By John F. Di Leo, Opinion Contributor
Everything was riding on the debates – not for Donald Trump, but definitely, for Joe Biden. And what a first debate that was.
The Biden-Harris years have been utterly abysmal by every conceivable measure.
Runaway inflation for the first time in over forty years, housing and groceries completely unaffordable, schools from kindergarten to universities in meltdown, national job creation primarily limited to part time jobs, violent crime skyrocketing, illegal immigration flooding our communities, bankrupting both the public and private social service sectors.
And unlike some elections, when an incumbent can make a decent argument that at least some of the problems were caused by outside forces beyond his control, virtually every problem that plagues America today can be laid squarely at the foot of the specific policies of the Biden-Harris regime.
The public knows President Trump; he’s already been the president. He doesn’t have to reintroduce himself. He just has to remind us of how good we had it, four years ago, before we allowed a destructive combination of foolishness, gullibility, fear, prejudice and vote fraud to replace a successful presidency with this horrendous four-year dumpster fire.
It didn’t have to be this way.
The political world is rife with rumors of an eleventh-hour switcheroo, in which Joe Biden would be unceremoniously dumped in favor of a sure winner, a shiny new candidate who can sweep into office in a landslide too quickly for the Republicans to do their opposition research on him or her.
There’s no doubt that the Democrats would prefer it to end up like that. They’d love to be free of the embarrassing millstone that is Joe Biden, and be able to proudly support a loveable, winnable, authoritarian-who-doesn’t-look-authoritarian, maybe young and gay, and Hispanic and Black, and Jewish and Muslim and Hindu and Baha’i (without actually being at all religious of course), and don’t forget a union member and handicapped and a teacher and a dancer and of course a political organizer…
Oh, what a stirring campaign that will be.
But there’s a problem.
There was a time, a century ago or more, when the leaders of the party could choose their nominee just a few months before the election. They’d meet in a smoke-filled room, pick the best person they had, and charge ahead into the autumn.
But that world – which would be their saving grace in 2024 – is no more. And it’s primarily the Democrats that killed it.
They gradually changed the rules of the major parties in the United States, so that everyone voting today only remembers the era of primaries and caucuses, an era in which the voters select their parties’ nominees, either directly or indirectly, in a succession of statewide contests throughout the springtime. By the time the conventions are held in midsummer, the nominee is all but certain, in all but the rarest cases.
The Democrats will nominate Joe Biden this summer, whether they want to or not, because they have to. It’s the way the convention works. The majority of delegates are committed by law to vote for Biden at the convention, at least on the first ballot. And besides, all those hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign money are in the name of the Biden-Harris campaign and can’t just be transferred over. Democratic Party delegates don’t sneer at good campaign donations.
The rules are precise, only in some cases self-governed by party choice, usually grounded in state law. Parties protect themselves from takeover or abuse by keeping the process very exactly regulated.
Anything is possible, of course, however unlikely, but unless he dies on camera, or has a massive health event even more embarrassing than his usual behavior – a low bar indeed – he can’t be removed against his will. And it would be politically embarrassing to do a 25th Amendment takedown at this point, as that would only raise the question, “Why on earth didn’t they do it before? The man has obviously been incapacitated since the inauguration.” No indeed, this is a path they now have to avoid.
If it were to be done – and clearly, it should have been – the Democrats should have had Biden announce a year ago that he wasn’t running, allowing an open primary to pick a replacement.
Why didn’t they? Are the trappings of power so great, is the allure of incumbency so powerful, was the obedience to Biden’s current puppet-masters too irresistible, so nobody dared question the plan?
I have a theory, Gentle Reader, not based on any intel, just my own personal reading of the matter, so I will submit it here for your consideration:
I believe the reason the Democrats are stuck with Biden at the convention now, so they don’t even dare talk him into stepping down voluntarily, is the same reason they couldn’t retire him gently and allow an open primary season last winter:
It’s that the vaunted Democrat coalition is strained to the breaking point, and all their factions can’t possibly get together to agree on a replacement.
If Biden were legally removed from the scene so that the convention had a free hand, there would be a hundred warring delegations.
Kamala Harris is the logical successor; shouldn’t she get it by acclamation? Choosing anyone but her will offend a swath of the base, but elevating her would offend even more. There simply is no heir apparent in the Democratic party, just a cacophony of special interests, each one clawing its way to the top.
In an uncontested primary season, the state parties (that’s the governor, in states where the Democrats hold the governorship) appoint the majority of their states’ delegations. California in 2024 is therefore the cheering section for Newsom, Illinois is for Pritzker, Michigan is behind Whitmer, New York takes their orders from Hochul – all of whom would be sure they deserve a spot on the ticket – which only has two slots.
In addition, the Democrats have more superdelegates than the GOP does. Their convention is full of little groups appointed to represent various “special” demographics – ethnic, social, sexual, cultural. In an open convention, these fringe platoons would fight each other with demands that the nominee be black or Hispanic, or gay or trans, or a union shop steward or an abortionist, or a teacher or an immigrant.
We can see the floor fight now: each delegation insisting that the demographic they represent is counting on the Democrats to nominate someone who checks their box, to the exclusion of all others.
At this writing, it is certainly possible. It could happen, and if so, it will be entertaining to watch. But this reality certainly reminds us why the Democrats weren’t able to just slide in a substitute in lieu of Quid Pro Joe, last spring.
He’s an embarrassment to them; they know it, we know it, the world knows it.
But the fight to replace him will be loud, messy, and possibly brutal. Plenty of their party bosses are still hoping against hope that the plan will get them through, that with a combination of union might, a compliant press, a gullible base, and plenty of vote fraud, they can re-elect the potted plant, and kick the can down the road just one more time.
Like everything else the Democrats do, from Social Security to the National Debt, from the unassimilable saturation of illegal aliens to the destruction of our manufacturing base, the Democrats have only one game plan: to wring everything they possibly can out of the present, and leave this growing disaster for some future generation to clean up.
Copyright 2024 John F. Di Leo
