With all the freaking out about Joe Biden and the debate, I keep thinking about the 1984 presidential election. Ronald Reagan, who was in his mid 70s, had a really weak first debate performance, and the political chattering classes came out wondering if he was too old to be president. The dynamic was just like it is today. There was one major difference, though: in that election, the Republican Party universally rallied around their president, reassuring the press and public that he was just fine. In the next debate, Reagan did better, and their campaign rolled on to one of the most decisive wins in American history, a landslide the size of which we haven’t seen since.
There is something about the culture of our Democratic Party that reacts to a setback with panic instead of steady determination and rallying around the flag. We need to calm ourselves down and buck the f’’k up.
Yeah, I know: Biden wasn’t exactly full of youthful energy at that debate. But I do have a question: did y’all not know he was an old guy? That he would be slow in walking to the podium? That he would stumble over some words? As they might say in Casablanca: how shocked are you that there is gambling in this establishment?
But Democrats should not be so quick to forget another set of facts about Joe Biden: he has been the best and most effective president since FDR. He has passed more major legislation, including more than $4 billion in investments in our people and economy, than any president since the New Deal. He has signed the best set of executive orders of any president maybe ever. His appointees at DOJ, the FTC, the SEC, the NLRB, and other key agencies of government have done more to take on corporate greed, monopoly power, and price gouging than any in almost a century.
Why are we talking about dumping the best president in modern history because he had a weak debate performance and is a little old?
Reagan, the next oldest president in American history, was — unfortunately, because his policies were terrible — the most effective, influential, and successful president in modern history. He went on from that debate stumble not only to win re-election decisively, but to also decisively reshape the way American government has worked in the 40 years since. Joe Biden, unlike the younger and hipper Democratic presidents after Reagan, has begun to finally wrest our government back from the big corporate serving policies of the GOP to a policy agenda that seeks to help working families.
With that track record of success, the idea that Democrats should dump Biden after one shaky debate performance is profoundly wrong. We need to rally around the flag, gang, and fight like warriors to get the best president of our lifetimes re-elected.
And folks, we are positioned to win this election.
We have a far more popular agenda than the right wing’s monstrous proposals. (Google Project 2025 if you want to check out their workshop of horrors.) We have a track record of remarkable legislative and executive branch accomplishments that is superior to any president at least since LBJ. We have a series of powerful issues — abortion rights, health care, green energy jobs, infrastructure, Social Security, veterans benefits, rebuilding our manufacturing base, and taking on Big Pharma, monopoly power, and price gouging — where we have the political high ground. And we are running against the most horribly flawed candidate of all time.
So my fellow Democrats, it is time to stop freaking out and time to stop worrying about one bad debate. We have an election to win and only about four months to do it. Let’s kick our fighting spirit into full gear, and knock on doors, make calls and texts, take our case to social media, reach out to our friends, and give money. Let’s stop worrying and get to winning.
As the late, great Stan Lee would advise, “‘Nuff said.”
Except:
America: Let's #BucktheEffUp and get back into the fight.
