Biden’s 2024 decision pits party elite against majority Democrats: Indybay

Power Brokers Against Democracy

Denial at the top of the Democratic Party of Joe Biden’s shaky footing for re-election in 2024 became even more untenable over the weekend. According to the New York Times, investigators “seized more than half a dozen documents, some of them classified, at President Biden’s residence” in Delaware. The newspaper noted that “a remarkable search of the incumbent’s home by federal agents – at the invitation of Mr. Biden’s lawyers – sharply exacerbated the legal and political situation for the president.”

Donald Trump’s obstructive refusal to cooperate with a federal investigation into the far more numerous classified documents in his possession stands in stark contrast to Biden’s apparently total cooperation with the Justice Department. However, Biden is now facing a document scandal that is sure to go on for quite some time — the average length of investigations by special prosecutors is more than 900 days — and the impact on his re-election plans is unclear.

Meanwhile, here’s a suggestion so commonplace it’s taken for granted among bigwigs and corporate media journalists: Democratic voters are seen as mere spectators waiting for Biden’s decision on whether to run for a second term. Hidden in plain sight is a logical question that is almost impossible to raise in standard political discourse: Why not ask them?

What a concept. In fact, Biden could seek advice from the Democratic base—people who regularly come out to vote for party candidates, donate millions of small dollars, and do invaluable volunteer work to support campaigns to defeat the Republicans.

Biden’s decision on whether to run again should be seen as more than just a matter of personal prerogative. Instead of treating it as such, Biden could put the party and the country first, acknowledging that the Democrats’ most important challenge – defeating the Republican nominee in 2024 – will require broad enthusiasm from the Democratic rank and file. Biden will improve his chances of defeating the Republican Party by including these Democrats in the decision-making process when he weighs whether to formally run for office.

But there is one overarching reason why the Biden White House is not interested in such an idea. The president doesn’t want to pose the question to loyal Democratic voters because he probably won’t like the answer. His position is clear: this is my party and I will run if I want to.

A glimpse of this attitude emerged during a press conference shortly after the midterm elections. Noting that “two-thirds of Americans in exit polls say they don’t think you should run for re-election,” the reporter asked, “What do you want to tell them?” Biden’s response: “Look at me.” Later, CNN and CNBC polls showed that nearly 60 percent of Democrats did not want Biden to run again. However, it appears that he still intends to do just that.

Ignoring the wishes of the majority of the party’s voters can be called leadership, but arrogance would be a better word. Whatever the characteristic, it risks ruining itself. For example, only wishful thinking leads to the belief that next year’s Democratic presidential candidate can win without a high turnout of those who represent the backbone of the party and its future – the youth.

Biden’s “follow me” stance is especially inappropriate for young Democratic voters. A New York Times poll last summer found that a staggering 94 percent of those under the age of 30 said they didn’t want Biden to be the party’s nominee. Such a gap means problems if Biden does run. Too many young people may heed a “watch me” attitude by refusing to volunteer to run or vote for Biden before he is defeated.

In normal times, the re-nomination of the presidential candidacy was his life’s work. But in this case, when the majority of the party’s supporters do not want him to run, the use of rough internal party leverage to nominate a candidate would indicate a high degree of political narcissism. This is hardly a good look or an auspicious path.

If he runs in 2024, Joe Biden will become the main symbol of the status quo – not the best position when false populism, as expected, will become the name of the Republican game. In a poll last November, only 21% of registered voters told Hart Research that the country was “moving in the right direction,” while 72% said it was “off track.”

For a president, getting the Democratic nomination next year is likely to be much easier than winning the White House a second time. If Biden is content to be the party’s nominee again, while ignoring the majority of Democrats who don’t want him to run, he will boost the chances of a Republican getting a job in the Oval Office in two years. To avert such a catastrophe, rank-and-file Democrats will have to directly challenge party elites who appear poised to walk past the likely graveyard of Biden’s second-term hopes.

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Norman Solomon is National Director of RootsAction.org and Executive Director of the Public Accuracy Institute. He is the author of dozens of books, including War made easy. His next book

The war has become invisible: how America hides the human casualties of its war machine

will be published in June 2023 by The New Press.

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