Politics

JOSH HAMMER: The Bloodless Coup Of Joe Biden Will Backfire On Democrats

President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office about his decision to withdraw from the presidential race, July 24, 2024. (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

The Democratic Party ruling class’ bloodless coup of their own democratically elected presidential nominee, who also happens to be the nominal sitting president of the U.S., is one of the most astonishing political developments of my lifetime.

Joe Biden, though clearly physically and mentally impaired, has sought the presidency for quite literally longer than I have been alive. Biden had been defiant ever since the June 27 presidential debate debacle that he was not going anywhere, despite overwhelming pressure from party elites and sycophantic media lapdogs demanding he do precisely that. He has a Lady Macbeth-like wife who craves power, and he has a felonious son in desperate need of a presidential pardon.

Yet the coup succeeded. Biden became the first incumbent president to not seek reelection after his first term since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. Biden made the much-anticipated announcement not with a solemn Oval Office address — that came three days later, and he didn’t even explain his decision. Rather, he issued a bedridden tweet — from a personal, not even official, account. It’s the equivalent of divorcing your wife over text message. As if that weren’t crazy enough, the announcement came smack in the middle of a five-day period in which Biden was not publicly seen. Suspicious much?

The Democrats’ decision to coup their own president is a curious one, on the political merits.

Hold aside the galling hypocrisy of the purported party of “democracy” trying to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot under an outlandish constitutional theory while simultaneously attempting to bankrupt, prosecute and incarcerate him on equally spurious grounds. Hold aside the self-proclaimed party of “democracy,” feigning ignorance over how its overheated rhetoric laid the seeds for their political opponent’s recent near-assassination, and its continuing to depict that opponent as an existential threat to the American constitutional order. And hold aside that purportedly “democratic” party deposing its own presumptive elected nominee — a stark reversal from its presidential primary, when party poobahs worked hard to shut out all viable competition. Somewhere in Minnesota, Dean Phillips would like a word.

Hold all that aside. Because even on its own terms, the coup of Biden for cackler-in-chief Kamala Harris is going to spectacularly backfire on the Democrats.

Already, Democrats and the corporate media have been working hard to “define” Harris for the American people. At times, this has included some rather dubious retconning, such as magically pretending she wasn’t the Biden administration’s appointed “border czar.” (She was.) But the even bigger problem for Democrats is that Harris is not an unknown commodity. On the contrary, she is a very well-known commodity — one who just happens to be about as popular with the American public as venereal disease.

Harris’ current average approval rating is around 38%, and an NBC News poll from June 2023 found her to be the single least popular vice president in American history — only 32% of Americans had a positive view of her, putting her 17 points underwater. Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign was an absolute dud, self-imploding well before the first primary votes were cast. And as recently as a month or two ago, Democratic elites were openly discussing whether she could still be dropped as Biden’s 2024 running mate. Funny how quickly one can go from weakest link to great savior of “our democracy.”

Practically, the path to winning 270 Electoral College votes still runs through the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is frankly bizarre for Democrats to swap out the man who talks ceaselessly about his hardscrabble Scranton upbringing for a Californian who boasts the most left-wing voting record of any presidential nominee in modern history. Do Democrats really think Harris’ support for the Green New Deal and a national fracking ban will play well in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania or in the auto factories of Detroit? Will white working- and middle-class voters concerned about skyrocketing crime look favorably upon Harris’ enthusiastic support for the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, which racked up $2 billion worth of property damage?

It’s not that Uncle Joe, seemingly about to keel over and die at any moment, found himself in much better political shape. But in addition to the gross hypocrisy of their coup that has dealt yet another fatal blow to their specious claim to “defend democracy,” Democrats have also set themselves up for political failure. They would have been better off trying to limp across the finish line with their grievously wounded incumbent of a nominee rather than changing horses mid-race.

The 14 million people who voted for Biden in the Democratic primaries ought to be livid. Rust Belt voters ought to be bemused. But Trump and running mate J.D. Vance ought to be ecstatic.

To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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