Joe Biden needs to step down now. Right now. And I write that as a person who absolutely believes that in 2020 – and up until this moment – Joe was the perfect person for the moment. But the moment changed. The Supreme Court changed it when they gave the POTUS extraordinary – and extra-Constitutional – power. They put it down in literal black and white. The old rules no longer apply. New rules now. And if you don’t grasp that fact – and play by the new rules – everything you’re fighting for will die. I don’t believe Joe Biden grasps that fact – that the rules have changed.
And that is why I believe he should not only end his campaign for re-election, but quit the presidency right-bloody-NOW. Because the New Rules demand it. And, while Joe Biden may never grasp that there even are new rules, KAMALA HARRIS not only will grasp the new rules, I believe she will play by them.
And that is the only way we will save our democratic republic from takeover by fascists, authoritarians and tech bro shitheads.
New Rules
Here’s the deal (and it’s so simple): Kamala – and the Democratic Party – must use the fact that a POTUS now stands above the law so long as they’re doing their official duties. Per the SCOTUS, why the POTUS does anything no longer matters. So, even if it’s personal, not political, it won’t matter before a court of law.
Also now permissable: the POTUS can speak to their Attorney General about political matters. And, if political matters and matters of State share any oxygen? No court of law can do a damned thing to stop or punish the POTUS. And since ultimate pardon power rests with the President, they can pre-pardon everyone involved in anything they do to, say, preserve our democratic republic.
We are at a “break glass” moment. The emergency is that big and dire. Republicans are using the rules to destroy the rules. They’d forgo the rules entirely right this second, but they can’t – because, to a degree, some of the rules still apply.
When the six cravenly corrupt conservative justices gave Trump a pass, they were so close to closing the deal on their master plan – to make the president imperial. There was and is one giant fly in their authoritarian ointment. The current President of the United States is Joe Biden.
A Democrat.
An Imperial Presidency
That means Joe Biden now has imperial power – whether he likes it or not, or wants it or not.
For me, Joe’s debate performance is inconsequential. They’re not “debates” of any kind. They’re not meaningful conversations about what our problems are. They’re pure, unadulterated Bullshit Kabuki. Personally, I think the slack-jawed look on Joe’s face was incredulity at the fire hose of bullshit pouring over them all – and the fact that no one on the press side was fact-checking. It would be up to Joe and Joe alone to both fact-check this flood of fuckery and try to answer the question they’d been asked – all within the stupid two minute time limit.
An impossible ask of anyone – let alone an 80 year old man suffering a cold (per him) and jet lag (because jet lag).
Normalizing Bullshit
Yeah, Joe’s age factors in – but not because of the number itself. One of the problems with being around as long as Joe Biden is you take a lot of things for granted. Like the corruption of his Republican colleagues. Maybe that’s not such a good idea.
We’ve normalized a shit-ton of Republican corruption. Hell, we’ve normalized treason out the wazoo already (what the hell exactly is a “Pro-Putin Republican”?). Judging by everything Joe Biden’s said out loud, not only does he not grasp that there are new rules, if there were new rules, he’d refuse to play by them.
And THAT, to me, disqualifies this excellent public servant from the fray going forwards.
He was great under the old rules. He cannot play by the new rules because they’re anathema to him.
Kamala Harris, Prosecuotor
Among other things she’s been, Kamala Harris has been a prosecutor. She’s prosecuted rapists – like Donald Trump. And she’s a person who’s been forced to work much harder than any white guy to get where she got. She knows for a fact how the old rules worked – and how good it would be if there were new rules that worked better for more people.
It is possible for people to use power to do good things. It happens all the time. That, I believe, is what Democrats should do/must do. Color outside the lines as necessary to stop the Trumpublicans.
That is something the majority of Americans support.
There are intimations as I write this that the people around Joe Biden now understand this is the end of his political life as POTUS. The ground has very definitely shifted beneath his feat. Living in California, some of us know what that’s like.
Kamala Harris knows what that’s like.
It’s why she’s the perfect person for this moment. And the sooner she assumes the mantle of the the newly imperial-powered American Presidency – and begins acting like it – the better.