Dems Have No Choice But To Vilify Biden

A case for scandal accelerationism

Democrats are currently damaging themselves and their brand in an effort to make their sitting president drop his re-election campaign. 

Joe Biden isn’t listening. 

It shouldn’t come as a shock. Suggestions don’t move presidents. Biden is the Leader of the Free World. He’s a DC veteran who believes he can weather any storm.

No one can, or will, tell him anything.

It’s because of this, for the future of their party, Democrats need to vilify Joe Biden. 

Biden is not going to see the light and pass the torch to Kamala Harris because of a New York Times poll or a Nate Silver Substack. As he told George Stephanopoulos last night, the only advice he’d take is from God himself. In the wizened mind of the president, he is the only man to defeat Donald Trump and he believes that past actions indicate future results. The Democratic National Committee has already agreed to forgo a live roll call at the convention in favor of a stage-managed virtual version which is likely only two weeks away.

My guess? By his calculations, Biden needs to tolerate the bedwetters for a fortnight before it’s too late and they have to come home, soaked sheets in hand. 

That means the only way to make him quit the campaign, or presidency, is to make things much worse for him, very quickly. The fastest way to do this is to drum up every possible scandal involving Joe Biden. Implicit in all of the discussion will be why he’d want to keep them secret. 

Here is where we get into some fan fiction. These new raging fires, if possible, shouldn’t involve the current commentary around his mental decline. Rather, they should be separate issues that have one thing in common: The Biden Oligarchy Keeping Secrets.

This is very important, because underneath the waves of our 2024 election dialogue is a Godzilla-sized problem for the Democratic party: the possibility of generational brand mistrust. If decisive action is not taken then a generation of voters will have a troubling answer to every future Dem talking point: are you lying to me like you did about Biden?

On the other hand, if Joe Biden (and his well defined family) are proven to be keeping still more from America, his mental decline becomes only the entrance into a larger story. The ensuing outrage gives cover to insulate rising party stars from questions about why they played along with the naked, octogenarian emperor as he insisted he had new clothes.

Unless Biden himself is isolated and excised, the blame will ooze toward those around him and the party itself.

The Republicans dealt with this for a decade after Watergate. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are still dealing with it after the War in Iraq. 

So, how do you vilify Joe Biden? You turn to an already built narrative and supercharge it.

Make Jamie Comer famous.

Rehash what his Oversight Committee has found, it now deserves a “fresh look” after the recent “discoveries” of the depths of “Biden secrecy and deception.”

The more information you can gather about Joe Biden, James Biden, and Hunter Biden profiting off selling access, the better. This includes whispers from the Obama administration that he was greedy or disloyal. Regardless of their truth, there’s a prevailing suspicion amongst 40% of the country that Joe Biden is corrupt. If Democrats are serious about getting rid of Biden, they need to go from hand waving to cheer leading those nasty thoughts.

Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg then resign, creating pressure we’ve never seen on a president in the modern era. They both claim ignorance and therefore protect their own political future. They believed! But even loyal believers closest to Biden were kept in the dark! When they saw the truth they could not stand by him any more!

This either fatally wounds Biden 2024 or forces an open convention in Chicago.

Why would Democrats want to do this to themselves? Why would a party torch its standard-bearer? These are the wrong questions to ask. Instead, wonder how different what I just laid out is from what is happening now? Elected Democrats are calling for Biden to step aside. Media allies are revolting. George FREAKING Stephanopoulos grilled a Democratic president. Damage is being done, slowly, with time running out. I am calling for accelerationism. Advancing to the logical end conclusion faster. 

While everything I laid out is wildly unrealistic based on what’s come before it is very realistic to the reality of this moment. Specifically, the rejection of a seductive but impossible idea: Joe Biden will willfully step aside.

Let me say this clearly: there will be no clean transition. 

The Underpants Gnome trajectory of 1. Biden Scandal, 2. ?????, 3. Kamala / Warnock Win! will not happen. Democrats have two options: rid yourself of Biden or justify him not only this year, but for a generation.

But this plan doesn’t account for how to win in November? No, it does not.

2024 is likely already lost for Democrats.

It was lost when Joe Biden failed to handle messaging around inflation, when the Afghanistan debacle proved he wasn’t the steady hand he was sold as, when he declared independence from COVID-19 only for another spike to hit, when he responded to Dobbs with familiar “Roe is on the ballot” electioneering instead of realistic policy, when he didn't allow a primary and when Donald Trump ran (to the shock of everyone) a competent campaign.

But specifically, it was lost when Biden 2024 made the most self-destructive decision in modern politics by taking a debate they didn’t have to, only for it to go worse than they ever imagined.

This is about future and President Biden is a past America already wants to forget.

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Px3 This Week

Joined by Tom LoBianco (national political reporter, 24Sight.com) and Michael Cohen (Modern Political Campaigns). Even this conversation feels like three weeks ago. What a strange world we are in right now.

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Email

Had to skip most of the discussion with your guest Bill Scher. I think you asked the other day on stream about your guests and their political leanings. I get that y'all were engaging in hypothetical but dude loves him some Biden so much that I just couldn't handle it. I understand completely that journalist types are very liberal leaning but some more conservative guests would be very appreciated. - Robby

Got this after our Debate Prep episode. Bill Scher has since called for Biden to drop out of the race. He is back on the show this week.