Biden, Democrats, and Landing a Plane

Written by David Curtin

What with the free-falling Biden fiasco and what’s going on at the national level with our presidential election, it’s pretty easy to lose sight of other important issues we should be talking about. But that’s what happening (temporarily) because something big did happen at the national level. It’s a watershed moment where we’re all paying attention, even as we enjoy our summer. No doubt the presidential election was already a “big” deal and obviously was getting bigger each day as we marched toward Nov. 5, but now everything is in disarray in one party.

Quite frankly, it’s concerning whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or Independent.

If you’re a Democrat, you realize your party is in a pickle of its own making that could provide a landslide election for Republicans in November all the way down to dog-catcher in each state. Harrowing to think about if you’re a Democrat. But even more upsetting to the average Democrat is that this “pickle” was easily avoidable.

The Democrat Party lied to its own voters. Joe Biden is (and was) in decline to the extent that he can’t do the job of president. Telling people “there’s nothing to see here” when asked daily about the president’s mental decline, his wife, handlers, and media cohorts had been doing their best over the last year gaslighting the American people. That is, until 50 million average Americans got a peek under the hood of this ’42 Chevy on June 27 in the first presidential debate.

We all saw an 81-year-old career politician who was tired, raspy, didn’t finish sentences, sometimes incoherent, and made a couple gaffes.

Political junkee that I am, I didn’t think it was his worst performance. Not by a long shot. But a presidential debate, particularly the first one, is like a first date. You better come looking and acting sharp because some people are going to be seeing you for the first time. That’s why the Biden campaign rigged the debate in the first place.

Joe Biden would not debate Donald Trump unless the debate had a simple format, no audience to contend with, and hosted (controlled) by a cable news network that is anti-Trump and pro-Biden, with the most left-wing “journalists” forming and asking the questions. What could go wrong?

Well, that question was answered.

Perhaps the biggest misnomer was that “everyone” was surprised after the debate that Biden couldn’t deliver a solid performance. Rather, the real fall-out was that Democrat insiders, major players, and major donors got caught red-handed in a lie. They were embarrassed to see the faltering, fumbling, worn-out gentleman who showed up to debate that didn’t match their gaslighting descriptions of him. Everyone now could see with their own eyes what they in the party already knew about the president – he’s not up to the job.

Even after Biden vacationed at Camp David, slept long hours, and would not perform any debate prep before 11 a.m. each day – all in order to recover from two recent trips to other countries. But debate prep they did. Unfortunately, it’s too much for an older man like him to carry the schedule of being president and practicing for a debate. Colds, jet lag, whatever you want to call it happen. The body can only take so much.

So what will happen now?

Smart people on one side say he will stay in with four short months to go. He holds the delegates. No one can “make” him go. Smart people on the other side think he’ll have to withdraw (I’m one of these people – not smart, but agreeing with Democrat strategist James Carville who answered that question the other day by quoting the late economist Herb Stein: “That which can’t continue – won’t.”)

The Democrats have two bad options here. They’re going to take the least bad option.

Option #1: leaving Biden in would mean that they would have to run a “basement campaign” again like they did in 2020 without the excuse of Covid. What I mean is, they would have to carefully manage and limit public appearances of Biden so they don’t let people see he’s not functioning well. This is impossible to do now that the cat is out of the bag. The issue going into November has now become about Biden’s health and competency for another four years – and that’s not a message that leads to victory.

Option #2: has to prevail.

The only problem is that Option #2 gives the nomination to Vice President Kamala Harris, who, unfortunately for Democrats, is a well-known brand viewed more unfavorably than Biden. It’s very odd for a sitting vice president who really doesn’t need to impress in order to be popular – to be very unpopular. Normally, vice presidents are more well-liked because that comes with the job.

Vice presidents are usually experienced politicians who have won past elections, but they also have the added benefit of not having any responsibilities in an office that is ceremonial. Somehow Kamala has managed to appear incompetent and unlikable to a large swath of voters over the past 3½ years. And you can’t fix that in four months. Maybe four years, but not four months.

And yet if Democrats don’t rally around Kamala Harris, Democrats can kiss the election goodbye just as if Biden were still the nominee.

That’s because Democrats are governed first and foremost by identity politics. Identity politics means you elevate someone in politics from an “under-represented group” rather than the best candidate suitable for that job. That means you can’t skip over a sitting African-American female vice president to hand the nomination to someone else.

Well, you can, but a good chunk of black voters will revolt. And there’s no way the Democrat Party can win any election if that happens. The numbers just aren’t there.

If they saw a decline of even 10% black voters in this election, they can’t win. Why do you think they’ve been letting in millions of Hispanics over the southern border the last several years? The writing has been on the wall over the last 5-10 years. They need future voters.

Republicans have been chipping away at the black vote and Democrats see a time in the not-so-distant future where their black voting bloc will not be so… impenetrable. It won’t occur this election, although Trump will probably pick up a few more percentage points and build on what he picked up in 2020 and 2016. But it’s coming, and the Democrats know it.

Therefore, if Kamala Harris is the nominee, expect a four-month campaign by Democrats and the media excitedly telling the American people that this is an historic election to elect the first African-American woman as president and to stop Donald Trump. That’s their entire message.

Will it work? If Republicans get over-confident and don’t run a good campaign, it could very well work. They should not count their chickens before they hatch — and they certainly should not gloat over the Dems’ troubles — as some are predisposed to do now. That could very well backfire on them.

What they should be doing is making the case that one party lied to you and the other party is on your side. One party can’t govern and the other party, like you, are:

—shocked by the inflated prices at the grocery stores, gas stations and everywhere else;

—outraged by gobs of taxpayer money being spent on people who have broken the law to enter the US (shelter, food and health care);

—frustrated that public schools are failing our kids academically;

—enraged by anti-Christian indoctrination in schools;

—upset about rampant crime that puts law-abiding people in unsafe situations daily;

—exhausted by endless foreign wars roiling with no end in sight.

Meanwhile, looney left leaders sit on the sidelines denying the problems the hard-working average family experiences every day in the U.S.

Let’s work and pray for victory to start turning our country around, because we’ve all known for a long time that this can’t continue as is. May Almighty God continue to bless the efforts of the righteous and walk with us in this valley of fear.

David Curtin is a longtime pro-life advocate, political consultant and recently became the IFI lobbyist. Originally from Stonington and a graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he lives and works in Springfield.