This piece will be running as an op/ed in newspapers in my very red congressional district (VA-06).
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The Democrats in Array
The headline “Democrats in Disarray” is a long-standing joke about the media’s habit of seeing the Democratic world as failing to get it together. An element of truth stands behind it.
(Will Rogers famously said “I’m not a member of any organized party. I’m a Democrat. And pulling the party together is routinely likened to “herding cats.” All of which makes sense when one considers all the various different groups that make up the Democratic coalition.)
But this past week, something remarkable happened in the Democratic world—something that I didn’t see coming.
I’ve written more than a half dozen pieces in the past month laying out how I thought the crisis in the Democratic world should be resolved. That crisis, of course, was precipitated by President Biden’s stunning incapacity to perform in the June 27 debate with Donald Trump.
Two consequences of that disastrous performance plunged the Democratic world into turbulence. Many in the Democratic world, questioning how capable Joe Biden would be of winning November’s election, given how the American people assessed his fitness, were weighed down by a feeling of foreboding.
The question of winning weighed more heavily than in any previous election, because Democrats see that it would be catastrophic for the nation – likely an end to American Democracy – if the powers of the presidency were again placed into the hands of Donald Trump. (Trump no longer hides his plans to place himself atop an authoritarian regime.)
Given this unprecedented stakes, I thought two things to be essential:
- that President Biden voluntarily step aside. (Whatever Biden’s actual fitness, or lack of it, it became clear that with him at the top of the ticket the party would be dispirited, with so many of his allies believing he would lead them into an electoral disaster.)
- that the right process be devised for selecting the best possible new champion for the electoral contest (with “best” defined as most likely to win).
I campaigned for a particular process I thought would maximize the chances of victory—a process that would:
- be perceived as fair,
- not be divisive or chaotic,
- express the collective wisdom of the party,
- choose an excellent nominee,
- broadcast to the American electorate what they need to hear to save our American republic.
My hope was that President Biden, when he withdrew, would propose such a process.
But of course, when Biden stepped aside, he also endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris.
My first reaction was that this is too important a decision – given the heritage our founders bequeathed to us being at stake – to be made by one person. I feared that such anointment would fail to empower the Party fully enough for this must-win election.
As recently as early Monday, I sought a way for VP Harris to “earn” the nomination (for she pledged to “earn” it), or for someone else to earn it, in the kind of benign contest I had been promoting.
But then I saw that something was happening that I had not envisioned: the Democratic world was coming together behind Kamala Harris with immediate and explosive enthusiasm. It was almost as though a switch had been thrown and, from the base to the leadership, the Party became extraordinarily unified and energized behind their new champion. (Whole delegations pledged their support. Contributions to fund the campaign set historic records.)
I changed my mind. The enthusiasm I’d hoped might be achieved by other means was already erupting nationwide by the process that President Biden had initiated with his endorsement. I’d misjudged the situation.
The op/ed piece I’d submitted for publication at noon, I withdrew by evening:
In part, I apparently underestimated the esteem Kamala Harris has earned in the Democratic world. In the years since I formed my main impressions of this VP, apparently, she’s grown in a variety of ways that make her more capable – more formidable – for the job ahead (winning the election, serving as President) than I’d supposed.
But mostly, I believe that the extraordinary eruption of Democratic fervor reflects the extraordinary state of mind that the Democratic world has been in.
For a great many Americans, the real possibility of a nightmarish future has weighed heavily on their spirits. As Donald Trump has been showing ever more clearly his intentions – to use the Law to smite his enemies, to commit crimes and call himself “immune,” to implement Project 2025 to make federal employees loyal only to the would-be dictator, etc. – those who see the threat of losing the heritage our founders bequeathed to us have looked to the future with dread.
Then, those fears then got magnified by the discovery that avoiding that nightmare likely required President Biden to surrender his desires, for the good of the nation. The dread got compounded by the fact that only one person could make the decision to change that situation, and it was far from clear that he would do so.
After more than three weeks of unbearable tension, there came the deliverance. The sudden switch from dread to hope released an emotional and spiritual force that the Democratic world has expressed with an upsurgence of passion, commitment, money.
Overnight, the Democrats were in full array.