Where the alarmist sees those, I see pointed questions about important policy issues to candidates to decide who we’re going to send to defeat Cheetolini in the general. Eichenwald favors Biden - which is fine for him and his choice - while painting Biden’s critics as dangerous to the country, which is incorrect and reckless. Eichenwald is free to express both opinions, but he should be prepared to be called out for smearing Biden’s critics and primary policy debate itself.
Characterizing policy debate as some kind of superfluous nicety (AKA a cocktail party) that can’t be afforded is short-sighted. Backing candidate(s) other than Biden in the primary is in no way mutually exclusive with backing the Democratic nominee, whoever they are, in the general.
In that case my sincere advice is to talk to those people you know about why it’s so important to back the Democratic nominee in the general election, not why they should eschew “nuanced adult conversation” about the policy positions of the candidates in the primary. Moreover, I would argue that telling people they should stop that conversation, and especially characterizing it as purity tests and infighting, will in fact only serve to further alienate them because they either are extremists who’d pursue a scorched earth strategy, or they’re more likely the vast majority of anti-Trump voters who don’t appreciate having their “nuanced adult conversation” characterized as a scorched earth strategy.
It’s become tragically popular in American politics for the most vocal responses to the most extreme version of some position to be addressed to anyone who doesn’t in fact support one’s own position, and vice versa, with the result that those who indulge in that end up arguing with straw men instead of debating with each other. Meanwhile, a lot of people who want to field the most progressive candidate to defeat Hair Hitler are having substantial “nuanced adult conversations” without doing the harm to the country of which alarmists such as Eichenwald are accusing them.
We know Trump is the final bad guy boss to defeat. Debating who we’ll send does not undermine the process, it strengthens it.
