In football, when a coach calls a trick play, the verdict is quick. It comes at the end of the play. It’s a roll of the dice. If the play works, the defense is fooled, the offense gains yardage, or even scores, the coach is proclaimed “a genius.” If it fails, he is an hubristic idiot, guilty of malpractice.
If pundits and freaked out Democratic office holders succeed in forcing Joe Biden from the presidential race and subbing in a magical replacement candidate, it’s a trick play.
We shall have to wait four months to find out whether the dice roll worked.
Who’ll decide the election
If he stays in the race and wins, Mr. Biden will be the genius: Once again, Uncle Joe beats the odds. Total vindication.
If he loses? The gnashing of teeth will be brutal and prolonged: What was he thinking? What was his party thinking? How reckless to run again at 81. Why did no one of real power in the party speak up and say what was obvious: Joe, you are just too old.
The president is old. And “old” is what much of the country holds against Mr. Biden, either because of what they perceive, or because of what they have been told to perceive.
In the case of the MAGA base, this is a convenient excuse. They would have hated Joe Biden as president at 45 or 50. A good portion of the nation hated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for his entire presidency. They hated FDR for the same reason they hate Pope Francis: The embrace of human equality and plurality.
But the MAGA voter will not decide this election. The election will be decided by independents and suburbanites. And many of these people fear that Mr. Biden lacks the physical strength and focus to keep doing the job.
As opposed to a complete nut job who makes up his own “facts” and spews fascist tropes and threats?
In a very few coming days, I suspect, the president will either show the nation that he is capable of continuing, or that he is not.
But there is something deeply unsettling about ungrateful Dems shooting the wounded. And something truly revolting about “the blood in the water” syndrome in American culture. We cannibalize the best of us while the shameless prosper.
Suppose Mr. Biden does pass the baton. Maybe Candidate X soars. Or, sinks.
It’s all a roll of the dice
If Mr. Biden stays in the race, it is a roll of the dice. And if he exits and the Democratic Party nominates Kamala Harris, or an unknown and nationally untested governor, it is also a roll of the dice.
And this is not a good time to roll the dice.
Donald Trump is a dangerous radical who despises constitutional democracy and, actually, also hates the country. He is our Putin.
Mr. Biden has rebuilt our infrastructure, NATO, and our economy. And the compromises he eventually comes up with on complex issues are usually sane and sensible. On immigration, for example: Stem the tide of illegal immigration but protect families already here. This is called governance.
The president is old. But he can govern. His speech, already impaired, has slowed; his gait has, too. But he knows the job, has a good team, and his prism is the public good.
That doesn’t mean he can beat Donald Trump. Or that any Democrat can. And it is Mr. Trump who is the ultimate dice roll.
What is the worst possible outcome of a second Biden term? Kamala Harris becomes president. Not a thrilling prospect. But not one that has the potential to wreck the Constitution and the economy.
What happened the last time the Democratic Party dumped an incumbent president and nominated someone who had not entered a single primary and was chosen by party bosses? It lost a heartbreaker.
Yet the press seems unable to draw these distinctions. It is poor at covering substance. And the public is poor at absorbing substance.
There is no true press. And no true public.
That is the deeper crisis — the crisis of our democracy.
Not Trump
The president is old. Mr. Trump is unfit. He has promised to suspend the Constitution when he feels it is called for and to order 15 to 20 million deportations.
He should not be a major party candidate for the presidency. He should not be on a debate stage spinning uncountable lies that go unchallenged. And for roughly half of the country to think he is fit for the presidency, trustworthy, competent, or even of sound mind and minimal morals, is an indictment of us all.
We are rolling the dice on the country. Liberty is on the line no matter who is the Democratic nominee.
People who care about democracy have to keep making the case to their fellow countrymen, and pressing them to read, listen, and think.
Keith C. Burris is the former editor, vice president and editorial director of Block Newspapers: burriscolumn@gmail.com. His previous article was “Trump must be defeated. Biden must go.”
First Published: July 8, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
