by Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]
July 4, 2024
A new world is straining to be born, and at some point it requires new American leadership. Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the last of their generation, are both trying to stand in its way.
Trump hopes to block and even reverse the emergence of that new world through brute authoritarian force, trying to “Make America Great Again” by taking us back, back to a time in our nation’s history that never existed, that we should never allow to exist, that is contrary to our traditions. What Trump proposes is not conservative leadership but radical leadership, leadership in which his loud voice is the only one that matters.
By contrast, Biden seeks merely to extend that receding world, which is his world, the world in which he is comfortable because he helped to create it over a 50-year career in high office. He offers himself as a bridge from his generation to the next, from this world to that new world … but just not yet, he says.
Biden comes from a world of Corn Pops and punching time clocks, of formica kitchen tables on linoleum floors with an AM radio playing in the background. Trump comes from dark Manhattan restaurants and steaks covered in ketchup, of backroom deals and yes men and white men and compliant secretaries in a “Mad Men” world.
Trump has never googled, has never used google as a verb and has never asked Siri a damn thing, and I doubt that Biden has either.
For the moment, for now, that is not necessarily a disqualification. Biden has been a more-than-competent president during a difficult four years, but he has also given even his supporters cause to doubt whether he can do so for the four years still to come.
That concern is not a media fabrication, it is not a Republican psy-op. If Biden’s chilling performance in the Atlanta debate was an accurate indication of his remaining capabilities, then his time in a leadership role may be coming to an end.
So far, his aides and many Democratic officials keep telling us that the debate was a glitch, a rare occurrence. It would be a great relief if that proves true. However, their words of second-hand reassurance are not sufficient to overcome what millions of Americans witnessed firsthand a week ago.
Do not tell us; show us. And if you cannot show us, then arrangements should be made.
I do not know the logistics of trying to change horses in midstream; I don’t know the election laws and campaign finance regulations that would have to be navigated to pull off that feat. Few if any know these things, because it has never been attempted before.
And again, maybe that won’t be necessary. If Biden can still reassure the American people by his performance that he remains the best hope for defeating Trump, that he can still serve as the bridge to the next generation, then he should remain the nominee. However, those in the Democratic Party who bristle that the question is even being asked are doing their party, their candidate and the country no good whatsoever.
The question must be asked because four months from the election, six months from an inauguration, we have to know the answer.
The obvious replacement for Biden, should that become necessary, is Vice President Kamala Harris. Most of the criticism directed at Harris seems based more on her gender and race than on her actual performance in office, in part because the performance of a vice president is so difficult for outsiders to accurately judge.
Vice President Harry Truman was considered a non-entity when he took the reins from FDR; he went on to serve as a strong, even visionary leader. Much earlier in our history, Vice President John Tyler was also held in low esteem when he took office after the death of William Henry Harrison. In that case, the low regard in which Tyler was held at the time proved to be an accurate gauge of his capacity as president.
Either way, though, I have absolutely zero doubt that Harris would perform far better in the White House than the man who tried to cling to it through fraud and even violence, who has called for the termination of the Constitution itself if that means he can be returned to the power he craves.
If Joe Biden can demonstrate that he still has the capacity to serve as candidate and as president, he should remain in those roles. If he cannot, he should finish out his term and allow Harris to become head of the ticket, knowing that by doing so he gives his country its best chance to stay true to itself and its bright future.
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