I'm not apologizing.
I love contested primaries. I delight in the smell and feel of active democracy.
To go further, I think a brokered convention, one where one candidate did not have a majority of delegates, could actually be a good and healthy thing. It might be good to have a compromise candidate that both sides of the intra-party political debate can agree on.
But these are not normal times. We have a supremely ignorant racist conman, now at his most dangerous, as he fumbles and bumbles and tries to lie us through one of the gravest crises we have ever faced.
It is impossible to conduct primaries during stay-at-home shutdowns.*
We need to coalesce behind one voice to respond back to the narcissist-in-chief.
And that voice has to be Joe Biden.
I love Bernie. I am closest to him policy-wise, and I sincerely appreciate it as he has pointed to the promised land. But he is not going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party.
I don't want his voice to be silenced. I want him to always speak out for a better, kinder, and more generous American society. But it's not going to be through his campaign for the Presidency. It's once again pushing the importance of the policies he pursues.
The desire of the American people right now is not a political revolution (as much as it maybe should be), it is for a surer Captain to steer our country through choppy and dangerous waters. Right now, a growing number of Americans are terrified that the captain of our ship is a terrifying clown, who seems to be determined to crash the ship of state. Who can set the ship back on a safer course? We want our Captain Sully. We want Joe Biden.
Democrats need to be forceful in the trillion-plus aid packages that are coming to get us out of this crisis. They must not let the Republicans get out front in handing Americans checks. Those checks are deeply inadequate and will be used as a cover to bring exponentially more massive aid to corporations. Democrats need to be crystal solid in their support for the working person and working families. Again, Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are leading the way with their policies, directing substantial support to bolster people's wages and direct monthly money to them throughout the crisis - not just a one-time pittance that may not even cover many people's rent for a month.
The smartest thing for Joe to do, and do quickly, is to advocate for the most robust proposals and to get Nancy Pelosi to work them into proposed legislation. Then, once the bills are written and passed by the House, this will be a great test to show how well he can work with Republicans in the Senate. Democrats may not get everything they want, but they need to negotiate from positions of strength and command and public support. They don't need to go into negotiations conceding everything and letting the Republicans dominate the structure and conversation.
Our medical ability to handle this pandemic, and our American economy, are rapidly descending and crashing into the Hudson River.
We need our Captain Sully. We need him now.
The nomination process is over. Our Captain Sully is going to be Vice President Joe Biden.
We can't wait.
Start leading us now.
The American people promise to start listening to you, and competent experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, and make the impotent clown act coming from the White House just an irrelevant sideshow, a failed reality show that most of us just want to turn off.
Take the wheel, Captain Joe. As much as you can.
It's ok with us.
*I have other worries about the lack of primaries, but now it has more to do with down-ballot races and not Presidential preference. Rather than go off into a tangent, though, I will leave that to a future blog post.
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