For some years, I’ve held the DK community in high regard for the overall high quality of both the articles and the discussions. Over the past month, I’ve been surprised and then disturbed by a couple of phenomena I’ve observed as the DK world processed the crisis that unfolded in the Democratic world in the wake of the June 27th presidential debate.
In a piece on June 28 (i.e. the day after the debate), I took the position that the essential points that should govern the outcome of the ensuing crisis were two:
- the defeat of Donald Trump is a necessity, because the survival of American Democracy likely depended on it;
- the best path forward should be whatever maximized the chance of victory in that must-win election.
I immersed myself in the issues involved, imbibing the available facts, and reading arguments on both the “stay the course with Biden” and the “Biden must step aside” sides of the issue.
By the following day, in a second piece, I expressed my puzzlement that the positions being taken by diarists on Daily Kos were so unrepresentative of what I was encountering in the pro-Democracy world generally. Specifically, opinion on Daily Kos seemed to be overwhelmingly in favor of continuing to the November election with Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. Elsewhere a considerably greater proportion of those wanting the Democrats to win the election were taking the position that it would be better if Biden.
I wondered why that was. I still wonder.
As the crisis and discussion progressed, I observed something else — something I found not only puzzling, but disturbing as well. I noted that a sizeable contingent of those on DK who discussed those calling for Biden to step down were downright hostile to those on the other side of the issue. They spoke of the “Biden should step aside” people as if they were the enemy, seemingly suspecting them of contemptible motives.
I assumed that the goal of defeating Trump motivated people on both sides of the Biden issue. So I didn’t understand why some diarists on DK were regarding people who disagreed with them on the best way to achieve that goal would be the objects of such anger and enmity.
And, still puzzled, I would like to ask straight out: what was that about?
That hostility would have disturbed me in any event, but that was compounded by the fact that I had reached the conclusion that having Biden at the top of the ticket would dangerously reduce our chances of defeating Trump — compared with his being replaced by any of the prominently mentioned alternatives.
I did not withdraw altogether from voicing my analysis of the situation on DK, but the hostile atmosphere on the site led to my holding back more than I would have. (I do care about how I’m regarded by a community I respect.)
Why was there an atmosphere on DK — regarding this intense crisis — that made it seem risky to present views arrived at honestly and in pursuit of the presumably sharedintention of helping the forces of Democracy triumph over the threat of Fascism?
And I wonder now how the developments of the past less-than-a-week have impacted any of these puzzling attitudes on DK.
It seems to me that the impact of Biden’s withdrawal last Sunday, and his endorsement of his Vice President to replace him at the top of the ticket, has emphatically confirmed the position that we would be stronger if President Biden gracefully stepped aside. Immediately, the Party manifestly became energized and unified. And the prospects for victory brightened, virtually overnight.
A dispirited Democratic world came immediately to vibrant life— multitudes registered to vote, a tsunami of campaign contributions flooded in, the party rallied behind Kamala Harris who quickly showed herself able, adept, articulate, and ready to fight.
The polls quickly showed movement in a favorable direction, as did the probabilities assigned by the futures markets.
A party that had been increasingly filled with dread and despair quickly filled with hope, and manifested a surge of commitment so powerful that history will long remember it.
Whatever one’s judgments on all kinds of questions regarding President Biden’s present abilities to campaign and serve, I cannot imagine how one would not be persuaded by all these transformative developments that if our goal is to keep the powers of the presidency out of the hands of Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, our chances have indeed been improved by President Biden’s “passing the torch.”
Given this dramatic confirmation of what the “Biden should step aside” people were saying, during that three-and-a-half week period, I wonder whether anyone here is reconsidering the attitudes that were manifest on Daily Kos during that very painful and challenging period of crisis.