With Biden, the Democrats confront the flaws in democracy | Mulshine
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It seems like just the other day that my Democratic friends were telling me that the Republicans were a threat to democracy.
Come to think of it, it was just the other day – the day before President Biden held that press conference during which he told the world that he intends to stay in the race for president despite the urgings of fellow Democrats that he drop out.
That brings to mind this quote from the great H.L. Mencken
“Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed and are right.”
In this presidential race, both parties are exploiting a serious flaw in the theory of popular rule: Those who achieve power don’t want to give it up – except for positions that grant them more power.
That describes both Biden and his Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
Trump’s attempt to cling to power on Jan. 6, 2021, will go down as the worst case of megalomania in the history of presidential contenders. Nonetheless, Trump’s on track to get nominated again this week in what should be an orderly Republican convention in Milwaukee.
The same can’t be said for the Democratic convention. That’s being held next month in Chicago, which just happens to be the site of the most chaotic convention in recent history. That was the 1968 convention during which the Democratic Mayor, Richard Daley, directed his police to go after demonstrators in a most undemocratic fashion.
Those demonstrators were protesting a Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson, who broke his promise not to send American boys to fight a war that Vietnamese boys should fight on their own.
This time around there’s a war going on in Gaza that is sure to bring hordes of demonstrators protesting Biden’s decision to back Israel against Hamas. The Chicago Times reports that they will join thousands of other protesters, among them “a coalition of LGBTQ+ and abortion rights groups, called ‘Bodies Against Unjust Laws.’”
But the big fight could be inside the convention hall. That’s because of the aforementioned flaw in democracy. When Biden declared he would seek another term at the advanced age of 81, he did so as the most powerful Democrat in the Democratic Party.
No one could tell him “no,” but someone should have. At that time, he was already showing signs of the mental decline that became obvious in that debate last month against Trump.
It took a movie star to get Biden’s attention.
That’s was George Clooney. In an op-ed in the New York Times headlined, “I love Joe Biden but We Need a New Nominee,” the famed actor said he has been in touch with Biden over the years and now sees a decline.
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.” (Other celebrities also came out in favor of replacing Biden.)
That brings to mind LBJ’s comment on Walter Cronkite’s coverage of the Vietnam War: “If I’ve lost Walter Cronkite, I’ve lost the country.”
Well, if this president has lost George Clooney, he’s lost the party.
The Democratic National Committee does not agree.
“The primary is over, and in every state the will of Democratic voters was clear: Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for President. Delegates are pledged to reflect voters’ sentiment, and over 99 percent of delegates are already pledged to Joe Biden headed into our convention,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement.
The majority rules; that’s the democratic way.
But if the Democrats follow the democratic way, they’re just clearing the way for a Trump victory.
Perhaps that’s why an influential group of donors has warned a top Biden PAC that they will freeze $90 million in contributions if Biden remains on the ticket, as the New York Times reported last week.
As for democracy, we’d be better off fixing its flaws instead of exploiting them.
There’s already a lower age limit of 35 to run for president. Why not an upper age limit?
After this campaign, I suspect that might look pretty good to the voters, if not the politicians.
A CBS/YouGov Poll released last week showed that the younger a voter is, the more likely that voter is to question whether older candidates are mentally up to the challenge.
We older voters were seen as more likely to believe older politicians had sufficient cognitive skills.
But we’re old. Why should young people trust us?
After this year, they’ll have plenty of reason not to, I suspect.
ADD -That poll also showed that 64 percent of voters believe the Democrats should nominate a new candidate.
More: Recent Paul Mulshine columns
Paul Mulshine may be reached at pmulshine@starledger.com.
Follow him on Twitter @Mulshine. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook and on Twitter.
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