Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Biden Should Withdraw

In politics, anything can happen and often does. And it’s time for Joe Biden to pull out of the race. If he does, we can get to know the other potential candidates and, perhaps, nominate a surprising winner. Without some drama in the Democratic party, as I said, anything can happen. Meaning a Trump landslide.

Let’s face it, nobody’s going to abandon the Democrats to vote for Republicans. That split is a done deal. But folks will stay home unless there’s some excitement. Maybe a vote on a constitutional issue guaranteeing abortion—is that even possible?

The worst thing that can happen to a political party is boredom. Boredom means the press stays home. Boredom means low turnout at campaign rallies. Boredom creates voters that won’t even make the effort to go to the polls. And that’s what the Ds have now. If Joe wants to help his party win, he needs to leave. Otherwise, we have a dull year ahead and a triumphant Trump in 2024.

Triumphant Trump? It’s not reasonable, the pundits say, for America to elect Trump. Biden owns all the reasonableness. The economy’s doing well, with new factory openings and road widenings. People are getting their Social Security checks on time, COVID’s under control, gas prices are OK at the pump. Everything on the domestic front is humming and both the Ds and the Rs agree pretty much on the international situations. Yawn.

If reason ruled the day, the Trump trials would supply us with outrage. Every few days, the judge levies a new fine. Is Orange Man defeated? No. The fines affirm him. Fill him up with self-righteousness, engorged and still rallying. The very instant that court’s adjourned, he’s on his way to an adoring crowd that doesn’t mind waiting and don’t mind if he’s worn out. His lies are easily debunked by the journalists on hand, but it’s not the truth that he’s going for. Check out his Oct. 28 performance in Las Vegas for the Jewish Coalition, or the one in Sioux City on Oct. 29.

For the Donald, truth is in the roar of the crowd. He’s as low on veracity as a superhero movie, but that’s his allure. An audience that devours Spiderman and Super Mario Brothers are there for the exhilarating predictability and really don’t care if something is real or virtual. Indeed, real policy-making, which has been Joe Biden’s gift, seems irrelevent.

In 2020, it was fun to be in Iowa for the presidential debates. Even the smallest towns were getting attention from Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and others. I drove to Iowa to record the presentations hosted by the Iowa Organic Association. Then I phoned home to say I was staying to follow the candidate buses. Even with my state primary weeks away, I felt like I was getting to know the candidates.

Citizens turned out for those 2020 rallies. College students, elders, and in-betweens. Hearing the candidate ideas clarified the issues. At the end, Buttigieg won Iowa’s hearts with 26.2%. Sanders next with 26.1%, Warren with 18%, Biden 15.3% and Klobuchar with 12.8%. Everyone agreed that the field was too big, but those were the candidates wooing America’s Farmland. Next year, it looks so far, no Democrats or independent groups are hosting political gatherings. Trump, however, is still dropping in on Iowa, and still drawing crowds.

Those 2020 “debates,” which were more like stump speeches rather than back-and-forth discussion, and they had a long and important tradition. Fitting, perhaps, that Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus ended in 2020. The entire Midwest, in fact, has been dissed by the DNC as they wrote their 2024 calendar. If there is any stump speeching at all, it will probably be provided by third-party candidates, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., looking to raise some excitement.

While we don’t like it, we live in a time when problems are solved—or at least delayed—by throwing money at them and damn the consequences. Let’s say it’s another aspect of our consumer culture. By now, everyone knows we are killing the planet with our desire for things but we can’t stop. Now we watch things on screens blowing up other things on screens, billows of smoke rising, and we figure that’s how war works.

If Joe drops out, there’s potential for instant excitement. Just the discussion of who’s in, who’s out will give us a reason to follow campaigns. Using the ballot possibilities from 2020, Democrats could immediately raise a field. We’d all love to hear what Buttigieg, Booker, Warren, Sanders, Klobuchar and the rest have on their minds four years later. Even Kamala Harris might have ideas to pull us out of our international messes.

Even if the Democrats begin with just a field of three or four, the electricity of real campaigning will return.

And, yes, Dems, we sure need it!

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2023

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