Go, Joe, go!
So, I’m going to be volunteering for the Democrats again this Summer. And this is the candidate I’m going to be supporting, too.
I’m aware of his shortcomings. Every candidate has ’em. He’s one of the oldest presidential candidates in history. He makes gaffes. He’s been a bit too mano-a-mano in the past. He’s run twice before, and lost.
But here are the five reasons why he’s still my guy.
- This is all about who can beat Trump. He can. Joe is tough, he’s experienced, and – as his campaign announcement video this morning makes plain – he is getting into this race for the best reason of all: to beat that sonofabitch who cheated his way into the White House. And successive polls have shown that Americans know who Joe is, they like who he is, and they like him way more than Trump.
- Joe Biden has what it takes to win. He never forgot his Scanton, Pa. roots, and he has the working class support to show for it. He is loved by African-Americans for his unflagging support for Barack Obama. He has stayed in the political centre, where most of the votes are. Independents like him the best. He knows how to get things done in Washington, because he has experience – and he knows how to work with Republicans, too. He’s the guy who can bring together the winning coalition.
- The United States is still the United States. If 2016 showed those of us who worked for Hillary Clinton anything, it’s this: the United States of America is still a pretty racist and sexist place. In 2016, I was so proud to work for an amazing, progressive, capable woman – but America (including American women) rejected her, in large part, because she was female. To beat Trump in 2020, we need to campaign in the United States that exists, not the United States that doesn’t.
- Traditional assumptions about politics are gone. If 2016 taught me anything else, it’s also this: everything is different, now. Hillary had the best-organized, best-funded, best-staffed, best-led campaign I have ever been part of. But it still didn’t matter: we still lost. Politics has been upended, everywhere. So, traditional assumptions about campaigns – whether Joe is too old, too politically-incorrect, too centrist – are kind of irrelevant, now. Trump showed that. Running the 2016 campaign again will get us the 2016 result.
- Again, with feeling: it’s all about beating Trump. I don’t give a good goddamn if Joe Biden comes from Mars and eats green cheese on prime time TV: he is the only candidate who can beat that bastard. The only one. And, with a running mate like Harris or O’Rourke, he addresses any of his perceived weaknesses, and then some.
Joe Biden for the win. Because we have to win.