For what it’s worth, I’ve always liked Joe Biden. But we’re engaged in a battle for our democracy, and what we need in our leader now is a lot more than likeability. We need someone who can lead us to victory in that battle.
As it happens, in Trump’s Ukraine-gate scandal, that corrupt President has cast Joe Biden as his main opponent, and done so in a scandalous, even criminal way. For the kind of leader we need, that Trumpian attack — based on lies, revealing Trump’s utter unfitness to wield the powers of the Presidency — would have been an opportunity. For Biden, it has been a problem.
Instead of using Trump’s attack as an opportunity to expose Trump for the thug that he is, Biden, in his way of responding, has instead confirmed what I wrote about him back in June.
At that time, in a piece titled “Why It’ll (Likely) Be Either Biden or Warren, and How We Should Decide Which,” I expressed my willingness to choose Biden if he were to prove the only safe bet to defeat Trump. But I went on to indicate why I hoped that would not be the case, why even Biden’s defeating Trump would still leave us to vulnerable to the morally bankrupt force that has taken over the Republican Party over the past generation.
Democrats, I said, will need to change their ways of combatting that force. For, over the years, the Democrats’ habitual manner of fighting had proved weak and ineffective. The Democrats would need to be bolder, ready to press the battle with a powerful attack. But, I wrote,
the problem with Biden is that he appears to represent dealing with that battle the way the Democrats have been doing for years.
So choosing Biden means sticking with the way of fighting that has led to our losing so much ground that --unthinkably -- even that most basic American value [American democracy] is in jeopardy.
And that piece goes on to document, with Biden’s own words, reasons for believing that he’d be incapable of dealing with what the Republicans would deal out to a President Biden, and how a Biden victory over Trump would not likely do much to undo the pathological power-dynamic that has given so much control over our national destiny to a morally bankrupt political party.
All this seems confirmed, now, as we’ve watched Biden try to cope with the role that Trump has cast him in— as this President tries to use the powers of his office to extort manufactured dirt on Biden to help his own re-election bid.
A New York Times article today describes Biden’s efforts to cope with this Trumpian attack as “a case study in indecision.” And then goes on to say,
Now Mr. Biden looks more vulnerable than at any point since he entered the campaign. Facing one of the greatest challenges of his candidacy, Mr. Biden has plainly struggled to meet the moment, or fully reconcile his own cautious instincts with his protectiveness of his family’s privacy and his preference for taking the moral high road against Mr. Trump.
The tip-off, for me, is that final phrase: “his preference for taking the moral high road against Mr. Trump. Because I recognize the pseudo-problem that Biden apparently has perceived: i.e. the pseudo-problem that mistakes pressing the battle forcefully for losing “the moral high road.
My own engagement in the battle against this right-wing force goes back at least to 2004, and my calls for Democrats to wage their side of the battle more aggressively and powerfully frequently elicited from liberals the cry, “We don’t want to sink to their level.” And I’d argue along the lines of “Using the moral truth to fight against those who are waging battle with immoral lies does not put us on the same moral level.”
So, the spotlight that Trump’s scandalous behavior shone on Biden was an opportunity for him to step forward and use that attention to expose Trump for what he is. Biden, after all, was more than anyone in a position to denounce the behavior that has proved sufficient to change the whole dynamic around the issue of Trump’s impeachment.
Biden said some things that are true. But his denunciations were pitifully lacking the knock-out punch that a better fighter could have landed.
His counter-attack, moreover, was insufficient to prevent Trump’s attacks from actually damaging Biden: a high percentage of Americans imagine there’s something worth investigating regarding Biden and his son, even though — as Biden has weakly said — all such accusations have been consistently debunked by reputable news organizations.
I’m not saying that defeating Trump’s lies is easy. But one doesn’t have to stoop to Trump’s level to go toe-to-toe with him, and land hard blows. And Biden does not seem to be the one who can do it.
And someone who can go toe-to-toe with Trump, and with the Republicans generally, to make sure that a big political price is exacted for every disgraceful word and deed they commit , is the kind of leader the Democrats need now.
And Joe Biden has shown again that he’s not the one.
Democrats should work on envisioning what that “knock-out punch” delivered from the high moral ground would look like. And then on finding a leader who can deliver it.
(My hopes for that are on Elizabeth Warren. I’d like to see her speak in that manner more frequently.)