Biden’s Trumpist Tendency

I haven’t blogged much lately because I was finishing a book, then had a big family vacation thing, and am now trying to finish the other book I am hopelessly behind on. But I have sort of followed the LGM community in the last month and I remain utterly astounded at how so many LGM commenters could be so shockingly, overwhelmingly, horribly wrong about Joe Biden–to the point where you all became an actual threat to the future of American democracy–and then continue to defend the point in the face of overwhelming evidence that the major front pagers of LGM were completely correct about every part of this, very much including that Kamala Harris was the only possible transition from Biden. That people can continue to spin conspiracy theories that should embarrass any rational human being utterly astounds me. The fact that the only places in the world where Biden deadenders continue to exist are the LGM comment threads and the incredibly boring epistemological closure social media site of Bluesky is really worth continued study. Because, well…..why? Who the fuck ever would create a Cult of Biden? My God people. My God.

Anyway, it’s time for some accountability and as the evidence continues to show the overwhelming correctness of my position and the overwhelming shocking wrongness of many LGM commenters, I will be doing a lot of this. You kids have fun with it. This also goes out to the LGM commenters and readers privately emailing or otherwise messaging the LGM front pagers expressing shock at the stupidity of the commenters. I feel your pain.

I mean, it’s OK to be wrong. It was a stressful situation! We all have the right to be wrong now and then, to quote the great songwriter Catherine Irwin. We’ve all been wrong. It’s the terrible things that people said about LGM front pagers, about Nancy Pelosi, about Adam Schiff that needs some addressing. It’s the continuation of conspiracy theories (the idea that the CAPITALISTS WANTED TO GET RID OF THAT HARD LEFTIST JOE BIDEN is utterly ridiculous).

And yes, I am going to rub your nose in being wrong, just like one has to rub a puppy’s nose in his own shit so he stops pooping in the house.

So let’s start this enjoyable process by discussing the excellent essay from Fintan O’Toole, written just before Biden stepped away, about how he was now channeling one of Trump’s tendencies–the idea that he was the Indispensable Man who was the only one who could save America. The conclusion is enough:

Biden’s tragedy is that he has come to take on this same conviction, to feel that he alone can save America. In mirroring his archenemy, he has created an equal and opposite belief in his own indispensability. On a rational level, he knows that this does not make sense. In December he responded off the cuff to a reporter’s question about whether he thought another Democrat could defeat Trump: “Probably fifty of them.” Yet he has also boasted in a social media video that “I’m still the only person that ever beat Donald Trump.” Even after the debacle of the debate, Senator Chris Coons, the Biden campaign’s co-chair, insisted that “the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump” is Biden. This has always been a circular argument: no one but Biden can beat Trump because no one but Biden can be allowed to stand against him because no one but Biden can beat Trump…

Biden’s motivations are infinitely more benign than Trump’s, but he has ended up in the same place: with the great delusion of “I alone.” This is a face-off that Trump will always win. His supporters really do believe in his exceptionality—as the miserable performance of Ron DeSantis in the Republican primaries showed, they do not care for Trumpism without Trump. Few of Biden’s supporters think likewise about their candidate. The valorization of the lone savior suits reactionary politics—it is not a good fit for democracy. It is the ultimate case of the anti-Trump forces operating on Trump’s terms.

The Democrats cannot defeat Trump by trying to play on a course he already owns. Those who want to stick with Biden whatever happens are engaged not in rational politics but in magical thinking, the belief that Biden’s victory in 2020 has imbued him with powers that only he can wield. But this fantasy is becoming a horror story in which the dark shadow of America’s democracy threatens to usurp its life.

Right. 100% right. And obviously, no one actually believed this but Biden and the deadenders who were willing to destroy American democracy out of some kind of obligation to the man.

This leads me to two final points.

First, there is no such thing as an indispensable person. Individuals do matter, to some extent. But as there are any number of people who could do a completely fine job on the Supreme Court, there are any number of leading Democrats who could defeat Donald Trump. Hell, if someone had called on John Hickenlooper to be the nominee, even someone as vanilla as he could probably do it, based on the sheer fact of not being Joe Biden or Donald Trump. And in 2028, if Harris is unpopular, dump her ass too.

Second, we owe politicians nothing. Ever. They owe us everything. I recently saw Killer Mike perform at Newport Folk Festival (awesome!). He made this great point. He urged everyone to vote, but he moved off that tremendously banal point and said something very interesting. He said you had to vote down the ticket, for state legislature, city council, everything, so that when they screw up, you can tell them to fuck off by name. Now that’s actually a very useful way to approach politics. But people like to have a person to cheer for and this is a tremendously damaging thing, no matter where it comes from on the political spectrum (very much including Bernie Sanders, as well as Donald Trump of course).

Welp, have fun in comments my wrong friends.