By Rudy Barnes, Jr., July 13, 2024
Trump and Biden and Republican and Democratic party leaders are complicit in using partisan strategies to promote demagoguery in America’s polarized 2-party democracy. It takes two to tango, and either Trump or Biden or their party leaders could end the current political farce of American democracy with an open convention, but that’s not likely to happen.
America is witnessing an exercise of political narcissism in both parties. It’s the love of power that keeps Trump and Biden and their partisan leaders in line to preserve their power and oppose the nonpartisan common good. It’s increasingly obvious that the current polarized political regimes in Washington aren’t willing to risk losing their partisan power.
No longer can one party blame the other for America’s moral and political failures. Trump may be nastier and more dishonest than Biden, but both are afflicted with a love of political power that blinds them to promoting the common good. Party loyalty has become an overriding priority of leaders in both parties, and that needs to change.
But it’s not likely that either party will sacrifice its traditional partisan loyalties to promote the common good, and that’s where party priorities originate their democratic principles. To promote the common good the two-party duopoly will have to expand its existing constituencies to include political moderates, and there is no evidence that will happen.
American democracy may have to die and be born again--like the phoenix in Greek mythology, or being born again in Christianity. That could happen with an open convention for Republicans or Democrats in which the current nominee would allow the convention to choose the party’s nominee, providing the best chance of defining the common, or nonpartisan, good.
An open convention would have unpredictable results, and likely be opposed by the partisan power structure. The alternative is to go forward with Trump and Biden and a continuation of partisan polarization that will likely lead to demagoguery, with the extremes of partisan politics defining America’s political objectives for the foreseeable future.
For the Democratic Party to have the credibility to run the government of the United States, or to be the “loyal opposition”, it must not allow its leaders to behave like Trump and demand that personal loyalty to the party leader is more important to the welfare of the nation than the nonpartisan public will that expresses the common good.
Diversity can be the strength of a pluralistic democracy unless it devolves into polarized partisan politics that provide a path to demagoguery. With party conventions just months away, both Trump and Biden leave real doubt whether either can subordinate their self-centered political interests to promoting the common good. For Biden and the Democratic Party, an open convention could remedy the credibility problem.
Notes:
Despite opposition within his party to his nomination, Biden has repeatedly ignored requests to step aside and allow an open convention to consider an alternative Democratic nominee for President. Biden’s many years in office seem to have blinded him to his failure to recognize his political limitations. Graeme Wood of the Atlantic has asserted that to trust Biden is no longer a credible option, and advocated that Biden should release the delegates in an open convention.
“Senility is part of the human condition, but dignity is usually a choice. I pity Joe Biden for having to make what may be the most humiliating decision in presidential history. The questions Are you senile yet? Are you sure? have no dignified answer—which is why Biden should consider an option midway between resignation and denial, and persist in a way that is not, to my knowledge, being considered. Having harvested enough delegates for the nomination, he now has sole authority to release them and let them choose another nominee at or before the Democratic National Convention in August. To release them and glide toward retirement would invite speculation about whether being unfit to run for president means he is also unfit to serve as president for the rest of his term. Failure to release them would feel a lot like Biden is holding the party hostage, and forcing its members to defend his debility with such preposterous vigor that no one will believe anything they say ever again. The dignity-preserving option is to release the delegates and run in an open convention. Asking the country to trust him is no longer a credible option. But inviting delegates to witness his continued vigor and competence facing an open convention is a possible path forward, and the likeliest to end in another Biden term. See https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/biden-release-delegates-dnc-option/678925/.
At a press conference Thursday evening Biden told reporters he’s committed to finishing the job he started. “‘We’ve got more to do. We’ve got to finish the job.’ “The moment of defiance comes as Democrats are overwhelmingly despondent about his candidacy. A disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27 sparked plenty of second guesses about their presumptive candidate’s odds to hold the White House. Ignoring the Democrats who have publicly urged Biden to step aside, Biden said he has what it takes to continue the job for a second term. As he has in the past, he blamed aides for his own stumbles. ‘I love my staff, but they add things. They add things all the time. I’m catching hell from my wife. Anyway,’ he said, trailing off yet again. Asked if he would drop out of the race if his staff showed him polling that Vice President Kamala Harris could defeat Trump, Biden said “no,” that wouldn’t be enough. “Unless they came back and said there’s no way you can win. No one’s saying that. Biden’s showing was at times halting, often stopping to clear his throat and speaking through a hoarse voice. He boasted about a new economic report that showed a strengthening domestic economy. But it was clear he understood the stakes and was on a tight leash. “I’ve been given a list of people to call on here,” Biden said. Answering his first question, Biden messed up the name of his own understudy, as he tried to speak on Harris’ ability to swap onto the ticket as a replacement. “I would not have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President if I didn’t think she was qualified to be President.” The gaffe came just hours after Biden drew gasps from the room of diplomats for mistakenly calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. See Joe Biden Meets the Press, Fails to Quiet Worries at https://time.com/6997640/joe-biden-press-conference-2/?utm_.
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