If Biden Wants To Be In It, Here's How To Win It
Since Biden wants to be Democracy's Champion, here's some suggestions on how he can actually come from behind and beat Trump.
Hello, friends,
Before I jump into how Biden can pull victory from the jaws of disaster, I want to make clear where I’m coming from. First and foremost, yes, I will be voting for Biden in November. And after two short scene-setting paragraphs, I’ll spend the rest of this article talking him up.
That said: We are now a week off the Judicial Coup of 2024. The Coupists walk free, leading to the “Second American Revolution” being declared against the government. The insurrectionist ringleader also remains free upon threat of bloodshed should the left stop his insurgency. Meanwhile, the United States under Biden backs a genocide in the Middle East that The Lancet, a major medical publication, estimates has killed over 180,000 victims.
It is primarily for those reasons - that Democracy is actively under attack and there has been no adequate response - that I would much rather see Kamala Harris, someone well-acquainted with fighting criminals, take over as the nominee. She might not do anything differently, but she might. I also believe she has a much higher chance of winning in 2024, as she’d be unburdened by much of what has been under Biden.
The idea of anyone else being the nominee is ludicrously unrealistic.
However, the movement to get Biden to withdraw on his own accord seems doomed to failure. Progressives such as The Squad are rallying around Biden, and Bernie Sanders is rightly asking why the New York Times is so concerned with donors’ opinions. This while many whose opinions might matter are either speaking with anonymity or with vague “He needs to demonstrate he can handle it” arguments that lack clear goals.
And it’s unfair of anyone to say, “I don’t like the way you do things” without saying, specifically, what they’d like to see changed. While some of my more radical ideas have already been published on this platform, let’s play conventional with this. These are ideas that Biden can be the ringleader of that would significantly boost his chances of winning.
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Make The Democratic Party Platform Development Public & Semi-Open-Sourced
So, one of the big things that a political party has is a platform.
Jared Yates Sexton, an expert on authoritarianism, proposed something simple that I may take liberties with paraphrasing: Get a bunch of Progressive organizations in a room together and make a platform that beats the ever-loving bejeezus out of Project 2025, which we’ve already examined here.
Now, Donald Trump has since disavowed Project 2025. According to MSNBC’s Katie Phang, this is the official Republican platform, which they apparently steamrolled onto their platform committee people:
I mean…These are literally twenty bullet-point items with zero explanation on how to get them done, many of which are bigoted in some fashion (1, 2, 10, 16, 17, 18) . Maybe they have plans to explain how they intend to get this stuff done some time down the line, but why do that when you have a 900-ish page document detailing it all called - Well, shit, they don’t want to call it Project 2025 so now they’re calling it Agenda 47.
So what can we on the left do?
We can sit down and put forward some ideas of our own.
Let’s start with a critical reform that would strengthen our Democracy, eliminate the fear of third-party candidates screwing over Democrats yet again, and all that jazz:
Dems Should Support Ranked Choice Voting
Platform plank: “It will be the intention of the Democratic Party to pass a law establishing the use of Ranked Choice Voting in all Federal elections.”
For those who forgot what Ranked Choice is, it was the topic of one of our first articles.
If this can’t be used - if the Federal government can’t make that law - then it should devolve to the mission of all party candidates in all states. Plain and simply: “We’re going to be the party that gets rid of the forced choice between two parties.”
But this is one way that would actually reinvigorate Democracy while almost assuredly denying the Republican party any chance to win because a few people peeled off and voted Green. Again.
Or do we really want to go through another cycle of blaming Jill Stein and Ralph Nader for all our troubles? I guess that let’s us avoid looking inward?
Dems Should Support Medicare For All
Platform Plank: “It will be the intention of the Democratic Party to pass a law establishing that all citizens are entitled to the benefits of Medicare.”
This is another topic we’ve tackled on this publication. Honestly, I don’t know what more there is for me to say. It’s Medicare - For All!
There’s no strong healthcare provision in any Republican plan, except that they want to tear down the Affordable Care Act because of course they do. Laying out concrete, solid gains for people - the sort of thing that voters like to vote FOR, not AGAINST - will strengthen Democratic chances of winning.
Dems Should (must) Support Judicial Reform
Platform Plank: “It shall be the Democratic Party’s intention that all members will vote for an updated Judiciary Act.”
This one, we haven’t talked about on The Progressive Cafe (yet) because it’s a bit further along that the more theoretical approach we take here. The Judiciary Act is a bill you can read more about at one of it’s co-authors’ (Hank Johnson’s) press pages. It would expand the Supreme Court from 9 to 13 Justices, in keeping with the idea that there are 13 circuits and there should be one Justice for each circuit.
I wanna give a hat-tip to Melanie D’Arrigo for coming up with a list of who is backing the bill so far.
Now, given that 2024 brings in a new Congress, the bill would have to be re-written and re-filed, but that’s fine.
Biden’s ability to install four Justices immediately opens up a rehearing of the Judicial Coup case, Roe v Wade/Dobbs, and other critical cases.
Dems Should Come Out In Support Of Prison Reform
Did you know slavery is still legal?
Yep! The 13th Amendment specifies that forced labor is legal as punishment for a crime. Did you know that the Supreme Court ruled that sleeping outside - as in, if you don’t have a house to sleep in - is a crime you can be jailed for? Then, you can be enslaved!
Neat, huh?
Platform Plank: “Democrats will pass legislation ending the use of private prisons and the use of forced prison labor.”
We’ve already talked about serious reforms to our prison system here. Actually, we use the term “abolition” because we would be getting rid of a lot of prisons. Feel free to read about it and see what you think.
All This, And More
The trick here is that these are all clear, concrete positions we (and the star of our show, Biden) can take that would contrast with whatever-the-fuck Republicans choose to call their Project 2025 successor.
If we hold these debates openly and air them everywhere from CNN to TikTok, and if we take feedback into consideration, we’ll make clear that we’re informing the people because we plan to represent them, whereas Republicans fully intend to rule them. (Props to Beau Of The Fifth Column for the “Rule rather than Represent” mantra)
But there’s more here than just “open the platform, make it inclusive, and show it off.”
How about Town Halls?
Biden Needs To Do Better Media Encounters
Here’s a list of three things Biden can probably pull off:
1: Biden needs to do a Town Hall. At least an hour long, and with a lot of questions coming from randomly-selected guests. No pre-determined questions like he’s done recently. He’s asked a question, he answers it to the best of his ability, and we move on to the next.
2: Biden needs to go on Hot Ones. Yes, this is an idea from Parker Molloy. I don’t know how Biden is with spicy food. I suspect he’s not great, but how would I know? Sean Evans is one of the best interviewers out there, and the added heat keeps people from just throwing down canned answers. I realize that this in theory exposes Evans to having to host Trump in some sort of “equal access” honor code (some states even have laws about this), but I’m gonna bet that Trump is even worse with heat.
3: Biden needs to do the equivalent of a stadium tour. He’s done some public events since the bad debate and all that, and that’s fine. Now? Go to a stadium or convention center and fill it with 25,000 people that will turn around and run the streets for you in that city. Demonstrate you’ve got the vigor, faculty, and broad-band support to get it done.
End The Gaza Genocide
I mean, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: What’s happening in Gaza is a genocide. Biden has tremendous power to stop it. He hasn’t used it, and that’s a problem. It’s time that he uses it. The sooner he does, the sooner its immediacy leaves peoples’ memories and the less radical of the radical might choose to embrace strategic voting if they think Trump will re-start the genocide.
If he can’t stop it, then he needs to disconnect us from Israel and make it so the U.S. is no longer supporting it. Period.
Take The Risks Seriously
The most important question in Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulos was how Biden would feel if he lost and everything he feared came true. It’s the kind of question politicians don’t like to face because it challenges their underlying presumptions about victory.
Biden answered, rather pathetically, that as long as he fought his best, he’d feel fine.
I’m sorry, but if I had the hopes of the entire fucking world banked on my shoulders and I failed, I would not feel fine. I would feel horrified. I’d be depressed. I would ask myself why the nation chose a 34-felony-count pedophile sex offender over me. I’d wonder what happened. I’d do my best to expedite passports for vulnerable populations that are at risk of extermination, such as Queer Americans.
I know Biden gave a care-free, “everything’s gonna be fine, Jack!” answer, but that’s ridiculous on its surface. Just because Biden chooses not to use his elected dictatorial powers, as granted by the Judicial Coup last week, does not mean Trump won’t. Those powers are sitting there specifically for Trump to use.
Biden not answering truthfully and not expressing just how horrified he should feel at the prospect of defeat makes me question whether or not he takes this situation seriously.
If he doesn’t, he needs to drop out.
But since he’s staying in, he’d better fucking take it seriously. He’d better paint the apocalyptic, Fascist future in store for us if we lose.
Because otherwise we will.
Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe. If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list. This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a former hyperlocal journalist and sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.