Ever Hear This One? The Republicans Have No Principles; The Democrats Have No Spine?

Time For A Trump vs Hillary Re-Match?

After watching the debate, Professor Robert Zaretsky told his readers that in 1919 Sigmund Freud coined a term when he published an essay titled “The Uncanny,” in which he presents one of the discoveries he made during his journey to the bottom of our psyches. The German word “unheimlich” means something or someone that is unfamiliar or “not from home.” In general, we are scared witless by things so unheimlich or unfamiliar that they are literally alien, like that thing in The Thing or that alien— technically, a xenomorph—in Alien. But, of course, Freud was not thinking of this household variety of the unheimlich. Instead, he turned the word on its head. There are times, he noted, that what is not from home in fact is from home. Hidden or suppressed, it rears up when you least expect it— yes, like the alien bursting through you own chest cavity— and reveals truths you had never considered. The uncanny, Freud asserted, ‘is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind, and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression.’” 

Zaretsky found the debate “at once both utterly familiar and shockingly unfamiliar, dredging up experiences we have all had but casting them in a new and dark light. We all have known instances, often within our own families, for example, where a relative, who has spent too much time online, rants and raves at family gatherings. Or at a  bar where someone will shout the darndest things before passing out. It is a depressing but not terrifying experience. The familiar remains the familiar, as we mostly just roll our eyes as we look at one another. It becomes unfamiliar and terrifying, though, when that same relative, or someone like him, sprays verbal sludge across a stage where moderators of the debate refuse to be arbitrators of the truth in front of tens of millions of viewers. More than half of those viewers are thrilled and will vote him into the presidency, while the rest are chilled and paralyzed by horror— including, it seemed, the object of the filth and falsehoods. Rather than roll our eyes, we hide them behind our splayed fingers as we glance at one another. What was once fantastic and the stuff of ‘reality shows’ suddenly becomes real and the stuff of presidential orders and policies.”

Yet it is an odd kind of real. In his essay, Freud describes the skill of the horror writer when he “pretends to move in the world of common reality… He takes advantage, as it were, of our supposedly surmounted superstitiousness; he deceives us into thinking that he is giving us the sober truth, and then after all oversteps the bounds of possibility.”

This is where we found ourselves both last night and today. There is no talking cure for this unheimlichian moment— apart, that is, from those he trusts to talk sense to Biden if we are to ever escape.

And then came the NY Times editorial board: To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave The Race. Well… at leas “should” isn’t “must.” And just hours after the debate, Morning Consult was out with a meaningless poll. Though a tiny plurality of voters (45-44%) indicated they would vote for Biden if the election were held today, 60% think he should be replaced as the Democratic nominee— including 47% of Democrats (as opposed to 41% of Democrats who said he should not be replaced). 

Allan Lichtman vehemently disagrees. He called the calls to replace Biden “a huge mistake” and “foolhardy nonsense… The same pundits and pollsters who led us down the primrose path in 2016 are giving the Democrats horrible advice. This proves what I’ve been saying for years: The Republicans have no principles; the Democrats have no spine. Republicans are sticking with a blatant liar who lied for every one minute and 20 seconds of that debate, Donald Trump put out a lie. And, by the way, lies stick [to the liar]; debate performances can be overcome. The first sign of adversity, the spineless Democrats want to throw under the bus their own incumbent president. My goodness!”

Even someone, like myself, who is such a non-fan of Biden’s that they refused to vote for him as the lesser evil in 2020, might look at the Democratic bench and shudder, wondering if maybe we’re better off just letting Biden stay the course. The NY Times identified 11 possible replacements— 10 neoliberal politicians and one who’s never been involved with politics except as a politician’s wife:

• Kamala Harris- mediocre prosector, mediocre senator, mediocre extremely unpopular vice president

• Gavin Newsom- mediocre mayor, mediocre governor

• Gretchen Whitmer- who?

• JB Pritzker- grossly over-weight hereditary billionaire, mediocre governor

• Josh Shapiro- who? 

• Pete Buttigieg- slimy consultant, small time mayor, mediocre Transportation Secretary

• Cory Booker- mediocre senator

• Amy Klobuchar- aggressively mediocre senator

• Andy Beshear- who?

• Michelle Obama- someone’s wife, not interested

• Hillary Clinton- God save us all!

Nikki Haley warned Republicans that the Dems will replace Biden with someone young and vibrant. I might add at this point that Hill would be 77 on election day. “They are going to be smart about it: they’re going to bring somebody younger, they’re going to bring somebody vibrant, they’re going to bring somebody tested.”

Not on the list: anyone definitively better than Biden, particularly not any popular progressives... like Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, Jamie Raskin or Jeff Merkley.