Biden: "His aides say they know what they’re doing."
I'm not reassured.
Thelma and Louise drive off the cliff.
I’m thinking this morning about the great 1991 movie Thelma and Louise with Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Brad Pitt and directed by Ridley Scott.
It popped into my head after reading the latest poll showing both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis beating Joe Biden in a head to head match up.
At the end of the movie Thelma and Louise, in an act of glorious existential rebellion, drive their car off a cliff.
It’s not a perfect metaphor for the Democrats and Joe Biden in advance of the 2024 election.
Neither Joe nor the national Democrats are any sort of existential heroes.
And at this point, according to conventional wisdom, polls predict nothing or at least very little.
But maybe they say more than the conventional wisdom suggests.
I mean, even if it’s closer than the most recent polls say, should it even be this close?
A jury has just convicted Trump of sexual assault.
In another case, Trump’s been indicted for business fraud.
Trump’s likely to be indicted for election interference in Georgia.
And he’s still beating Biden by a wide margin in the latest poll and Biden’s approval ratings are at their lowest point and sinking.
Most observers agree that DeSantis is a miserable campaigner whose anti-aboriton, “Don’t Say Gay” blather is alienating to many suburban white women and swing voters.
And still they lead.
The response from the Biden team?
Don’t worry. Be happy.
“Mr. Biden’s top advisers insist the limited-release nature of his 2024 campaign is boring by design,” reports the NY Times.
But I think there is more happening here than a boring Biden campaign.
I would argue that Biden’s win over Trump in 2020 was helped by a vigorous primary campaign and challenge by the progressive wing of the Party and our candidate, Bernie Sanders.
That is not happening this time around.
That wing has fallen silent and cleared the way for the renomination of Joe Biden at their convention in Chicago.
Bernie has already endorsed Biden.
What is most disheartening to me is that there is no challenge to the foreign policy that the Biden administration has pursued which has led to a new Cold War on two fronts: China and Russia.
Where are the progressive anti-war voices in the Democratic Party now that we need it most?
The silence is deafening.
As Louise said as they drove off the cliff, “You get what you settle for.”