Time for Punk Rock Politics
If Biden withdraws, the DNC has an opportunity to embrace chaos and why that's a good thing. (Democratic Vistas Newsletter, July 4, 2024)
It’s the morning of July Fourth, two hundred and forty-eight years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and I am wondering if our republic, our experiment in democracy, is going to survive. If our democracy falls, I doubt any democracy in the world will survive for much longer. These are dark thoughts, but I think, given everything happening in our country and the world, the thoughts are all too reasonable. This is not how I wanted to celebrate our national holiday. To quote Roy Kent, “Fuuuuuuuck.”
I firmly believe that, if you don’t like how things are going, throw a monkey wrench into the machine and see what happens. Metaphorically, of course.
Okay. Cleansing breath. Relax. Take a step back. Yesterday, I was watching an episode of The Bulwark podcast on YouTube. (I will put a link below.) Jonathan V. Last (JVL), Sarah Longwell, and Tim Miller were discussing if Biden should withdraw and what would happen next, if he did. If you don’t know The Bulwark, please check it out. They are doing good work.
JVL, Sarah, and Tim (I’m using first names because they feel like friends at this point) are doing their best to prevent Trump from being reelected. They have also been strong supporters of Biden, but his debate performance and what they are learning from focus groups (run by Sarah) has changed their minds. They feel that Biden should withdraw. If he does, who replaces him and how is that person selected?
JVL argued that the clear choice is Kamala Harris. I respect his thoughts, always, but I have concerns about Harris as a candidate: As a vice-president, she has been absent, she stumbles when asked tough questions, and she is already part of the argument against Biden. I also have concerns about what it would say about the process if she were nominated: It would seem like a smoke-filled backroom decision made by party elites.
If Biden does withdraw, as I think he should, the DNC will need to develop a process for replacing him as quickly as possible. While this might seem like a reason to stick with Biden (that is, it’s too late to change), I don’t think so. I think the DNC would have an opportunity to solve a number of problems related to presidential elections in one dramatic move—if they have the imagination and courage.
Rather than take the approach of trying to find the perfect process, I think the DNC should think about how to shake things up. Time for some punk rock politics.
Here are what I see as the problems with the present system and how the DNC might break the pattern:
The primary system is broken. On The Bulwark, Sarah often talks about double-haters—voters who don’t like Trump or Biden. Recently, during a discussion over a couple of beers, a friend said, “erupted” is more apt, “We are a country of about 350 million people, and this is the best we can do?” That sums up double-haters. If Biden withdraws, the DNC will be forced to use a different system. A different system might produce a better result. At the very least, the attention of swing voters will shift from the RNC, where the outcome is already set (spoiler alert: Trump will be the nominee) to the DNC, where they will see some real drama.
The primary system is too predictable. I understand the reason why we increased the number of primaries. This, on the face, is a move toward a more democratic process. It is also the process that, in 2016, nominated Hillary Clinton (maybe the only Democratic who could lose to Trump) and Donald Trump (maybe the only Republican who could beat Hillary). Again, a different process, maybe a different result. The rank-and-file Democratic needs to have input, but this is where imagination comes in. The DNC could, for example, allow people to cast virtual primary votes, maybe tied to a small donation. The vote should not be binding. (I want to see delegates change their minds as they move through a second, third, or fourth round of voting. I am old enough to remember watching this kind of undecided convention. It was exciting.) The virtual voting could continue in real time as delegates at the convention are in the process of selecting the nominee. It might influence the process. It might help committed democrats to feel like they are actually influencing what is happing in real time, on the floor of the convention.
The presidential election cycle is too long. As we added more primaries, the schedule kept getting longer. Now, presidential candidates begin their campaigns at least two-years out, often longer. By the time we finish with the national conventions, voters are exhausted. The idea of selecting a new candidate this late will bring much-needed boost of excitement to the process. Whatever the process, it will have to be short and messy. That’s a good thing.
National conventions are boring. Since the number of primaries has expanded, the nominee is typically selected months in advance of the convention. The national convention has been reduced to a series of boring speeches that puff up the “presumptive” nominee. The speeches are quickly forgotten, except for maybe that speech, at the 2016 RNC, when Clint Eastwood spent thirty minutes talking to an empty chair or, at the same convention, when Melania Trump plagiarized a Michelle Obama speech. This year, 2024, the DNC is planning to have all the delegates vote virtually to nominate Biden even before the convention begins. I would like to see a vote on the floor that really mattered.
If Biden does withdraw, I hope the DNC will develop a process to nominate his replacement that blends the best of the old (a convention that really matters) with a willingness to experiment with the new (something like a virtual primary). Whatever process they develop, please let it be messy and chaotic—a little punk rock. It’s time for some crowd surfing in the mosh pit.
Here is a link to The Bulwark podcast mentioned above:
Hell yeah. You’ve slammed it out of the ballpark with your suggestions here. The DNC has a chance here to make corrections to the process that can generate excitement and yield a candidate we can all get behind. Joe Biden was exactly that transitional candidate we needed four years ago. Now we need a generational successor to get Americans excited about building the future. We’re Democrats, after all. Fixing Republican messes and building bright futures is what we do.