Neoliberalism
Democratic (neoliberal) Party
Joe Biden
Fig. 1. Joe Biden and Pope Francis, unknown photographer, April 29, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
The picture, as summarized by John Heilemann, is that “Bidenworld” has orchestrated a narrative of family and senior Democratic Party politicians all insisting that Joe Biden must remain in the race and that any challenges to this narrative will be sidelined. If you’re getting from that that Heilemann might be just a tad skeptical of that narrative, well, um, yeah:[1]
Team Biden has been pumping out a steady stream of data that suggests the debate has had no appreciable effect on the race. But the first trickle of surveys from independent sources has been ominous: a CBS News-YouGov survey found that the percentage of registered voters who believe that Biden does not have “the mental and cognitive health to serve as president” rose from 65 to 72 percent after the debate, and that 45 percent of registered Democrats don’t want him to be their nominee; a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll out today revealed that the percentage of voters who think Biden is too old to be president or have doubts about his mental fitness rose 11 and l2 points, respectively, after the debate; and a Saint Anselm College poll showed Biden trailing Trump by 2 points in New Hampshire, a state he won by 7 points in 2020.
Which brings us to the second reason why Biden may find the next 10 days to two weeks more challenging than even the past 72 hours. As the digits stream in, the people likely to consume them most avidly—Democratic elected officials and fundraisers—also happen to be the forces most likely to exert real pressure on Biden to withdraw. And, generally speaking, they are, at least at this moment, deeply and strikingly inclined not to give the president or his team the slightest margin for error or benefit of the doubt. To say they have lost faith would be putting it far too mildly. . . .
[U]nlike the many and predictable past episodes of Democratic bed-wetting I’ve covered in my career, this one is laced with anger, resentment, and a sense of betrayal, fueled by the newly minted view that Biden, his family, his White House, and his campaign concealed the reality of his decline so vividly on display onstage in ATL. “They lied to us—systematically, over years,” one megadonor told me. “Given the stakes, it’s unforgivable. Unconscionable.”
These are not people, in other words, who are hoping and praying that Biden’s polling holds up, allowing him to soldier on. Quite the contrary. “Everyone wants numbers,” said another big donor, who believes that Biden should step aside. “Just telling him that we want him to leave won’t do it. So we need real numbers to come in that allow everyone to hide behind them. ‘Mr. President, these numbers are tough to get past.’ Then no one has to own the brutal truth, which is he’s not up to this. No one wants to say that.”[2]
I have not seen Heilemann’s name before—at least that I remember—but this is one helluva a debut to my consciousness. He goes on to note that under ordinary circumstances, you’d have the candidate out on television—do we still really call it that these days?—doing interviews, demonstrating an ability at give-and-take in conversation, and that this didn’t happen, strongly suggesting that indeed, no, Biden is indeed absolutely not up to it.
Leave it to the Democrats, who having spectacularly failed to lose to COVID-19 in 2020, to put up somebody with these kinds of problems. I’m not interested in their excuses here either—it’s always excuses with them, always, always, always.
Eugene Daniels, Rachael Bade, and Ryan Lizza, “Team Biden tries to quell Dem panic,” Politico, June 30, 2024, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2024/06/30/team-biden-tries-to-quell-dem-panic-00165945
Tyler Pager, “Biden aides plotted debate strategy for months. Then it all collapsed,” Washington Post, June 30, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/30/how-biden-debate-prep-led-to-damaging-event/
Maeve Reston, “Black men helped power Biden’s 2020 Georgia win. Some are wavering,” Washington Post, June 30, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/30/black-voters-georgia-election-biden-trump/
Alex Thompson, “Top aides shielded Biden from staff, but couldn’t hide the debate,” Axios, June 30, 2024, https://www.axios.com/2024/06/30/top-aides-shielded-biden-white-house-debate
John Heilemann, “Bidenworld’s Darkest Hour,” Puck, July 1, 2024, https://puck.news/should-biden-stay-or-should-he-go/
Eli Stokols et al., “‘We’ve all enabled the situation’: Dems turn on Biden’s inner sanctum post debate,” Politico, July 2, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/02/biden-campaign-debate-inner-circle-00166160
Illiberalism
Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Fig. 2. Donald Trump still has his fans. Photograph along Washington Road in Upper Saint Clair, Pennsylvania, by author, April 28, 2024.
John Fritze, “Supreme Court rules Trump has limited immunity in January 6 case, jeopardizing trial before election,” Cable News Network, July 1, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/01/politics/supreme-court-donald-trump-immunity
Ankush Khardori, “The Supreme Court’s Stunning Gift to Trump,” Politico, July 2, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/02/jan-6-trump-supreme-court-00166130
- [1]John Heilemann, “Bidenworld’s Darkest Hour,” Puck, July 1, 2024, https://puck.news/should-biden-stay-or-should-he-go/↩
- [2]John Heilemann, “Bidenworld’s Darkest Hour,” Puck, July 1, 2024, https://puck.news/should-biden-stay-or-should-he-go/↩