The Democrat reaction to the June 27th debate, the Republican coronation of an increasingly divinized Trump, and the attempted assassination of the former president have made being part of either party a dogma of faith. With Joe Biden and his increasing Trumpist rhetoric gone, Kamala Harris has a chance to steer her party down the path of reason and constructive criticism again.
The 2nd president of the United States John Adams, who himself appropriated it from the seventeenth-century English philosopher James Harrington, said good governance should be heralded by “a government of laws, and not of men”. He would be sorely disappointed in many things of 21st century America, not least the state of its politics.
This tale could start much earlier but for the sake of time, let’s start from the aftermath of the June 27th debate. Biden’s camp was scrambling to reassure the public, and more importantly, Democratic donors, politicians, and voters, that he was capable of not only winning, but also leading the superpower another four years. The more worrisome signs were inside the democratic party apparatus itself, thanks to a lack of transparency and an increasingly radicalization of its members. There were two camps:
On the one hand dozens of senators, donors and congressmen and women who believed Biden will destroy their chances at retaining not only the White House, but the House of Representatives as well. Many more hid under anonymity for fear of reprisals from the Presidents devoted followers, as well from the Man in the Oval Office.
On the other, the now ex-nominee, who met these calls not with thoughtful critiques or reasoned counterarguments but with furious accusations of treason, disloyalty, and betrayal. Let’s not forget about the Democratic base, who went into pretty lengthy conspiracy theories online about the subsequent gaffes of their leader. Quoting The Guardian’s Mehdi Hasan’s article, some of the best are:
- Did Biden deliver a car-crash debate performance live on CNN or … did CNN’s “carefully considered FRAMING & LIGHTING design” make Biden look older and paler than he was, as one viral tweet claimed?
- Did the president struggle to make sense in his ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos or … was it a result of ABC “destroying the sound quality in Biden’s interview to make him sound bad”, as another viral tweet put it?
- Did the presumptive Democratic nominee take a clear hit in almost every post-debate poll or … was it actually the case that “President Biden’s poll numbers skyrocketed in swing states and CNN’s ratings plummeted”, as yet another viral tweet declared?
As with all online jibber jabber, this is only the tip of the iceberg for a party that used to stand for scientific data and reason. Skimming briefly over the now ex-Democratic nominee, he was “fast becoming an unlikely and unexpected cult leader”. From self-praising declarations such as “who’s gonna be able to hold NATO together like me?” or “How many people draw crowds like I did today?” as well as pretending the polls are wrong, attacking members of the press at a campaign rally; or accusing their critics of “bed-wetting”. Can you see the similarities with Trumps rhetoric?
Moving forward to Donald Trump, he has managed to shape the GOP into his own image. Little remains of the liberal and internationalist conservatism that has characterized the Republican Party for the past 70 years. Flanked by his family, his allies, his former foes and a legion of bandaged followers, the leader of the conservative party in America delivered a blistering speech that contained a tale of his miraculous salvation, explaining how, after crouching down bloodied, he rose with a fist in the air among the agents protecting him, in a gesture of combative resurrection. The divinization of the Great Leader was complete, started by Senators Tim Scotts words that “the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but an American lion got back up on his feet, and he roared”.
His call for “national unity” in the convention was trumped with the nomination of the ultra-conservative J. D. Vance as vice-presidential candidate, or with the VP’s attribution of last week’s failed assassination attempt to those who denounce his authoritarian ambitions. The choice of Vance responds to a specific electoral strategy: to capture the votes of the so-called Rust Belt, the Great Lakes and Midwest region. In these battleground states, white workers who suffered industrial restructuring and company closures caused by globalization live, many of them subscribing to theories such as the Great Replacement (of whites by minorities) or that the 2020 election was stolen. Five swing states share these characteristics, adding an extra appeal to Vance’s candidacy.
The bet on Vance also is the passing of the torch of Trumpism to a younger generation, more sophisticated and articulated in its isolationism, nationalist principles and hostile to immigration, multilateralism, and the multipronged system post WWII. With no rivals, unlike at the 2016 and 2020 conventions and supported by the money of the great fortunes who turned his back with the Capitol assault, he is poised to the white middle classes who feel threatened by an open society in a multipolar world. Furthermore, Trumps inroads with women and minority voters need to become a priority for Kamala Harris to cut off, as it’s the only viable path for the Democrat to reach the White House.
From an apocalyptic view of the Democratic administration, Donald Trump considers the November elections already won, “the last obstacle to his goals: closing the border to immigration, imposing high tariffs, and quickly ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza at any cost”. With a curveball every week, there is still a lot of campaigning to go, and the result is far from being decided, but such a high morale of victory from Trump is cause for concern for everyone, given that he is a candidate who has never recognized his electoral defeat and who attempted to twist the outcome of the last presidential election. Trumps party seems too far gone but there is hope for the Democrats.
As I was writing this, Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed VP Kamal Harris. Nevertheless, the topic remains eerily relevant for the future nominee. It is well known that the GOP has mutated into an almost cult-like party with Trump calling all the shots, but the strength of the Democrats was being able to group all the people who were appalled by this authoritarian shift in the Republicans and what that could mean for America. Kamala Harris is a fighter and a trailblazer in many aspects but needs to quickly dissipate the lack of transparency that plagued the Biden camp, especially after the debate, as well as the negation of all criticism as “treason”.
Thankfully, starting with a “clean” slate, she is on the right track. The VP wants to fight for the nomination and not simply get coronated, in a democratic gust of fresh air to a party that felt dominated by one voice for 4 years. If she gets nominated, and all signs point that she will, she will be the leader and the candidate, and maybe even the President. Unfortunately for her there is an undeniable tendency toward groupthink and hyper-partisanship, exacerbated by social media echo chambers and online chiselers in both parties.
If she can’t or doesn’t want to reverse the growing cultism of the Biden era, people will turn their backs to her as they did with Biden. Alternatively, she can herald in the new age of Democrats with a party where all voices and all opinions are heard and taken into account. For the sake of the future of the Democratic party, let’s hope she chooses well.
