Recent events should not distract from the fact that the Democrats very much have a crisis on their hands. It is hard to find any polls that look favorable for Joe Biden, a problem that is naturally exacerbated by his debate performance, the continued fallout from that debate performance, and the attempted assassination of his competitor. (While Biden is trailing Trump in a bunch of polls, data from RealClearPolling shows Democratic Senate candidates leading their state races, which hammers home the point that voters aren’t responding to the president, rather than the party.) And yet, since the bloodshed on Saturday, some Democratic operatives have frozen the momentum to replace the top of the ticket, with one anonymous senior official telling Axios, diffidently, that their caucus is “resigned” to a second Trump term.
That’s the sort of language that crystalizes so many of the stereotypes long associated with the Democrats, a group of lawmakers who always somehow seem incapable of owning (or wielding) their power. “We’re doomed” is not a winning message! Especially when so much of the run-up to 2024 has centered on the idea that Donald Trump represents an existential threat to the fundamental institutions of the country. So that is why I simply must give it up for Nancy Pelosi—ironically one of the country’s premier institutionalists—for being interested in preserving the future, even if it requires having uncomfortable conversations.
I’m not kidding. Pelosi might be our biggest hope. Here’s Politico, reporting what the former speaker has been up to over the past three weeks:
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, convinced Biden will lose, has been working the phones since June 27 in hopes of finding a way to ease him off the ticket. … The extent of Pelosi’s behind-the-scenes role hasn’t been fully revealed and may never be if the former speaker has her way. But I’m told by people familiar with the exchanges that she’s stage-managed phone calls to [House Minority Leader Hakeem] Jeffries, plotted strategy with the biggest names in Democratic politics and told one former elected official bluntly that Biden’s legacy can’t be destroying their party.
It is rare to see Pelosi so ruthless on one of the members of the old guard. Nothing in the former speaker’s two decades in Democratic leadership would have led you to predict that she would be spearheading a drastic effort to unseat the establishment candidate months before a presidential election, and after the nomination has been effectively ascertained. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Pelosi can clearly smell that something is burning. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is publishing op-eds advocating for the status quo, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, someone who ostensibly has some leeway to advocate for a change, has remained surprisingly steadfast on the issue. “The case is closed. Joe Biden is our nominee,” she told reporters last week. (There is actually a reasonable political explanation for this, but the optics are still pretty weird!)
Yes, Pelosi has remained mum on Biden’s chances in public forums. But on a recent Morning Joe appearance, she encouraged the president to do “whatever he wants to do,” adding, “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short” (wink, wink). The Biden camp had already been quite vocal that Biden had made his decision and reiterated that, after Pelosi’s comment, with: “He’s running.”
But speaking as a concerned citizen more than anything else, I’m finding that it’s simply nice to be reassured that there is someone in authority who is seeing what I’m seeing. Pelosi, like you, me, and millions of other Americans, is horrified by the prospect of a second Trump presidency, and if we are to believe the reports of her back-channeling, then she is clearly making a concerted effort to prevent that from coming to pass. It’s the bare minimum, and currently, that’s more than enough.
It should be noted that this is all happening after the macabre spectacle of Dianne Feinstein’s decline and eventual death while in office, one of the more depressing arcs of modern American congressional history and something that Pelosi was absolutely complicit in. The stakes were obviously much lower: Feinstein was not running against Trump. (Can you even imagine? My God.) So I do find myself wondering if she learned a lesson from that humiliation. Or maybe she’s responding to pressure from her legendary inner circle of Democratic donors. Or maybe she (like so many of us) is extremely concerned about Democrats in swing districts.
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And yes, there are many other powerful Democrats who have spoken publicly about their desire for a new presidential candidate. Many, many more have made their feelings clear off the record. But reports about Pelosi are significant for what she represents—and for the power she still wields behind the scenes. And now that those reports are out there, we are starting to hear about the machinations of other party leaders: The Washington Post reported yesterday that both Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have had separate meetings with Biden to tell him that his “continued candidacy imperils the Democratic Party’s ability to control either chamber of Congress next year.”
At 84 years old and at the tail end of her own career in public service, Pelosi could be setting herself up for an ideal final act. She has handed the reins to an heir apparent and is using her excess capital to badger a malfunctioning incumbent into retirement. The only thing left to do is ride off into the sunset. But first: Pelosi wants to win in 2024. So should the rest of her party.
Source link : https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/07/joe-biden-age-donald-trump-2024-news-nancy-pelosi.html
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Publish date : 2024-07-18 05:40:00
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