If I Could Pick The Nominee, It'd Be Jeff Merkley, Cockblocked By The Media & Pundits
The presidential election was always going to hinge on the same question: who was perceived to be the lesser evil. Is it possible that Trump could ever be a lesser evil than anyone? Not to me. Not to anyone I know. But, hard as it may be to grok, 74,223,975 of our fellow citizens voted for him in 2020. And in the swing states that handed Biden the win?
Arizona- Biden won by 10,457 votes (49.36% to 49.06%)
Georgia- Biden won by 22,779 votes (49.47% to 49.34%)
Michigan- Biden won by 154,188 votes (50.62% to 47.84%)
Nevada- Biden won by 33,596 votes (50.06% to 47.67%)
Pennsylvania- Biden won by 80,555 (50.01% to 48.84%)
Wisconsin- Biden won by 20,682 (49.45% to 48.82%)
This race was always going to be about which narrative was more resilient in the minds of the voters— Trump is a narcissistic, law-breaking, anti-democracy sociopath or Biden is too senile to function. Maybe it should have been about who would put together the best team to run the government since that’s closer to reality… but that isn’t how the voters look at it. It was always going to be, is this race about Biden (the Fox perspective) or is this race about Biden (the MSNBC perspective)?
It’s very hard to ask the question, should Biden be forced out, because there’s a second part of that question that can’t be ignored— will his replacement be any better, as a candidate to beat Trump and as a national leader... you know as a president? Kamala Harris? I don’t trust one poll from Tuesday night that claims she’ll lose by just 2 points while Biden loses by 6. Three years of polling shows that the American people don’t like her. They may not like Trump, but will they not like her even more? I didn’t like her when she ran for California Attorney General and I didn’t vote for her. She was a lousy AG. I didn’t like her when she ran for the U.S. Senate and I didn’t vote for her. I didn’t like her as a senator. And I couldn’t stand her as a 2020 spectacularly failed presidential candidate. So… if you want to see Trump become president, nominating Kamala is probably the best guarantee. Is she going to be able to unite the country against this:
This is the disjointed context of what Media Matters captured of Roberts’ boasting on neo-fascist Real America’s Voice network.
Let that linger in the background as our fellow Americans contemplate doing to our country what the German voters did to theirs in 1933. Actually Germany had 2 parliamentary elections within a year, November 1932 and March 1933. And then it was over until 75 million people were dead and World War II came to an end.
In March of 1932, turnout was high (80.6%) and the Nazi Party lost 34 seats but still had the most (196 compared to their closest rivals, the center-left Social Democrats 121 and the Communists’ 100 seats). The Nazis won 33.1% of the vote to the SPD’s 20.4% and the Communists’ 16.9%. The Nazis failed to cobble together a coalition. So they set the Reichstag on fire, blamed the communists and seized power.
In March of 1933, six days after the fire, turnout rose to 88.7% and the Nazis, who were violently intimidating their rivals— gained big— 92 more seats and their percentage of the vote rose to 43.9%. It wasn’t a free or fair election; but it was the last multiparty election.
I wonder what brought that on! Anyway, on Tuesday, Prem Thakker asked if Biden is the Dems’ best shot at beating Trump. Unless you want to put Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley into the mix, the bench is pretty bad— Kamala, Gretchen Whitmer, J.B. Pritzker, Amy Klobuchar, Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, Cori Booker, Pete Buttigieg… Is that all there is?
Thakker seems to think any Democrat would do better than Biden who, in terms of polling (never reliable), “is carrying baggage that no alternative Democrat would inherit. Aside from a five-day stretch, Biden has trailed Trump in national polling averages for the better part of the campaign. Trump’s margin widened again after last week’s debate. Biden has been underperforming Democratic Senate candidates in a range of states, including ones he will need to win in 2024, such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and even Ohio. Post-debate polls show Biden sinking in these states and even bringing others like New Hampshire and New Mexico into play. His approval rating is about the lowest it’s ever been during his presidency, at a net negative of 19.”
But Thakker says “it’s not just the polling. Biden has faced a historic protest vote campaign in the form of the Uncommitted movement, which has netted hundreds of thousands of votes nationwide, including in key battleground states, expressing discontent with Biden’s almost-unconditional support for Israel’s war on Gaza. His handling of the war has also birthed a historic nationwide movement of campus and community protests that could continue into the fall.” Would anyone else been able to navigate that situation with Israel better? Maybe not, but few— aside from Trump— would have been worse. Had Biden had the capacity to talk to the country and make case— he didn’t and doesn’t— he might be in better shape today.
With concerns surrounding his age and mental fitness hanging over his campaign, one fact bears acknowledgment: Biden is not getting any younger.
Efforts to challenge Biden earlier in the cycle did not take off— in part because the political establishment had put up a united front around Biden. But even as Biden’s advisers try to tamp down concerns, the list of people who have expressed concern about Biden’s performance or suggested he step aside in order to maximize the odds of beating Trump range only grows. They range from Never Trump Republicans Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell and hosts of the former Obama staffer-led “Pod Save America” to Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Gabe Amo, to the editorial boards of the [Republican] Chicago Tribune, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, former Obama Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, and several Democratic members of Congress and committee leaders nationwide— including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
…If the president is meant to be a messenger for the wider governing structure he represents, Biden, as evidenced by his debate performance, falls short. While Trump spouted lies and racist remarks like clockwork, Biden fumbled to not only respond to those comments, but even to maintain a coherent positive message. If the president is meant to actively craft and execute responsive policy, just look to Biden’s remarkable intransigence in supporting Israel’s war or his timidness in the face of an out-of-control and unaccountable Supreme Court as signs of a political and an electoral liability. If the role of a president is some combination of both, Biden’s recent record appears all the worse.
Despite their hesitance to jump in, alternative candidates have the possibility to not only more effectively contrast themselves against Trump— but also against Biden’s inability to do so. And in a race in which the American public is disenchanted not just with Biden, but with Trump too, the question is whether other Democrats have a better chance than the incumbent against someone who ought to be among the most beatable candidates in presidential election history.
After all, Trump is now the first former president to be a convicted felon and still faces several other criminal proceedings. He appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who not only helped overturn decades-old abortion rights in the U.S., but recently freed corporate America from regulation and ruled that homeless people can be considered criminals for sleeping outside, while crime-committing presidents can be immune from prosecution for nearly any misdeed. He is the face of a movement that sought to overturn an election, that has pursued book bans and mass deportations and infringements on people’s abilities to love whoever they do.
In 2020, Biden had the benefit of challenging a historically unpopular incumbent and garnering the volunteer energy to do so, and still, he won narrowly. If he takes seriously his own warnings of what dangers Trump’s re-ascendance may unleash, he would act accordingly. By every single metric, he is faring much worse in 2024 than he did four years ago, while those same factors suggest nearly any prominent Democratic alternative could perform better.
Today 6 NY Times columnists— including admitted right-wing Republican Ross Douthat— weighed in on who should head the Democratic ticket to go up against Trump and the very real threat of authoritarianism in November:
Lydia Polgreen- Kamala Harris
Nicholas Kristof- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
Ross Douthat- Joe Manchin
Pamela Paul- Gov. Wes Moore
David French- Gov. Josh Shapiro
Charles Blow- Biden
None of those are my first— or second— choice. I think Jeff Merkley would make the best president. It's an old adage that every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. In recent years we’ve seen some succeed and some fail: Joe Biden (D-DE), Bill Bradley (D-NJ), John Edwards (D-NC), Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Bob Dole (R-KS), Al Gore (D-TN), John Kerry (D-MA), Barack Obama (D-IL), John McCain (R-AZ), Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Marco Rubio (R-FL).
As far as I’ve seen, Merkley has never seriously promoted himself or even tried to get anyone else to promote him. He was elected to the Oregon House in 1998, became Speaker in 2006, where he ran up a spectacular record, and used that record to launch a successful bid for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Gordon Smith. In the Senate he’s been a consistent champion for working families— on climate change, healthcare and economic inequality (especially affordable housing, raising the minimum wage, strengthening unions, implementing progressive tax policies and protecting consumer rights). He was the only U.S. Senator to endorse Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries. This was Merkley's appeal to Oregonians when he told them he wouldn't be running for president 4 years ago:
He’s been a strong leading voice on issues that matter to most Americans, from fighting the influence of big money in politics and pushing for reforms like overturning Citizens United, to advocating for Medicare for All. I can't think of any senator who might be willing to run, who would make a better presidnet than Merkley.
Biden won't survive this:
