Do you want to wait for Johnny Unbeatable Who Will Run on a Platform of Exactly My Policy Preferences, or do you want to fight

Since it’s all too rare to see it put this starkly in the mainstream press, I appreciate E.J. Dionne doing his best to fumigate the David Broder vibes here:

The most convenient political habit of the moment is to natter on about how both President Biden and Donald Trump are unpopular and old and how Americans long for some new and energetic candidate (identity to be disclosed later).

This above-the-battle, “woe is us” posture makes those who adopt it look tough-minded, independent and clear-eyed. It puts Biden and Trump on the same level and then compares both with someone who doesn’t yet exist. Never mind that it’s far easier to imagine the perfect candidate than to find one.

Look, we all know who the perfect candidate is.

This might be harmless if Biden and Trump really were equivalent, but nothing could be further from the truth.

It’s time for everyone, the media especially, to face up to the actual choice: Between constitutional democracy and authoritarianism. Between a normal human being and a self-involved, spiteful madman. Between a government that has performed well and a regime that would gyrate from one personal obsession to another.

News over the past few days provides another contrast: between a president seeking compromise to protect our southern border, while also getting help to Ukraine, and an opponent who claims (albeit with little evidence) that terrorists and drug dealers are rushing into the country — and who wants them to keep coming so he can win an election.

False equivalence is the bane of our politics, and it’s a particular problem for (I hate these terms) “legacy” or “mainstream” media. At its best, the old media — which I have been part of my entire career — takes on the essential work of informing the public about what is going on in the world with a sense of fairness and a dedication to truth, as best as it can be determined.

Journalists should never give up on this. But decades of attacks from the political right have made the mainstream media far more sensitive to the appearance of liberal bias than to worries about other forms of distortion. This makes formulas of false equivalence very attractive — statements along the lines of “Both sides are equally bad” or “What this person did is terrible, but notice this (far less egregious) act by the other guy.”

Well said.

Because of Biden’s approval numbers, there’s a superficial plausibility to the assertion that if you were REALLY serious about stopping fascism you would want Biden replaced. But absent 1)an actual alternative candidate and 2)any identifiable mechanism by which they could become the nominee, it is the opposite of a serious discussion. Biden will be the nominee — you can choose to keep doomsplaining about that or you can choose to move on to the liberalism v. fascism question, it’s up to you, but I can tell you that the former isn’t going to make Johnny Unbeatable becoming the Democratic nominee an iota more likely.