The Biden Personality Cult making the Democrats undemocratic
Power trips and the Biden personality cult might see Trump back in the White House
I started this Substack to focus on numbers when it comes to campaigns and elections in the United States and around the world. I wanted to stay out of commentary. However, last night’s presidential primary has made me reconsider the content on this platform, as it really needs to be talked about.
First and foremost, I’m not going to talk much about the debate. Everyone knows what happened. Everyone saw it. Joe Biden looking blankly into the abyss, not being able to string together a coherent sentence, saying that “we finally beat Medicare”, gave us, easily, the worst debate performance in presidential history. If that fly from the Harris-Pence debate had been present, it would have probably found its way into Biden’s perpetually-open mouth. His performance was bad.
But let’s be honest, this has been a slow-moving train wreck. For years, many Democratic voters had been asking for a new candidate. Polls indicated that many Democrats were split as to whether Biden should be the nominee for the Democrats or not. Granted, the same numbers appeared on the Republican side. But Trump didn’t stand on stage looking like he was nearly dead, being rolled out and presented to us in a Weekend at Bernie’s manner.
But for many of us, we knew this day was coming. Event after event, press conference after press conference, Biden has looked like a lost soul that has no idea where he left his medication. This is the reason why the Republicans have been able to make it a campaign issue. Before yesterday, Democrats were able to sweep any criticism of Biden under the rug, or just turn a blind eye by showing him on a bicycle or something. Today, Democrats have to actually face the music about Biden’s cognitive abilities.
This goes to a bigger question, and indeed a problem, that Democrats have when it comes their lust for power. Keeping people like Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer, James Clyburn, Dick Durbin in power way past their ‘sell by date’ shows that long-term Democrats fundamentally have a problem with ‘change’, something that they always claim to be the champions of.
One thing that the Democrats have done this election cycle has deprived Democratic primary voters from picking a new candidate. Biden previously said that he would only be president for one term, and of course broke that promise. But the Democrats have created this revenge machine that makes anyone who goes as far as even questioning the Democrats, and particularly Biden, a pariah. This has essentially led to the Biden Cult of Personality.
When it comes to the Biden personality cult, one must toe the line that everything is great under the Biden Presidency. The economy is great, he has done “more than any other president in recent history”, he is “the most progressive president”, and so on…superlatives that you would expect from Donald Trump. Still, ask the average voter to name any of Biden’s accomplishments, you will be answered with a blank stare that would rival that of Joe Biden’s during last night’s debate.
In the first question of the debate, CNN’s Jake Tapper absolutely destroyed the cult’s narrative. In that question, Tapper said:
“Inflation has slowed, but prices remain high. Since you took office, the price of essentials have increased. For example, a basket of groceries that cost $100 then now costs more than $120. And typical home prices jumped more than 30%.”
And that’s it, that’s the reason why Biden is losing. But Biden’s cult is absolutely disconnected with the reality that is facing most Americans (as I mentioned in my article about Democratic party elites). I’m not sure if the Democrats are unaware of the reality of what Americans face today, or they simply are ignoring it, trying to pull some Jedi mind trick thinking that if they say it enough times that people will miraculously change their minds. The fact that they cannot acknowledge these absolute facts presented by Tapper shows that their reasoning isn’t rooted in reality.
But this Biden Cult of Personality, which dissuades Democrats from voicing any dissenting opinion, has become undemocratic in and of itself. No opposing views are allowed. Only views that follow the cult’s narrative will be accepted. Part of that narrative is that Joe Biden is cognitively stable, simply had a cold last night, or simply had a bad night. We get President Obama going on Twitter saying that it was simply “a bad night”, which makes me wonder if he personally invested in the personality cult.
Sorry, but no. The debate was a fucking Tenerife-level disaster.
Because of this, Democrats find themselves in an extremely difficult situation. Because of the Biden Cult of Personality and the Democratic Party’s revenge machine, who is going to speak truth to power? I give Claire McCaskill credit. As someone who has been part of the DNC narrative-pushing machine, she actually hinted that it might be time to find someone else. But Democrats in positions that matter are staying quiet. It as if the Night of the Long Knives would be pointed in their direction, and their political careers would be ended if they dare question the capacity of the dear leader or the party.
These next 72 hours are important. If nobody of importance speaks truth to power, the Democrats are done. I hear a lot of people saying “well who would run instead?” Well, Pete Buttigieg, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Ruben Gallego (my choice), Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, and more. Is that enough for you? And when people say “they don’t have the name ID that Biden has.” Trust me, once one of these people become the nominee for president of the oldest political party in America, voters will know who they are. They aren’t running for dog catcher.
Unfortunately, it looks like the Democrats are going to stick with their bad decision, repeat 2016, ask themselves “why did we lose”, blame someone else and not take responsibility, and repeat. Right now is the time for something to change.
Not like there haven't been people warning for at least a year. Maybe two. He should have honored his original pledge to serve one term.
I have a lot of different thoughts on your post that I will probably have to break up into multiple comments.
First one thing that I myself acknowledge to have underestimated is the public is quite unhappy with economy's most recent bout of inflation. Yes, this most recent period of inflation isn't as "bad" numerically as what happened in the 1970s but a lot of today's voters weren't around in the 1970s and besides the "voter" is always right as they say. I bring up inflation because there are two interesting things about it. One is it has affected multiple countries and made there governments including the likes of Canada, the UK, EU, Australia, and New Zealand deeply unpopular yet Switzerland and the East Asian democracies largely avoided(The Swiss election last fall actually went relatively "normal" perhaps a sign of Switzerland healthier levels of inflation). Second notwithstanding Jimmy Carter's famed appointment of Paul Volcker the Democratic party still has really deep long term ideological challenges dealing with inflation. Truth of the matter is I am not sure Democrats have ever seen inflation as something affecting "their" voters and right now this attitude is biting them in the ass.
This is ironic as for many years after 2016 many Democrats were blaming Paul Volcker's inflation fighting policies for the rise of Donald Trump.
As an aside I have been reading up on the history of Rueben Askew's 1984 Presidential campaign. I am surprised Kartik hasn't discussed this more on his blog and podcast.