Quote of the Day

Yes, [Democratic] Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema team up with Republicans to stymie vital measures. But [President Joe Biden’s] refusal to issue executive orders that could enact such popular measures as canceling student debt and many other policies has been part of a derelict approach as national crises deepen. Recent events have dramatized the downward Biden spiral.

Biden’s slow and anemic response to the Supreme Court’s long-expected Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade spotlighted the magnitude of the stakes and the failure. The grim outlook has been underscored by arrogance toward progressive activists. Consider this statement from White House communications director Kate Bedingfield last weekend as she reacted to wide criticism: “Joe Biden’s goal in responding to Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party. It’s to deliver help to women who are in danger and assemble a broad-based coalition to defend a woman’s right to choose now, just as he assembled such a coalition to win during the 2020 campaign.”

The traditional response to such arrogance from the White House toward the incumbent’s party base is to grin – or, more likely, grimace – and bear it. But that’s a serious error for concerned individuals and organizations. Serving as enablers to bad policies and bad politics is hardly wise.

Polling released by the New York Times on Monday highlighted that most of Biden’s own party doesn’t want him to run for re-election, “with 64 percent of Democratic voters saying they would prefer a new standard-bearer in the 2024 presidential campaign." And, "only 26 percent of Democratic voters said the party should renominate him.”

A former ambassador to Portugal who was appointed by President Obama, Allan Katz, has made a strong case for Biden to announce now that he won’t run for re-election. Writing for Newsweek under the headline “President Biden: I’m Begging You – Don’t Run in 2024. Our Country Needs You to Stand Down,” Katz contended that such an announcement from Biden would remove an albatross from the necks of Democrats facing tough elections in the midterms.

In short, to defeat as many Republicans as possible this fall, Biden should be seen as a one-term president who will not seek the Democratic nomination in 2024. . . . A pledge to voluntarily retire at the end of his first term would boost the Democratic Party’s chances of getting a stronger and more progressive ticket in 2024 — and would convey in the meantime that Democratic candidates and the Biden presidency are not one and the same.

– Norman Solomon
Excerpted from “The Nation Needs You, Mr. President,
So Please Don’t Run in 2024”
Common Dreams
July 14, 2022

Related Off-site Links:
“Fight for Us, Goddamnit”: Frustration Grows Over Biden Fecklessness Amid GOP Destruction – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, July 6, 2022).
Democrats’ Cowardice and Complicity in the Post-Roe World – Natasha Lennard (The Intercept, July 5, 2022).
President Biden Is Not Cutting the Mustard – Ryan Cooper (The American Prospect, July 7, 2022).
Democrats Sour on Biden, Citing Age and Economy – Shane Goldmacher (The New York Times, July 11, 2022).
64% of Democratic Voters Don’t Want Biden to Be the Party’s 2024 Nominee – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, July 11, 2022).

UPDATES: “Nothing Short of a Death Sentence”: Fury as Manchin Tanks Climate Spending – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, July 15, 2022).
Biden Urged to Respond to Manchin by Killing West Virginia Fracked Gas Pipeline – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, July 15, 2022).
Biden’s Presidency Isn’t Sinking Because of the Left – It’s Because of Right-Wing Democrats – Miles Kampf-Lassin (In These Times, July 21, 2022).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Norman Solomon: Quote of the Day – July 8, 2021
• Bernie Sanders: “Now Is the Time to Make Democracy Work”
• Celebrating Tuesday’s Progressive Wins in the Midst of the Ongoing “War for the Future of the Democratic Party”
• Michael Starr Hopkins: Quote of the Day – May 6, 2022
• Ricardo Levins Morales on the “Deepest Political Fault Line” Separating Democrats
• Maebe A. Girl: A “Decidedly Progressive Candidate” for Congress
• Nina Turner: “A Candidate Who Can Make An Enormous Difference”
• Progressive Perspectives on Nina Turner’s Election Loss
• Will Democrats Never Learn?
• Cornel West on Responding to the “Spiritual Decay That Cuts Across the Board”
• Hamilton Nolan: Quote of the Day – August 3, 2021
• David Sirota: Quote of the Day – January 26, 2021
• Cornel West: Quote of the Day – December 3, 2020
• Progressive Perspectives on the 2020 U.S. Election Results
• We Cannot Allow a Biden Win to Mean a Return to “Brunch Liberalism”
• Biden’s Win: “As Much the Sounding of An Alarm As a Time for Self-Congratulations”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Biden-Harris Ticket
• Progressive Perspectives on Joe Biden’s Presidential Run

Image: Kristen Solberg.