Note: This essay was inspired and co-written with John S. Armstrong, my husband, who has been very focused on our current political landscape which demands a more critical look.
Written by John S. Armstrong and Karen I. Shragg
The Democratic party elite has unilaterally decided who is going to be at the top of their ticket. That act in and of itself is not a democratic one. The fact is that 70% of Democratic voters since 2022 have consistently said they did not want him to run for a second term. Even though they liked and supported President Biden they wanted someone else. We agree, it was not a question he was the right candidate for the job last time around. But that was then, and this is now. By preventing any viable democratic candidates for getting on state primary ballots they avoided the due process voters deserve.
On the side of the aisle marked with a ‘D’, we the people have lost our right to choose our own candidates. It is becoming clear that they are being chosen for us by a self-anointed power structure in the form of the Democratic National Committee and their ilk. There is nothing democratic about deliberately avoiding primaries to select a candidate. Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips articulated our concern when he tried to fight the entrenched system by making a bid for president, stating that his reason for running was that, “people deserve not a coronation but… a choice.”
It is clear that both sides are avoiding the democratic process. Trump refused to participate in the Republican primary debates and Democrats refused to even have them. Neither side is indicating they will participate in presidential debates.
No incumbent president Republican or Democrat has been reelected in the history of electoral politics with approval ratings as low as Joe Biden’s, which has ranged from 38-44% in the last six months.
Both former presidents Clinton and Obama still went through the primary process in order to become the nominees of their party. Now here we are in 2024 and President Joe Biden is the Democrat running to ‘save democracy’ from the grips of another four years of an untethered Donald Trump. Being that the voters have not been allowed to make any other choice, we find it ironic that to fight the ‘loss of our democracy’ we are not being allowed to follow its basic principle of letting the people choose.
According to recent reports, Biden is losing support from four key constituencies who helped to secure his election last time. Each of them is feeling that they have been underserved during Biden’s administration. Biden is losing support in the Black and Latino communities as well as with voters under thirty. He still needs to win over Independents who now represent over 40% of the electorate.
As of this writing, polling in the 7-8 swing states, which will again determine who wins the electoral college, has Biden losing to Trump. Under these circumstances, not having primaries that reflect the voter’s wishes is not only short cutting democracy, it is a sure fire way to lose because of Biden’s current unpopularity.
Longtime Democratic strategists James Carville and David Axelrod, warned from their insider positions that Biden is the wrong man to beat Trump this time around. Al Sharpton is also raising a red flag saying that people who call into his program from outside the beltway are less than enthusiastic about voting for Biden. When the warning is coming from within the party, the party needs to listen.
The DNC and their allies have secured the nomination for Biden by discouraging any viable candidate from running in the primary process. The power elite are now focusing their energy and resources on trying to prevent any third-party candidates from getting on state ballots across the country.
Democrats keep emphasizing that a Trump win is an existential threat to Democracy. But the DNC has demonstrated their animus towards democratic fairness. Author and commentator Fareed Zacharia has said that the way you defend liberal democracy (i.e. freedom of speech and upholding democratic institutions), is not by illiberal means of cutting corners or having double standards.
Author and Pulitzer Prize winner David Remnick has said if you look at recent world history it is clear that when you pit institutions against authoritarianism, authoritarianism wins every time because the institutions are often not trusted.
If Biden loses to Trump, we cannot allow the Democratic power elite to say it was because “we didn’t get our message out” or blaming a third-party run. They have to look in the mirror and realize they put up the wrong candidate, one not chosen by the people and one that could not compete with someone as charismatic and dangerous as Trump.
We know what happened when Trump lost by a small margin. Imagine if Biden does pull out a win by a thin margin, what would happen this time? To fight Trump’s powerful grip on the Republican party we needed someone younger, vibrant and who could articulate Democratic accomplishments as well as a clear vision for the future.
Admittedly, it is a sad state of affairs that even an unpopular incumbent president cannot beat the likes of Donald Trump who is facing 91 criminal indictments. But politics isn’t logical and Democrats need to demonstrate how they can emotionally connect with voters. They must be better at selling their ideas. Their current strategy is to point out how bad their opponent is for the country, while failing to articulate why they are the better choice.
The bottom line is we can’t achieve the protection of our democracy by eliminating the democratic process. It is not a winning strategy and it’s time we take back democracy from the Democratic power structure who are sleepwalking us into autocracy.