Two-Thirds Of Dems Want Biden Out Of The Race Now

Being the president of the United States is arguably the hardest job in the world. The person who does it, fairly or not, is required to be able to push through when he or she is tired and sick.

Perhaps all of this would have been eventually surmountable, though, if Biden's political appeal – as opposed to his personal one – had any traction.

Over the last several weeks, however, Biden's message appears to have degenerated into simply pointing out that he is not Trump . The entire point of his candidacy now appears to be a negative one – to beat Trump.

Yes, beating Trump is critical to Democrats. But Biden appears to have lost the ability to persuade Americans he can stop the deepening divisions that still plague the US and cause many to fear it is splitting apart . It is not clear what Biden's vision for the future is or what he is offering other than another temporary stay in a much longer historical catastrophe.

This was evident at Biden's “big boy” press conference at the end of the NATO Summit in Washington. Biden spoke at length and in great detail about foreign policy, an area he and his supporters have long considered one of his greatest strengths. But his vision for the United States' role in the world was muddled and included some misleading comments and gaffes.

His comments on Israel, in particular, highlighted a much deeper problem on the electoral horizon. A day after the press conference, The New York Times published a video montage of voters explaining they cannot vote for Biden because of his administration's support of Israel's war in Gaza.

To these voters and others, it is hard to underestimate the depth of Biden's betrayal, both political and personal.

In 2020, Biden's successful pitch to the American people centred on his own compassion , his ability to see the suffering of other people, really feel and share it, and then to work to ameliorate it. He promised both to listen and to be a generational bridge. He has done neither.

His support among Democratic voters continues to decline. In a new survey this week, in fact, two-thirds of Democrats now believe he should withdraw from the race.

Succession planning should be a critical part of any president's job. And yet Biden – the oldest sitting president in American history – has no obvious successor, not even his own vice president, Kamala Harris. And no one else in the Democratic Party has any authority to lead until and unless he steps aside.
Everything now becomes a matter of risk calculations for a party not good at making them.

For decades, Democrats have been scarred by the inherited“lessons” of the 1968 contested convention . This was a tumultuous meeting of party members to choose a nominee for that year's presidential election, which revealed deep divisions over the Vietnam War. The Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, went on to lose the election to Richard Nixon.

Since then, Democrats have been very wary of public conflict. So it is entirely possible Biden will remain the candidate in this year's election, that Democrats will kick the figurative can down the road until November.

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However, given the stakes, they may also decide – either individually or collectively – that the risk Biden poses for “down-ballot” races (those Democrats running for the House and Senate) might outweigh the risk of ditching him so late in the campaign.

For some, this will be a question of personal risk to political careers; for others, it is a question of small-“d” democratic survival. Ensuring the Democrats do not lose both houses of Congress is widely regarded as critical to stymieing Trump's anti-democratic agenda , should he beat Biden.

If more high-profile Democrats continue to put pressure on Biden, which appears likely, he may eventually be persuaded to step aside of his own accord, for Harris or someone else. Biden is, if nothing else, loyal to his party. This could leave time to choose another candidate and revamp the campaign.

But American politics is often wildly unpredictable. It is entirely possible there is a circuit breaker on the horizon. A candidate no one expected may emerge to unite the party, Harris may step up, or some outside event may change everything in an instant (such as the attempted assassination on Trump).

The current crisis embroiling the Democratic Party was entirely foreseeable and avoidable. But nothing is inevitable.

Emma Shortis is an adjunct senior fellow in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University .

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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