The fascists are empowered and engaged. It will take a long time and a lot of fighting to put them back in their holes. Let’s be honest, they never went away, and will be with us after this is over. But if they are afraid to show their faces again, i could live with that. If everyone associated with Mein Kampf II, er, Project 2025, spends the rest of their miserable existence destitute and denying any connection to it, i could live with that. If we stop assuming it can’t happen here and vote that way, i could live with that. But we have a ways to go to get there. The fight continues.
I’d obviously prefer to have younger choices in general(I’m not sure if congress right out of college is the best career path; but I’m also unsold on the merits of a leadership class that’s old enough to be my parents when I myself am old enough to be someone’s parent myself a decade or two ago); but some of the age-related hand-wringing seems related to the always-baffling-to-me focus on the person and personality of The President; rather than their VP, assortment of advisors and staff, (often fairly consistent) body of policy, ongoing initiatives, associates in Congress, etc.
Are there probably some examples of presidents Great Man Theory of History-ing their way to unexpected results through grit and charisma? I suspect that there are some examples that I’m not thinking of. Am I especially concerned about how many hours per week El Presidente is putting in personally; vs. how many staffers and executive branch executors of various sorts are handling? No, not really.
The difference seems particularly stark when the choice is between a more or less traditional Institutions-type guy who certainly has personal positions and goals but has shown pretty standard interest in advancing those within historical frameworks and a oh-very-much-a-cult-of-personality guy who(while he definitely has hatchetmen of his own and various others using him as cover for his work); does seem to be interested in burning down whatever stands in the way of Great Leader representing the general will(of Real America; not xenos and liberal traitors, obviously); which makes his own fitness for purpose a matter of greater concern.
Would I prefer that the Democratic candidate represent a broadly similar policy package but at an impeccably vigorous 40-ish or so? Sure. Would I vastly prefer getting the policy package that’s way less dangerous even if it’s somewhat drowsy term and we need to slot in the VP partway through? Hell yeah. If I remember correctly the cold war continuity-of-government stuff gives us replacements over a dozen deep; so it’s the policy, not the man, that’s the thing.
At this point, have all the suggested replacements come out in support of Biden?
Is there anyone on the list of “could step in and receive better support” that either hasn’t made a statement yet or made a statement that Biden should step aside?
Exactly right. I’ll say it plainly: either Biden (or whoever has a D after their name on the ballot) wins this November, or there’s a rip-roaring bastard of a good chance there won’t BE a next time. Vote. And convince at least one other person to vote.
“He shows up every day and fights for the American public. He cares about other people more than he cares about himself, and that’s precisely why I think this moment where we have Donald Trump, who’s been convicted of 34 felonies, who cares only about Donald Trump, we can’t lose sight of how high these stakes are,” the governor said. “We have a field, and unless one person, Joe Biden, makes an alternative decision, this is the field, and we’ve got to go.”
But then she says this…
“I don’t think that it would hurt,” the Democrat said after being pressed by CNN’s Abby Phillip on whether Biden should take a cognitive test and demand that former President Donald Trump do the same.
“On the one hand, being a member of the opposition in a fascist regime sounds like a good way to be murdered, but on the other, my donors want lower taxes.”
