Will Donkey Drag Democracy Down With It?

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, not wanting to let Joe Biden cause all of the party’s self-destruction, tied protestors against Biden’s Middle East policies to Vladimir Putin in a Sunday CNN interview:

Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a number of controversial statements during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, voicing her opinion that protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza are in some way in cahoots with Russia, urging the FBI to conduct a probe.

"For them to call for a ceasefire is Mr. Putin's message. Make no mistake," Pelosi said. "This is directly connected to what he would like to see... I think some of these protesters are spontaneous, and organic, and sincere. Some I think are connected to Russia. Some financing should be investigated and I want to ask the FBI to investigate that."

As Reuters points out in its coverage of Pelosi's interview, her comments "marked the first time a prominent U.S. lawmaker has accused Russia's leader of backing U.S. protesters calling for a ceasefire."

Putting aside the neo-McCarthyite aspects of this smear, it is one of the most mind-numbingly stupid missteps I can recall being made by a party mandarin in a presidential election year. It’s a slightly different approach than AOC took on this topic on Meet the Press on Sunday: 

“Do you agree with that word, ‘genocide,’ that the president’s been supporting a genocide, or does that go too far?” moderator Kristen Welker asked.

“I think what we are seeing right now throughout the country is that young people are appalled at the violence and the indiscriminate loss of life,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez also noted that the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take all measures within its authority to prevent genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza.

“The fact that they said there’s a responsibility to prevent it, the fact that this word is even in play, the fact that this word is even in our discourse, I think demonstrates the mass inhumanity that Gazans are facing," she said.

The party’s titular House leader from 2003-23 publicly essentially called pro-ceasefire demonstrators agents of Putin. The de facto leader of the House Dem “Squad” in recent years noted that “young people are appalled at the violence and the indiscriminate loss of life.”  There’s not a lot of room for middle ground between those views.

The context in which these radically different views were expressed on a literal life and death issue is instructive. Biden carrying the youth vote by huge margins with good turnout was essential to his 2020 win. Given the tightness of the electoral college then and the anticipated tightness now, it’s hard to see him winning this time without piling up similar margins with younger voters. It’s bad enough for the White House to ignore these entreaties and continue to be complicit in the slaughter of civilians. Pelosi adding (literal) insult to injury is pure gift to Team Trump.

Calls for a cease fire come from other critical Dem constituencies as well.  Black pastors are ALWAYS an essential support base for Dem GOTV efforts, and they certainly will be this year. As per the NYT:

As the Israel-Hamas war enters its fourth month, a coalition of Black faith leaders is pressuring the Biden administration to push for a cease-fire— a campaign spurred in part by their parishioners, who are increasingly distressed by the suffering of Palestinians and critical of the president’s response to it.

More than 1,000 Black pastors representing hundreds of thousands of congregants nationwide have issued the demand. In sit-down meetings with White House officials, and through open letters and advertisements, ministers have made a moral case for President Biden and his administration to press Israel to stop its offensive operations in Gaza, which have killed thousands of civilians. They are also calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas and an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

Thankfully, Pelosi has yet to claim that any black pastors are agents of Putin. Thus far, she has avoided stumbling over the line from political malpractice to electoral suicide. Hopefully, she’ll stay away from that topic at a dangerous time.

We have a 2024 election in which a major party apparently will nominate a past insurrectionist who openly aspires to be a future dictator. While I’ve become inured to routine proclamations that the future of the republic is at stake in THIS election, such proclamations are not hyperbole this time. As bad as Trump I was, Trump II would likely cause damage that could never be remedied.

While the donkey has given us few positive reasons to vote for the party ticket, there are countless negative reasons to vote against the opposing ticket. Under those circumstances, the party owes the rest of to at least not give its potential supporters reasons to not bother showing up to vote against the Cheeto Benito. At present, it seems to be failing that lowest common denominator test.

I reluctantly voted for Biden in 2020— Florida appeared to be hotly contested, and the very idea of a second Trump term appalled me. I have been steeling myself to vote for him a second time, largely because he post-1/6 Trump is even more appalling. The FlaDems’ downward spiral has offered me a potential escape from that dilemma. 

It’s too early to tell whether Florida will be hotly contested this fall. The recently-ousted state GOP chair had some, um, legal issues. Assuming that a proposed abortion rights amendment gets on the ballot, it will gin up Dem turnout. After reaching rock bottom in 2022, the party is starting to show a few signs of life.

If the Dems actually do contest Florida, whether to vote for Biden/Harris may prove to be a game-time decision. I know others who normally are more forgiving of the donkey than me who have a similar viewpoint. People become Democrats because they strongly value things like not financing and supporting foreign governments who bomb civilians, put hospitals out of operation, and make malnutrition inevitable. They don’t like subcontracting U.S. foreign policy in the world’s most volatile region to the likes of Bibi Netanyahu.

We all already knew that the Democrats were nominally headed by a largely out of touch octogenarian. It’s not a positive to be reminded that, for 20 years, their House delegation was headed by an equally out of touch (current) octogenarian. It’s not a positive to be reminded that one of the party’s most effective spokespeople in the last 2 cycles was a (current) octogenarian from Vermont who the party (barely) tolerated then and who they likely will do their best to ignore now.

It may be too much for us to hope that the Dems will run a capable campaign. It should not be too much to ask for them to not shoot themselves in the foot like Pelosi just did. The anticipated margins are too narrow and the stakes are too high this time.