Sometimes the Lord Almighty takes the form of enlightened self-awareness.
— David Axelrod, 7/8/24
The free exchange of ideas — via rational and open discourse — is foundational to civilization. Human activity is collaborative; we kick ideas around, share intuitions, and solve problems together. We value the input of others while concomitantly understanding that we are, nonetheless, all mostly the same — physically more alike than different, and prone to generating and recognizing similar patterns of thought. But this relational dynamic only succeeds when authentically engaged; positive conversational outcomes depend on good-faith participants working together. We all, innately, know this to be true.
Of course, civilization somehow manages to survive and evolve amid vast amounts of bullshit slinging. Performative politics is always at least as popular as the Socratic dialectic. We seem to have mastered the Orwellian technique of repeatedly and consistently lying to instill not just belief, but also loyalty to falsehoods — all to avoid reputational damage or worse.
So, productive and positive collaboration stands uncomfortably close to destructive and negative competition on the factory floor of human progress. It’s a delicate balance, and one which seems to have been lost this past week or so.
Regarding the general reaction to President Biden’s tragic debate performance and subsequent prime-time interview with George Stephanopoulos, Democratic party partisans seem to have lost their minds. From Biden himself, to his media surrogates, to the acknowledged leaders of the party, to the average democratic voter posting on social media; we’re being assured that we didn’t see anything alarming in Mr. Biden’s recent televised appearances.
To merely question the president’s fitness for office is to be labeled an ageist, a Trump supporter, or an agenda-wielding media hack. Meme after meme questions why the media doesn’t ask Donald Trump to step down — as if journalists weren’t reporting on concerned democrats asking the president to step down. And of course, exactly zero republicans are asking Mr. Trump to step down, so WTF? Ostensibly smart and educated people keep posting this absurdity. Renowned political consultants who architected Clinton, Obama, and Biden victories — and helped manage their presidencies — are apparently part of a great journalistic conspiracy to keep Trump in office. Why? So Big Media can keep selling advertising?
The most distressing part of all of this for me is that we can’t even have the conversation. It’s framed as stupid (at best) or unpatriotic (at worst), to even question whether a trailing incumbent, struggling to communicate in English, can overtake an avowed authoritarian who has already sponsored a violent coup d’etat and who threatens to put a pin in the evolution of the American Experiment.
Those who don’t want to have the conversation will cite Mr. Biden’s lifelong struggle with stuttering — something that has never been used against him by serious people. The shouters-down accuse those of us who, in good faith, question the president’s ability to beat back this dire threat before governing effectively for the next 4.5 years by hurling a disingenuous accusation of ageism. Hello, straw man. Hell, 93 year-old William Fucking Shatner could mop the floor with Donald Trump and get laughs doing it. If you doubt me, check out the good captain’s recent appearance on Real Time. A few weeks ago, I attended a concert by 81 year-old Andy Summers, who cavorted all over the stage, leaping on and off a couch wearing a headset, and spitting out a torrent of witticisms like a coked-up TED presenter. 95 year-old Noam Chomsky, though physically frail, still has his brilliant brain intact. Many years ago, I bore witness to a 90 year-old Ravi Shankar give one of the most powerfully transcendent performances of music imaginable. This is not ageism and everyone knows it. We’re just being told to shut up about a giant liability in the effort to protect the world from a dictator taking over its most powerful country. The emperor’s clothes are magnificent, we are meant to say.
Mr. Biden, for his part, won’t even stay in the race with any sort of grace. He’s defiant, condescending, dismissive, and arrogant in repeating the claim that only he can keep this nation free. He told Stephanopoulos that if he does lose, the most important thing is that he “gave it his all.” With all due respect, Sir, the most important thing is actually the opposite of that.
He could at least acknowledge valid concerns shared by millions across the world. Even if he insists on staying in, he could still address those concerns directly, allay those fears, and even thank people for having them! Is this race about the future of our country and continued human flourishing on Planet Earth or is it about him proving that he can win an election?
Elections are almost always said to have existential implications; but this time it’s true. In 1933, Germany elected a fascist dictator.
ELECTED. A. Facist. Dictator. And we know how that turned out for the world.
Trump has already demonstrated how he governs, and it was a chaotic nightmare of broken norms, violence against opponents, criminal mishandling of a pandemic, and an almost successful coup that would have kept him in power indefinitely. Since then, he has been convicted of 34 crimes — and that’s just the tip of the criminal charge iceberg. Should he be reelected, SCOTUS has paved the way for him to do whatever he wants, legal or not, with his presidency.
Should the president retain his position as candidate (which seems likely), I will work to help him win. That’s not an endorsement of him at this point, as I would work for a Labrador retriever if it were Trump’s opponent. But I don’t think it’s a winnable hand. We can’t unsee what we saw and heard and continue to see and hear. A new candidate would bring energy, focus, and hope to the campaign. It would take Trump out of the news until after the convention, and it would keep his campaign off guard. Kamala Harris could pull out her prosecutorial chops and absolutely go after Trump in a way that Biden continues to prove he cannot. Gretchen Witmer was an actual target of MAGA violence — talk about skin in the game. What’s the bigger gamble, staying with the same limping horse or putting in a healthy one that might be able to catch the leader? There are no guarantees, but the better bet is clear to me.
However this particular crisis is resolved, it’s revealed a deeper dysfunction in American society than I thought 10 days ago.
We can’t even have this conversation.