside, but that’s for the good of the party. I want Democrats to win, just as I have for decades now, since before I could legally vote. (The first “vote” I ever cast, which was in a mock election held at my elementary school, was for Walter Mondale.)
By making these thoughts known in these last few essays, I am not personally trying to sabotage Democrats’ chances this year. Indeed, I voice my feelings, as I said in my most recent message, to serve as a barometer, because I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
(For those visiting this page from my former site: I’m the same novapsyche that some of you have known for nearly twenty years. The fact that I’m saying this should give you pause.)
2) As someone who is not in the Abandon Biden movement but who resides in a state where that movement is active, I must say that I find it the height of hubris for some in the party to believe that those people making their frustrations known to instead be play-actors—crisis actors might be the more fashionable term here.
No, my friends. The people finding time to march in subfreezing temperatures and risking arrest to protest Biden at his events are not doing so for shits and giggles. They’re not getting paid. They’re not Russian or Chinese operatives. They are legitimately saying, “We cannot vote for someone who is participating in genocide and making me, as a citizen, complicit in those actions.”
3) Biden losing will have ramifications all the way down the ballot, and at this point his candidacy endangers the entire progressive project. All of 2024 is imperiled right now, because of Biden’s actions specifically in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
(I’m not saying that simply because I have seen Israel’s actions in that conflict as genocidal since the middle of October. My feelings on that topic beside, I see true danger in the upcoming election due to Biden’s unflagging support and non-intervention with regards to Israel. Not only has he given Benjamin Netanyahu a free hand, he’s constantly reloading all of his munitions so that the latter can keep up the carnage. I’m not the only one who sees this.)
4) I see, also, that this move to marginalize the already marginalized is setting these people up to be the fall guy if and when Biden fails to make it across the finish line. “You’ll find out when Trump puts you in a camp” — that’s a real comment I came across recently when someone displayed how they would scold someone participating in this movement. Already, these voters are being pegged as spoilers, as people who just couldn’t get it together to return Biden to the White House, where he belongs.
Biden cannot fail. Biden can only be failed. Right?
That’s not how this works. Biden has to earn those votes, and right now he is spurning those people. Things began to really collapse for Biden when he publicly doubted the death toll coming out of Gaza. There’s a huge Arab American population in this swing state, and he has wounded them in ways that an American president should not wound his own citizens, especially not his own constituency.
This is on Biden. He has lost votes because of his actions. He can try to win those people back, but that would entail him changing his behavior. That has to show up as a change in policy.
5) It does no good to slight and demean the people who honestly feel this way at this stage, because that type of psychological attack is not going to work as a motivating factor. At this point, 48% of Democrats believe a genocide is occurring in Gaza; about 60% of progressives / liberals do. The youth vote is similarly lopsided.
Those are the people you need to have phone banking, knocking on doors, canvassing, etc. Those people are not going to be shamed into volunteering their time and energy. That’s not how this works! Keep aiming your barbs at them—you’re actually shooting yourself in the foot.
If you want Democrats to win, you need to begin to exclaim to Biden and other establishment Democrats that this is an untenable position, that things are going to shit, quick, fast, and in a hurry. Maybe that will light a fire under Biden and get him to turn the ship of state around and tack back to the left as quickly as possible.
I don’t know if he has time to make a course correction, to be perfectly honest. I think he may be outside of that window, which is why I believe he should make room for someone else to come in and drum up enthusiasm, someone freshly untainted by what’s going on in the Middle East. But, if there is a chance for Biden to make that course correction, he has to do it right now—and (this is the tricky part) in a not-obviously-opportunistic way. I don’t envy him his position. He’s up shit’s creek. He has really fucked up. So he needs to start making corrections now so that he can have mended bridges by November.
But he can’t go on the way he has been.