In the wake of Biden's decisive victory yesterday in the crucial Michigan Primary, it has been made abundantly clear that the Democratic Party has rallied around yet another center-right candidate to be their nominee in the upcoming election. Fueled by the fear of losing to Trump in the general election by choosing the least 'electable' candidate in the form of a democratic socialist, the party's establishment summoned their roster of 'moderate' voices in an effort to overturn the momentum Sanders had establish after his rather comprehensive win in Nevada. This effort was initiated by James Clyburn's endorsement of Biden in South Carolina and then followed by lock-step endorsements by Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris in the two subsequent Super Tuesday's. The ostensible reason for this 'panic buying' of the Biden candidacy was to 'bring the party together' by uniting behind the person viewed most favored to prevail in November and considered the 'safe' choice by party elders and their apologists throughout the MSM. Chief among the latter class was long-time Democratic operative James Carville who, in the immediate wake of Biden's victory in South Carolina, arrogantly proclaimed that it was now time for Sanders to step aside and 'make way' for the 'heir apparent' to party leadership. In so doing, he and the Democratic establishment signaled their intention to assert a conception of Democratic unification that included the coalition of older black constituents, white suburban women, and working class whites while simultaneously ignoring, dismissing, and otherwise disrespecting the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, many of whom had been working tirelessly since shortly after the disastrous 2016 presidential campaign. This group is comprised by traditional left wing loyalist and, more significantly, by an entire generation of young activists hungry for national leadership centering on progressive values of justice, gender and racial equality, peaceful resolution of political conflict throughout the world, and a forward thinking approach to the global environmental crisis with sustainable solutions to energy production and consumption. Make no mistake: the Democratic Party cannot be truly and authentically united until and unless it reflects and embodies the principles, aspirations, and values of its progressive base of support.
The selection of Joe Biden threatens to unite one segment of the Democratic Party at the expense of alienating an emerging base of support that promised to carry the Democrats well into the challenging and critical years ahead. Instead, the party elders are choosing to focus on a narrow slice of the electorate, many of whom switched from Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016 as their target audience in a fearful and reactionary attempt to revive the success of a center-right, neo-liberal ten-year old political model. Adding to this enormous gamble is the notion that they can win back the White House with a candidate whose only credential for prominent national office was the good fortune to be selected by one of the most charismatic politicians in history to be his wingman for eight years. As Time Magazine writer Molly Ball astutely observed: Biden's recent, sudden, and meteoric rise clearly illustrates that 'things happen to him rather than he being the agent of his own success'.
In their haste to 'settle' on a single candidate agreeable to a dying contingent of party regulars and an antiquated 'Cold War' vision of the American political landscape, the Democratic Party is now on the verge nominating an even less formidable opponent to the sinister, pernicious, authoritarian, an decidedly un-democratic reign of lawlessness as represented by Trump, his sycophantic henchmen, and the white nationalist domestic terrorists threatening to end democracy as we have known it. Meanwhile, Uncle Joe is preparing to stumble through the remainder of this campaign season in much the same way he has conducted himself throughout his nearly four decades of public life: willing to be carried by the prevailing political winds of the day and rather pathetically depending the kindness of strangers, handlers, and those with pretensions to know the will of the people. He will continue to be challenged to construct a coherent English sentence, weakly appeal to a political mindset on the precipice of extinction, and desperately attempt to maintain a hold on any given train of thought before it inevitably dissolves into an irretrievable fog. Concurrently, an entire generation of potential participants will remain outside the process as a result of their distance from, distain for, and complete disconnection with Biden and the corporate-sponsored Democratic establishment he most certainly and loyally represents. The old guard stands ready to make one last throw of the dice in the hope that their myopic vision of the very near future will not instead result in the continuation of despotic, corrosive, and autocratic rule.
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