Biden did fine. The stream you saw was malinformation, disinformation, misinformation. Deceptively edited by Republicans. A deep fake cheap fake. Probably from Russia! Yeah that's the ticket
"When I was promoting my latest book, The Identity Trap, last fall, the question I was asked most often was about why we should criticize the flaws of the left when the threat from the right is so much greater. The answer I gave was threefold: The flaws of wokeness matter because they are leading us away from, not towards, the kind of society in which we should wish to live. They matter because they claim innocent victims who are deserving of our compassion. And they matter because they create the deep disdain for establishment institutions that helps right-wing demagogues be competitive in national elections in the first place.
Reflecting on the mess the Democrats have created for themselves, I would now add a fourth point. The problem with so much of American life—from the identitarian slogans that were unthinkingly embraced by mainstream institutions over the last years to the softer forms of deference to conventional wisdom that made pundits desist from asking awkward questions about Biden’s age—is that it is undermining the basic foundations of our society. You cannot have an accurate grasp of reality when journalists are more concerned with “reading the room” than with telling the truth. And you cannot have high-performing institutions when demographic considerations trump merit.
At least in the short-run, things will often work out just fine. But if you systematically weaken a society’s foundations, you’ll never be sure when the cracks start showing."
This section should be required reading. It distills the position that best combines pragmatism and policy for Democrats (or anti-Republicans -- it's hard to separate the two sometimes): identitarianism fails on all merits; it's both ideologically authoritarian and pragmatically harmful. And like many ideas and ideologies, it can work out well in the short term, but in the long term, it feeds decay. (Arguably, it's also itself a symptom of decay as well as in intensifier.)
You call it polite lies, I call it some combination of willful blindness/mindless groupthink/hubris. What I never hear from this bunch is the question to themselves, how could we be so wrong, what did we ignore that was giving us the clues we need to read the situation more accurately/astutely, if I was wrong about this, what else am I wrong about? It's always as if they are disembodied from their blindness. I used to consider myself a liberal leaning person, but thankfully I am now in hard won recovery from it and politically homeless. Your article makes the case for why so many of us feel the Democratic Party and their Establishment Entourage is not to be trusted, and is in many ways a much bigger threat to this country than Trump is. They deny Realtiy, this denial clouds their judgment in serious ways, they try to gaslight/punish/shame the rest of us into denying what we can see with our own eyes, put people in jobs they are not competent to do, label the rest of us as threats to democracy, and then act surprised when these things come back to bite them. The voters in this country are not the only ones who watched last night. It can be argued that the above list is likely to have emboldened the bad actors in the world who already have the world in disorder and must now be chortling with glee and planning even bolder moves. It is so irritating to listen now to the surprise and dismay as if journalists and the powerbrokers weren't the ones who foisted this upon us. I myself, admittedly a cynic at this point, don't believe that last night was a surprise but a cruel political move to achieve what they couldn't otherwise. Willfull blindness has consequences. If it was a surprise, some lengthy deep reflection on the questions I posed at the beginning might be a good place to start.
Let's be, perhaps, unrealistically optimistic. If the Democrats accept that Biden is not a viable candidate for re-election, and the adults in the party take charge, then the party could monopolize the media through the convention and beyond. The weeks leading up to a brokered but well choreographed convention could be rather exciting for the American public allowing we would hope viable alternates, to Biden and more importantly Trump to surface and fight it out. However, if the Democrats focus on tamping down panic and dissent in the chattering classes, then Trump will again be president.
Yes, there are a few who are well hidden as successful governors and mayors but have executive leadership/management experience. Our senators and congress people have gravitated toward the performance arts.
Excellent article, Yascha, now if the appropriate people will just pay attention. Their self-convincing bubble should be burst. Sadly, I just saw an MSNBC panel trying to make excuses and refocus the spotlight on Trump’s performance. Jen Psaki, who I previously considered intelligent, was talking about « a path to recovery » for Biden. Forget it, Jen, it’s not happening. MSNBC and CNN now seem to be in conflict, with the former trying to come up with « it wasn’t so bad » commentators, and the latter pushing the « what now that Armageddon is near » viewpoint. I’m firmly in Yascha Mounck’s camp. Trump is a challenge to our democracy such as hasn’t been seen since the Civil War. This is no time for pretending that a confused octogenarian is a suitable voice to counter Trump’s prevarications and distortions. The American republic needs a potent, articulate savior.
I agree that the performances was a disaster - I also think CNNs performance was a disaster. But that was predictable. But I think that the retrospective is wrong. I’m a slightly to the right democrat and have watched the progressive wing of the party with horror. But this is not a world and never has been in which - much as an academic might want it to be so - some group of preternaturally wise people see the future and act with courage, vision, and deep understanding. Maybe elephants and whales could do that, not our species. People surfed the wave in the run up to 2020 just like they always do, and in fact we bumbled our way to Joe Biden, the right choice. But we did not recognized that Biden’s election was a reprieve, the party saw it as a rescue. And Biden understandably thiught he was doing just fine. It’s not particularly good analysis to dislike what you see now, then look back and decide that everyone knew then what you know now and should have acted differently. In the history of the U.S.i can think of only two occasions when Presidents acted with that kind of foresight. Washington, and Lincoln. I might be willing to give you Eisenhower.
I completely disagree with this on a number of levels but primarily Democrats are not polite rather they are intentionally self deceived, a perfect illustration of the danger of Bad Faith. The absurdity of running Hillary Clinton who was universally disliked against Trump who had grassroots support was all we need demonstrate that. The Democratic predisposition to Pelagian policies is naivete to the point of immoral if not suicidal. Next, this is GREAT news for America. Biden will be forced out. He will never last to the primaries. So we now have a chance to run an articulate, smart, mature, intelligent statesman against a well-proven pathological liar and convicted felon. This is a short putt for a real statesman. Will it be Shapiro? That is my hope; Josh would annihilate Trump in any debate.
Shapiro came to my mind last night, too. But my fear as a Jew is that current rampant anti-semitism might work against him. I hate to say that, and I'm willing to be *persuaded* it's just a knee-jerk reaction and not a fact.
I am Jewish too, and indeed we are a small vulnerable minority. But we have a duty to defend the only nation that has provided Jews with such unprecedented opportunities in perhaps our entire post-temple history. We are not as weak as we fear. We have done extraordinary things for our country and we must do more.
Kamala Harris’s CNN interview defending Biden was also a disgrace. I could especially never favor her as the replacement candidate after watching it. What a shameless liar!
Kamala will not make it to the convention, rarely said aloud: Kamala Harris is the DEI Diva. That is why she in now universally disliked. She is no Condoleezza Rice or Susan Rice either. She is everything we now know is wrong with the identity trap.
If any of the other candidates who ran in 2020 had had the balls to day "I am a proud Obama Democrat", they'd be the obvious choice to replace Biden. Too bad no one did.
Perhaps we’re seeing more of our leaders than we need to. Biden came off last nite as the cowardly lion of Oz. Since Oct 7th, he’s demonstrated that he lost his political courage. Trump, the raging bull, doesn’t know truth from fiction, yet his narrative as a fixer came thru.
Yascha nails it. His roadmap out of this ditch offers hope. But I fear it’s too late. Unless leaders like Obama call for Biden to step down (he should, but won’t) this train wreck will continue. It’s deeply depressing. Omnishambles = Shit show
Thanks Yascha - I think this is a sound analysis of three big errors that helped us get here. Another error is the way perfectionism and identitarianism has limited our potential pool of alternative leaders. For example Al Franken could of at least been a strong spokesperson for the democratic party and position on issues - Maybe even president. But because of made up stories and a photographic homage to Groucho Marx, he is sadly unavailable having been defenestrated. At the same time, Kristen Gillibrand, as the lead defenestrator, has wrecked her career, as even those who were too cowardly to oppose her know that she can't be trusted and therefore withhold support. The fear that a "woke terror" might be unleashed is clearly a big part of why people are having a hard time coming out and suggesting openly that Sheldon Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, or someone like that should top the ticket.
And while we are mourning our collective errors, while others have made even more severe "gerontocratic" mistakes (e.g., Feinstein and RBG), Nancy Pelosi erred by not handing over her speakership before loosing it to the Republicans. We are thereby deprived of a credible candidacy of someone like Hakeem Jeffries who could have also topped the ticket, had he had the name recognition that would have come with a few years as speaker rather than just house minority leader.
I think it is interesting to think about who has been given State of Union rebuttal speeches and convention addresses, as these are some of the relatively few things the "party" has to give to or test future leaders. The 2020 convention featured 17 different keynotes rather than 1, in a display of diversity at the expense of actual career development.
Finally, I am less confident in the proposed steps toward a solution. If our narrative is going to stay focused on Trump's threat to democracy, then to live up to that urgency, I think we need to respond in kind. An emergency national unity government (1 term) perhaps Romney-Harris nominated by the democratic party is the kind of signal and sacrifice that fits with the challenge. (I think Romney can be trusted on an agreement in advance as to what would be on and off the table in "his" term.) But It is shocking how few never Trumper's have clean hands or have stayed never Trumpers and therefore would qualify.
Okay, I'm a little drunk, but I'm dreaming about a weird chess match in which a Harris/Haley ticket mates. The most consequential debate in recent memory is followed by the most consequential VP pick since Palin, but in a good way. Unity and centrism and abortion rights are the headlines. Smart lady power vs. Trump, Putin, all the thugs. Biden's successor would be the choice that makes the most sense to the most voters and avoid a battle. I share all the concerns about Harris and have been ruling her out. But Haley and Harris would give each other cred. I bet Harris could up her game, lean into her tough prosecutor presona. Remember, we're otherwise talking about a pool of untested aspirants who could well crash and burn.
"The party should surely be capable of … stage a one-day consultative vote in all 50 states. … a crucial testing ground for the national appeal of would-be candidates." (from point 3 above)
This is a good start and got me thinking. Biden is trapped. If he pulls out, the party heads into chaos, loses and it’s still his fault. (see Frum in the Atlantic).
The only solution: a sound Plan B to democratically choose a replacement. Based partly on the above idea, I show this is possible in a Change.org/BidenPlanB petition, or at BidenPlanB.org.
Biden did fine. The stream you saw was malinformation, disinformation, misinformation. Deceptively edited by Republicans. A deep fake cheap fake. Probably from Russia! Yeah that's the ticket
"When I was promoting my latest book, The Identity Trap, last fall, the question I was asked most often was about why we should criticize the flaws of the left when the threat from the right is so much greater. The answer I gave was threefold: The flaws of wokeness matter because they are leading us away from, not towards, the kind of society in which we should wish to live. They matter because they claim innocent victims who are deserving of our compassion. And they matter because they create the deep disdain for establishment institutions that helps right-wing demagogues be competitive in national elections in the first place.
Reflecting on the mess the Democrats have created for themselves, I would now add a fourth point. The problem with so much of American life—from the identitarian slogans that were unthinkingly embraced by mainstream institutions over the last years to the softer forms of deference to conventional wisdom that made pundits desist from asking awkward questions about Biden’s age—is that it is undermining the basic foundations of our society. You cannot have an accurate grasp of reality when journalists are more concerned with “reading the room” than with telling the truth. And you cannot have high-performing institutions when demographic considerations trump merit.
At least in the short-run, things will often work out just fine. But if you systematically weaken a society’s foundations, you’ll never be sure when the cracks start showing."
This section should be required reading. It distills the position that best combines pragmatism and policy for Democrats (or anti-Republicans -- it's hard to separate the two sometimes): identitarianism fails on all merits; it's both ideologically authoritarian and pragmatically harmful. And like many ideas and ideologies, it can work out well in the short term, but in the long term, it feeds decay. (Arguably, it's also itself a symptom of decay as well as in intensifier.)
You call it polite lies, I call it some combination of willful blindness/mindless groupthink/hubris. What I never hear from this bunch is the question to themselves, how could we be so wrong, what did we ignore that was giving us the clues we need to read the situation more accurately/astutely, if I was wrong about this, what else am I wrong about? It's always as if they are disembodied from their blindness. I used to consider myself a liberal leaning person, but thankfully I am now in hard won recovery from it and politically homeless. Your article makes the case for why so many of us feel the Democratic Party and their Establishment Entourage is not to be trusted, and is in many ways a much bigger threat to this country than Trump is. They deny Realtiy, this denial clouds their judgment in serious ways, they try to gaslight/punish/shame the rest of us into denying what we can see with our own eyes, put people in jobs they are not competent to do, label the rest of us as threats to democracy, and then act surprised when these things come back to bite them. The voters in this country are not the only ones who watched last night. It can be argued that the above list is likely to have emboldened the bad actors in the world who already have the world in disorder and must now be chortling with glee and planning even bolder moves. It is so irritating to listen now to the surprise and dismay as if journalists and the powerbrokers weren't the ones who foisted this upon us. I myself, admittedly a cynic at this point, don't believe that last night was a surprise but a cruel political move to achieve what they couldn't otherwise. Willfull blindness has consequences. If it was a surprise, some lengthy deep reflection on the questions I posed at the beginning might be a good place to start.
Let's be, perhaps, unrealistically optimistic. If the Democrats accept that Biden is not a viable candidate for re-election, and the adults in the party take charge, then the party could monopolize the media through the convention and beyond. The weeks leading up to a brokered but well choreographed convention could be rather exciting for the American public allowing we would hope viable alternates, to Biden and more importantly Trump to surface and fight it out. However, if the Democrats focus on tamping down panic and dissent in the chattering classes, then Trump will again be president.
Are there any adults?
Yes, there are a few who are well hidden as successful governors and mayors but have executive leadership/management experience. Our senators and congress people have gravitated toward the performance arts.
Excellent article, Yascha, now if the appropriate people will just pay attention. Their self-convincing bubble should be burst. Sadly, I just saw an MSNBC panel trying to make excuses and refocus the spotlight on Trump’s performance. Jen Psaki, who I previously considered intelligent, was talking about « a path to recovery » for Biden. Forget it, Jen, it’s not happening. MSNBC and CNN now seem to be in conflict, with the former trying to come up with « it wasn’t so bad » commentators, and the latter pushing the « what now that Armageddon is near » viewpoint. I’m firmly in Yascha Mounck’s camp. Trump is a challenge to our democracy such as hasn’t been seen since the Civil War. This is no time for pretending that a confused octogenarian is a suitable voice to counter Trump’s prevarications and distortions. The American republic needs a potent, articulate savior.
I agree that the performances was a disaster - I also think CNNs performance was a disaster. But that was predictable. But I think that the retrospective is wrong. I’m a slightly to the right democrat and have watched the progressive wing of the party with horror. But this is not a world and never has been in which - much as an academic might want it to be so - some group of preternaturally wise people see the future and act with courage, vision, and deep understanding. Maybe elephants and whales could do that, not our species. People surfed the wave in the run up to 2020 just like they always do, and in fact we bumbled our way to Joe Biden, the right choice. But we did not recognized that Biden’s election was a reprieve, the party saw it as a rescue. And Biden understandably thiught he was doing just fine. It’s not particularly good analysis to dislike what you see now, then look back and decide that everyone knew then what you know now and should have acted differently. In the history of the U.S.i can think of only two occasions when Presidents acted with that kind of foresight. Washington, and Lincoln. I might be willing to give you Eisenhower.
I completely disagree with this on a number of levels but primarily Democrats are not polite rather they are intentionally self deceived, a perfect illustration of the danger of Bad Faith. The absurdity of running Hillary Clinton who was universally disliked against Trump who had grassroots support was all we need demonstrate that. The Democratic predisposition to Pelagian policies is naivete to the point of immoral if not suicidal. Next, this is GREAT news for America. Biden will be forced out. He will never last to the primaries. So we now have a chance to run an articulate, smart, mature, intelligent statesman against a well-proven pathological liar and convicted felon. This is a short putt for a real statesman. Will it be Shapiro? That is my hope; Josh would annihilate Trump in any debate.
Shapiro came to my mind last night, too. But my fear as a Jew is that current rampant anti-semitism might work against him. I hate to say that, and I'm willing to be *persuaded* it's just a knee-jerk reaction and not a fact.
Or it might work FOR him. Remember, the majority of Americans still support Israel, and the pro-Hamas left have no alternative candidates
I am Jewish too, and indeed we are a small vulnerable minority. But we have a duty to defend the only nation that has provided Jews with such unprecedented opportunities in perhaps our entire post-temple history. We are not as weak as we fear. We have done extraordinary things for our country and we must do more.
Kamala Harris’s CNN interview defending Biden was also a disgrace. I could especially never favor her as the replacement candidate after watching it. What a shameless liar!
Kamala will not make it to the convention, rarely said aloud: Kamala Harris is the DEI Diva. That is why she in now universally disliked. She is no Condoleezza Rice or Susan Rice either. She is everything we now know is wrong with the identity trap.
If any of the other candidates who ran in 2020 had had the balls to day "I am a proud Obama Democrat", they'd be the obvious choice to replace Biden. Too bad no one did.
It should definitely be a word.
Perhaps we’re seeing more of our leaders than we need to. Biden came off last nite as the cowardly lion of Oz. Since Oct 7th, he’s demonstrated that he lost his political courage. Trump, the raging bull, doesn’t know truth from fiction, yet his narrative as a fixer came thru.
Yascha nails it. His roadmap out of this ditch offers hope. But I fear it’s too late. Unless leaders like Obama call for Biden to step down (he should, but won’t) this train wreck will continue. It’s deeply depressing. Omnishambles = Shit show
Thanks Yascha - I think this is a sound analysis of three big errors that helped us get here. Another error is the way perfectionism and identitarianism has limited our potential pool of alternative leaders. For example Al Franken could of at least been a strong spokesperson for the democratic party and position on issues - Maybe even president. But because of made up stories and a photographic homage to Groucho Marx, he is sadly unavailable having been defenestrated. At the same time, Kristen Gillibrand, as the lead defenestrator, has wrecked her career, as even those who were too cowardly to oppose her know that she can't be trusted and therefore withhold support. The fear that a "woke terror" might be unleashed is clearly a big part of why people are having a hard time coming out and suggesting openly that Sheldon Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, or someone like that should top the ticket.
And while we are mourning our collective errors, while others have made even more severe "gerontocratic" mistakes (e.g., Feinstein and RBG), Nancy Pelosi erred by not handing over her speakership before loosing it to the Republicans. We are thereby deprived of a credible candidacy of someone like Hakeem Jeffries who could have also topped the ticket, had he had the name recognition that would have come with a few years as speaker rather than just house minority leader.
I think it is interesting to think about who has been given State of Union rebuttal speeches and convention addresses, as these are some of the relatively few things the "party" has to give to or test future leaders. The 2020 convention featured 17 different keynotes rather than 1, in a display of diversity at the expense of actual career development.
Finally, I am less confident in the proposed steps toward a solution. If our narrative is going to stay focused on Trump's threat to democracy, then to live up to that urgency, I think we need to respond in kind. An emergency national unity government (1 term) perhaps Romney-Harris nominated by the democratic party is the kind of signal and sacrifice that fits with the challenge. (I think Romney can be trusted on an agreement in advance as to what would be on and off the table in "his" term.) But It is shocking how few never Trumper's have clean hands or have stayed never Trumpers and therefore would qualify.
Okay, I'm a little drunk, but I'm dreaming about a weird chess match in which a Harris/Haley ticket mates. The most consequential debate in recent memory is followed by the most consequential VP pick since Palin, but in a good way. Unity and centrism and abortion rights are the headlines. Smart lady power vs. Trump, Putin, all the thugs. Biden's successor would be the choice that makes the most sense to the most voters and avoid a battle. I share all the concerns about Harris and have been ruling her out. But Haley and Harris would give each other cred. I bet Harris could up her game, lean into her tough prosecutor presona. Remember, we're otherwise talking about a pool of untested aspirants who could well crash and burn.
Fantastic piece, Yascha!
Spot. On.
"The party should surely be capable of … stage a one-day consultative vote in all 50 states. … a crucial testing ground for the national appeal of would-be candidates." (from point 3 above)
This is a good start and got me thinking. Biden is trapped. If he pulls out, the party heads into chaos, loses and it’s still his fault. (see Frum in the Atlantic).
The only solution: a sound Plan B to democratically choose a replacement. Based partly on the above idea, I show this is possible in a Change.org/BidenPlanB petition, or at BidenPlanB.org.