Democrats stabbing President Joe Biden in the back helps one guy. Can you guess who? | Opinion

Democrats attacking their presidential candidates instead of Republican opponents is nothing new. But this year, the donkey party has outdone itself.

These past few weeks have been breathtaking as Democrats have tried to force one of the most consequential presidents of recent history out of office because they think he’s too old and cognitively compromised to defeat the old and cognitively compromised Donald Trump.

Opinion

The only Democrats who have any guts are the same voters who always save this party - Black voters. They are behind Biden. They understand the consequences if Trump is re-elected and they know what happens when Democrats don’t show up to vote. Republicans win, underserved communities suffer, and conservative judges, appointed by Republican presidents, strip women of reproductive rights.

Those leading the charge to force out Biden are the “elite” folks hogging up air space under the Democratic big tent: George Clooney, Adam Schiff, Hollywood, mega-rich donors threatening to withhold their money, podcast bros, and others who are well-educated but have forgotten how elections work.

In an election, you win when you get behind your candidate and get out the vote.

But the anti-Biden Democrats think Biden “can’t win.” Never mind that removing a sitting president from a ticket this close to an election has never happened before. Never mind that when Democrats have turned on their nominees in election years, Republicans have always won. Never mind that it would be just like elite Democrats to want to push Biden out, jettison Vice President Kamala Harris (thereby enraging Black voters) and stage a food fight at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Google the 1968 to understand what happened when Democrats fought each other instead of Republican opponents.

It led to Richard Nixon, an escalation in the Vietnam War, campus protests, Watergate, and an erosion of faith in government.

Google 1980, when Senator Ted Kennedy challenged a sitting Democratic president, Jimmy Carter. We got Ronald Reagan and an explosion of income inequality that has only gotten worse. Carter may have lost anyway, but the most effective attack ads Reagan’s campaign ran that year were clips of Kennedy eviscerating Carter. At the Democratic convention that year, when it came time for the party to gather on stage and for Kennedy to raise Carter’s arm as a symbolic gesture of unity, Kennedy wouldn’t do it.

Carter just stood there staring at him as Kennedy knee-capped him in public, and as Republicans rejoiced.

What is happening with Biden today is not new.

In 2000, enough Democrats decided that they didn’t want Al Gore. He was too stiff, too much of a nerd, too centrist. So what happened? Enough Democrats in Florida cast their votes for Ralph Nader, who traded his legacy as a consumer watchdog for that of a useful idiot in service of George W. Bush.

In 2016, Democrats found fault with Hilary Clinton, though she was one of the most qualified people ever to run for the presidency. Enough Democrats in pivotal states voted for third-party candidates and Trump was elected.

Trump appointed three conservative judges who joined with two appointed by Bush in his first term to repeal Roe V Wade.

And now here we are again. It could be argued the panicked reaction by Democrats to Biden’s terrible debate performance in June has done more damage to Biden than the actual debate. It could also be argued that Trump’s rambling, unhinged acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday was even worse.

But somehow, in the crazy calculus of acceptable behavior in this election, Biden struggling with his stuttering and mixing up names is worse than Trump praising Eastern European autocrats, invoking serial killer Hannibal Lecter, and sharing the stage with Hulk Hogan.

“Liberals may not like it, but this is what the gift of gab looks like,” said Jon Lovett, podcaster and former Obama speechwriter, on X as Trump rambled Thursday night. It didn’t seem to matter that Trump often sounded insane. The “gift of gab” is what counts and Biden doesn’t have it.

He is old, at 81.

What’s also true is that Biden. He restored the principles of science to the fight against COVID. “So far, under Biden, an impressive 15.7 million jobs have been added to the economy,” wrote the Washington Post. Biden has passed impressive bipartisan legislation that has bolstered American infrastructure. He recognizes the threat that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin poses as a destabilizing force in Europe and beyond.

“I have absolutely no concern about the capacity of the current president of the United States to lead his country and to lead our fight for Ukraine and to lead NATO,” said Alexander Stubb, president of Finland, after meeting with Biden at the most recent NATO summit last week.

“The only thing I’m worried about is that the political climate in the United States right now is too toxic, is very polarized, and that doesn’t leave enough room for a civilized and constructive debate.” What does it say when the President of Finland believes in Biden more than some Democrats do?

Meanwhile, Trump has been happy by watching Democrats abandon Biden.

“From a political standpoint, an unprecedented event is happening - The Dems are trying, again, to get Biden off the ballot!!!” said Trump on Truth Social Wednesday. By Friday, more than 30 Democratic leaders had called on Biden to quit. Based on interviews with some, like Sacramento-area Rep. Ami Bera, it’s unclear whether Democrats would rally around Harris if Biden stepped aside or if they opened the top of the ticket up to some or all comers. That would be 1968, 1980, 2000 and 2016 all over again as Democrats yearned for some other candidate besides their own.

Trump is weak, the election is winnable. In 2028, Millennial and Generation Z voters will be in the majority, and a new generation will take over from the old white men. What will they inherit if Trump wins again in November because Democrats couldn’t unify behind their candidate?