What A Rough 48 Hours
Between an abysmal debate and worse Supreme Court rulings, we need to talk.
Hello, friends,
Yesterday, I live-tweeted the Trump-Biden debate. It was an experience, and a rather unpleasant one. If you want the details, read it.
So About That Debate
The main talking point after the fact has been: Should Biden drop out?
And…I don’t think I have an answer for that, or at least one with strong convictions. This shit is why I wanted the Democratic party to have debates for its joke of a primary. To quote myself from back in April 2023:
”First of all, would these debates be a warm up for Biden? I don’t know, for sure. I haven’t seen enough of Joe Biden out in the line of journalistic fire lately to tell how sharp he is - and that’s a bad thing. The New York Times reports that Biden has the fewest number of press conferences since Reagan, instead of - sayyyy - stepping up and doing speeches & press conferences when the Tennessee Three/Two got threatened with and expelled from the Tennessee House, or when numerous states legislatively assaulted Trans people. That means Biden is already not used to being challenged by questions, and has been doing less outreach with the bully pulpit than he should be. Could he use a warm-up? Yeah!”
Sure enough, I was right: Biden went out on national TV and struggled. Badly.
Oh, sure, he got a few good lines off. Maybe those’ll be the sound-bytes they play on TV for the next few weeks. Maybe voters will be more pissed off that Trump lied a whole bunch (I mean, post-birth abortions?!), and they’ll forgive the poor presentation by the sitting President.
But Trump steamrolled him with lies that Biden offer pitifully no resistance to.
Yes, I think that kind of nitty-gritty-politics failure justifies us to stop and ask ourselves what we’re doing. Is this really our best course of action when so much is on the line?
And, really, the truth is I don’t know. I’m waiting for polling data to come in that reflects the debate and its aftermath. People are weird, and might view things differently than I did.
I also know I’m biased. I’m predisposed to wanting Biden not to be the nominee - I’m one of those who wanted him to face a serious primary, after all! - but then, at this point, who else could it be?
I won’t pretend I’m an expert on the mechanics of these things. Technically, if Biden declined the nomination, it’d probably go to an open convention where delegates could choose who they want. That could be its own sort of trouble. But in all honesty, with all ethics, and with all common sense, there’s only one candidate that makes sense: VP Kamala Harris.
Save your “Bernie comes in and saves us” fantasy, fun as that sounds. Save your “Gretchen Whitmer!” or “Gavin Newsom!” draft picks. It would be unfuckingredeemable for the Democratic party to pass on the first Black Vice-President as our party’s nominee. If we have to change course, it has to be to the next in line.
Now, her choice for VP would have to be someone fairly Progressive who could unify the party some. Who that might be is beyond my ken to guess. If she were old enough (I think she’s 34?), I’d advocate for AOC. She could pick someone like Ed Markey or Jay Inslee and I’d be pretty happy with that.
But as bad as Biden’s performance was (“We beat Medicaid!”), there’s something of a way out of this situation. If I was Biden, I’d do what it seems like he’s already doing: Go on the road.
Go on the road with all the TV cameras and all the crowds and actually run for office. Do a number of press conferences where he answers a dozen, or two dozen questions. Demonstrate that the debate really, truly was a one-off just bad, bad night. Do it up and down and so well that the conspiracy theorists are asking if Trump somehow slipped Biden a performance inhibitor before the debate.
And if Biden can’t do those things? If he goes on TV and routinely freezes up, mutters, and fails to complete sentences? Then he needs to be replaced before the convention.
It’s up to Biden. But I’ll say this much: Anyone who pretends that this isn’t a serious concern is deluding themselves much the same way that people in 2016 deluded themselves that Hillary Clinton wasn’t a vulnerable candidate. We saw what we saw, and what we saw was pretty fucking terrible.
But that’s not even the thing that’s got me so depressed right now.
Chevron And Other SCOTUS Rulings
I am not an expert on law, nor on the various regulatory agencies and their machinations. But in ruling 6-3 (of course) that the Chevron Doctrine no longer applies, the Supreme Court has basically seized regulatory control from the Executive branch to the Judicial.
It’s bad.
It’s the kind of ruling that allows challenges to the FDA’s right to regulate food and drugs. On the upside, that might also keep the DEA from regulating drugs, but it also keeps the EPA from protecting the environment.
The very basic, possibly wrong explanation I hold to for it is this: Up until today, agency experts crafted policy and regulations based on the laws passed by the Legislature. Now, those agents can’t manage regulations.
It’s really, really bad.
Top that off with rulings like a ruling that sleeping outside is a crime for the unhoused, and you have a serious problem on your hands. Think about it: Once you’re in jail, you won’t be able to afford bail because you’re broke, so now you’re incarcerated. And once there, guess what? The 13th Amendment that ends slavery no longer applies to you.
Welcome to an expansion of prison enslavement.
So How Do These Two Stories Tie Together?
If I was Biden, I’d be announcing a major rally for next week where I’m going to talk about one thing and one thing only: Supreme Court Reform. There are 13 circuits. There has historically been one Justice per circuit. Currently their are nine Justices. That means the court is currently packed.
“If we win in November, and we have the votes, we will un-pack the court.”
Start there and work your way up.
If Biden really wants to be President, and is really able to be President, then he needs to start fighting like the entire country rests on his shoulders.
Because it does.
And as to why we aren’t asking Trump to step down for lying all the time and being a convicted felon, molester, and Fascist? I mean, look, if I thought he’d listen, maybe I would. But his party likes that. Those are his qualifications to them.
All the more reason we need to get this right.
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.