What should Democrats do now? LA Times columnists face off

It seems as if we are at a crucial point in the history of our country.

Or at least, living through some very strange and scary times.

A former president who talks of suspending the Constitution and prosecuting his opponents is once again knocking on the door of the White House. The current occupant faces unprecedented calls within his party to abandon his re-election bid after a historically bad debate.

Times columnists Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria fear a Trump restoration, and they agree on this really is the most important presidential election any living person has ever seen, something we hear about every four years.

But they differ on whether Joe Biden should stay or leave the Democratic ticket after his performance at Thursday night's press conference, which was heard around the world. Here, they clarify.

Barrabac: Wow. It took just a few minutes of cringe on the debate stage to send Biden’s candidacy into freefall. But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Adam B. Schiff, the congressman from Burbank and very likely the next U.S. senator from California, aptly summed things up last weekend on “Meet the Press.”

“Joe Biden is up against a criminal. It shouldn’t even be a close race,” Schiff said. “There’s only one reason it’s so close, and that’s the president’s age.”

The debate was supposed to allay lingering concerns about Biden’s physical and mental vitality. Of course, his performance had exactly the opposite effect. Biden couldn’t have looked worse had he appeared on stage with a blanket, a pillow and a glass of warm milk and gone to sleep.

Chabria: The number one response I’ve heard from average Democrats is that it was brutal to see Biden falter. We’re stuck in a political quagmire right now, trying to decide whether we’re looking at a disturbing but survivable decline or a campaign in its death throes.

As silly as it may seem in some ways, a turning point for me was George Clooney’s op-ed in the New York Times on Wednesday calling for Biden to step aside. I’m not dazzled by it, but Clooney did what the Democratic Party at large has been afraid to do: tell us what it’s like to be in Biden’s presence. Clooney made it clear that what we saw on the debate stage was what he found of Biden in person.

Not good.

I'm as concerned as anyone about Biden's mental acuity, but I still think the Democrats aren't being honest. If they truly believe, as Clooney does, that Biden is unfit to run for office, doesn't that mean he's unfit to hold office? How does that play out?

Barabbas: Mmm. Isn’t Clooney one of those “elites” Biden has mocked as he resists calls to step down, after spending years happily basking in the glow and soaking up every last penny his Hollywood benefactors sent his way?

As you point out, there is a distinction. Can Biden function as president? He has done well, and presumably could continue to do so — from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. — with the help of his advisers and others around him. (Interestingly, that is an argument I have heard over and over from Donald Trump supporters. They may express doubts about his judgment and his nasty social media posts, but they can count on him being protected by smart, capable people.)

I think the more pertinent question is whether Biden can win in November and save the country from the menace unleashed by Trump. Or, more frighteningly, from total Republican control of Washington, with Trump in the White House, his supplicants running Congress, and a pliant Supreme Court dismantling any barriers to keeping a vengeful president at bay.

I'm not convinced at this point that Biden can do it.

You?

Chabria: I'm not sure he can win, but even if he has dementia issues, people like Joe. I'm not sure any other Democrat would be better positioned to do better.

There's a certain unbridled buoyancy in the Democratic Party that almost seems hysterical: this idea that the party could hold some cute pseudo-primary beauty pageant and some shining winner would emerge as its savior.

Democrats will vote for whoever is on the ticket, which could literally be Mayor Max III, the golden retriever who runs Idyllwild. It will be independent and undecided voters in key swing states who will decide this race.

Show me a candidate who can reach those voters in less than four months, when they have spent years unswayed by Trump’s lies, abuses, and condemnations, and they still don’t see the threat to democracy that he embodies. If Biden is really going to be replaced on the Democratic ticket, which I think is still up in the air, Harris is the only choice that makes sense, and it’s a kind of desperate and drifting sense.

What do you think?

Barrabac: I agree. It's Harris or nothing.

I have long considered her the favorite to replace Biden, if the time comes. She would follow the line of political succession that has been largely unchanged for the past few decades, and the idea of ​​overlooking the first black woman vice president in a party whose backbone is black women has always seemed impossible to me.

As fanciful as you suggest is the idea of ​​a unity candidate emerging — the clouds part, the heavenly choir rises — to unite Democrats and annihilate the evil MAGA king. One can fantasize about a high-level exchange of ideas, and there is something to be said for that, if it ever happens. But does the party really want to dismember itself in a fratricidal fight over Gaza, the Green New Deal, immigration, and a myriad of other issues that divide Democrats, followed by just a few months to lay down the swords and unite?

You are absolutely right that the epoxy glue that binds Democrats together is their overriding fear and loathing of Trump. Harris would have the advantage of campaigning on the successes of the Biden administration (and, of course, trying to justify its failures) without all that gerontocracy stuff hanging over her candidacy.

At 59, the question of age would change radically: suddenly, it would be Trump, at 78, who would have to defend his physical and mental condition.

Chabria: Yes, all of that, but I'm not sure we're getting to Harris yet. Joe is running out of time. The Democratic National Convention starts in about four weeks. The official nomination is expected before then.

And after his NATO press conference, which I thought was strong despite the Trump-Harris gaffe, I don't think he'll listen to the critics. He had a glimpse of the Joe who won hearts, with a deep knowledge of foreign affairs and a witty line that I loved: Control the guns, not the women.

But if Harris were first on the list, I would be concerned about the kind of racism and sexism that plagued Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, respectively. In Harris, those forces would be combined. Not to mention that Harris did not have a successful campaign when she ran in 2020, demonstrating clumsiness and an inability to connect with voters.

I think we need to prepare for Joe to stay, despite these worrying first-hand accounts of his mental fragility. I agree with you that Biden is surrounded by talented people, but I am also infuriated that they have not said anything if, like Clooney, they have regularly seen the president being inconsistent.

I think the consequences of this go beyond Joe's loss of support. I think the Democratic Party is losing credibility every day this continues. In that sense, there might be some benefit to simply shutting up and backing Biden to prevent the party from ceding more ground to Trump. Or if Harris is the solution, maybe it's better to wait until after November to figure it out.

Or maybe turn the tables and run a Harris-Biden ticket? He might not even realize it.

This is too crazy for me to make a guess. Are you brave enough to make predictions?

Barrabac: There’s nothing more to it than this: If they continue to support the floundering president, Democrats and other Biden supporters should brace themselves for four months of heart-wrenching, relentless anxiety. Biden can string together 100-plus perfect days between now and the Nov. 5 election, and hold several more non-terrible press conferences. Virile! Vigorous! But Biden will always be one moment of brain freeze or stumble and fall away from ceding the election to Trump.

It will be like watching an 81-year-old man staggering through thin ice while balancing a glass of nitroglycerin on his head. He may make it through without any problems, but it will be a very tricky adventure the whole time.

And woe to us all if he stumbles!