Give Up
One thing 2020 has made clear to me is that progressives must give up.
Quit.
I recommend every op-ed about Biden’s many failings begin with “Before I start, I must make it clear that I am voting for Biden no matter what”. If you have a position of influence, please, please make sure you remove any teeth your criticism may have by prefacing it with an admission of impotence.
In fact, since everyone has already decided that no sin Biden can commit is disqualifying, don’t even bother criticizing him. It is right and good to sacrifice everything you’ve ever believed in. Now especially, with Biden’s weaknesses exposed, it is a bad idea to exert any kind of influence you may have. If you were to threaten consequences for his actions, it’s obvious that the Democrats will lose to Trump. Losing is the only possible result.
My god, it would be terrible if progressives threatened to withhold their vote. Think of the risk! We cannot take a risk, not even once. We shouldn’t loudly express to everyone all the time that if Biden doesn’t make the changes we want then we won’t vote for him. It could hurt his election chances!
We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Biden needs the support of progressives in order to win this election, and by no means should we exert that leverage in any way.
I implore you, fellow progressives, remind yourselves that the establishment wing of the Democratic Party would rather lose this election than budge even an inch on policy. 90% of Democrats in Congress would rather lose their seats than kowtow to a large portion of their voting base. There’s no conceivable way they would listen to us, that would be insane! I’m not even sure they could hear us if they wanted to; our voices sound like screeching noises to them, so we must stay quiet.
By no means should we risk the nothing that we have by making a cacophonous noise so loud Biden cannot become the Democratic nominee. It is suicide to exercise organized power. There is no possible way a large number of people could influence our political leaders by making clear they will lose their elections should they defy us.
We must give up.
We’re just too small. And, as we know from history, no belligerent minority has ever influenced a major political party.
Think of it this way, we have so much time to work out all of our problems. We can put the larger stuff off, we’ll handle it later!
What we should do now is play it safe. We need to make sure that the entrenched political leaders know they will face no consequences for their actions.
After this election we’ll really be able to put our influence to work, I’m sure. This election is too important for the establishment Democrats to lose. Next time, when there’s less pressure on them, they’re going to listen to us. Now isn’t the time to threaten their supremacy.
But most importantly, there’s so much time between now and November 3rd. Imagine if there was a huge, overwhelming pressure on Biden to drop out? So much so that he had no choice? Think of what could happen! There’s no other option and there’s just not enough time.
The early states have chosen already and, as we know from history, no leading candidate has ever dropped out of a Presidential race because he fucked up so royally people refused to vote for him. I’m sure nothing like that has ever happened before in American history and therefore is impossible.
Let’s be clear, now is not the time to risk it all. We have plenty of time for that later. Now is the time to give up.
Do not, I repeat, Do Not attempt to exert the only leverage you have.
Vote Biden/White Woman/Probably Man 2020.
