Democrats Take The Pole Position!

And other thoughts from this momentous news week.

Photo by Isaac Maffeis on Unsplash

Democrats Surge

Did President Biden decide to drop out earlier than this last Sunday, and just intentionally wait until after the RNC to announce it for maximum political advantage? Are Democrats capable of such good strategizing letting Republicans spend their whole convention arguing against a candidate they wouldn’t actually run against?

Whatever top Democrats’ intentions, how this primary season played out was Biden essentially protecting Harris from months of attacks for a sudden convention time, three-month blitz to election day. Maybe parties should do this more often, it seems pretty advantageous.

US Election Reform

Our elections are way too long. Candidates start seriously jockeying 2.5 years ahead of the election, which means we now spend more of our lives in election mode than not. Political parties used to always be decided at the convention, and it is a relatively modern development that our elections are so long and decided in primary elections.

France and the UK just had incredibly short elections, and their citizens were still capable of smart, strategic voting that somewhat accurately measured the opinions of the populace. Their democracies were fast and efficient, and America should try that out.

I’d enjoy seeing America try out a similar version to France voting before weeding out the low-performing candidates and then voting a second time, or perhaps even tiered voting to allow more moderate and third-party candidates to have a chance, and create a more proportional system of representation to better represent the political diversity that can’t be fully expressed within our current two-party system.

Such change would require Constitutional change, which I’m not opposed to, but, to start off, America could try extremely recentering the primary schedule. It’s kind of ludicrous that our modern primary system is scheduled across so many months, from Iowa in January to New Jersey in June. This marathon schedule necessitates massive spending from the campaigns, which necessitates massive fundraising that obviously corrupts our political process and eventual presidential administrations.

Our marathon elections probably do have the benefit of truly testing our presidential candidates in perhaps the most grueling job interview in the world seeing how they react under stress, low sleep, heavy travel schedules, and endless controversies requiring fast statements and action. But our political culture right now is heading off the rails into partisan extremism with Republican convention speakers casually bringing up the possibility of civil war if Trump doesn’t win, so perhaps very shortened elections would keep Americans a bit calmer and more civil, and less existentially obsessed with elections most of their waking hours.

Biden Bow

I just want to point out how rare it is in world history that the most powerful person in the world would willingly give up power and retire for what he was convinced is the good of his country and political party. Donald Trump did not do that even after losing an election. I expect Biden will receive a long standing ovation at the Democratic National Convention, and he deserves it.

I think his approval ratings will rise the next several months with Democrats and even Republicans alike relieved he isn’t going to try and be president until he’s 86 years old. running again, and normie voters can better appreciate his accomplishments with the bow tied around his legacy that was quitting while he was still ahead politically, and that he will not himself lose an election and give America’s wobbling democracy back to a wannabe dictator.

Democrats should not miss the opportunity to constantly mention Biden’s giant legislative wins, his economic record bouncing back so fast and strong from COVID, and his civility. Biden stopped Trump’s fascism, and truly was a bridge to a new generation — Gen X and Kamala Harris.

Republicans will try to paint Biden as another Jimmy Carter, who did not deserve the caricature Republicans drew of him as a loser president, so Democrats should not shy away from Biden’s achievements. Republicans always mythologize their leaders, Democrats should try some out. Let’s all talk about Biden the way conservatives-circa-2004 talked about Roanld Reagan. Let’s go wild with the Dark Brandon memes featuring Biden wearing only his aviator sunglasses from now on doing donuts on the White House lawn in his Stingray.

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