Today a guest offers some important thoughts on the current attempt by Those Who Know Best (they're so sure they do) to force Joe Biden to withdraw from the race. The guest is my own dear wife, Martha Tucker, and she has some important things to say. In this, a reduced version of a letter she sent out to all her friends and readers, she quotes from an article by Robert Hubble, who in turn quotes from a piece in the Guardian on "Why Is The Pundit Class so desperate to push Biden out of the race?"
Dear all,
The entire article can be found here: https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/person-woman-man-camera-tv-double. I've excerpted Rebecca Solnik quoted material, because I'm not sure you can get into the full link, which is a subscription. Hubble writes:
And, finally, Rebecca Solnit wrote what I wish I had written. See her essay in The Guardian: Why is the pundit class so desperate to push Biden out of the race?
Solnit begins:
I am not usually one to offer diagnoses of people I’ve never met, but it does seem like the pundit class of the American media is suffering from severe memory loss. Because they’re doing exactly what they did in the 2016 presidential race – providing wildly asymmetrical and inflammatory coverage of the one candidate running against Donald J Trump.
They have become a stampeding herd producing an avalanche of stories suggesting Biden is unfit, will lose and should go away, at a point in the campaign in which replacing him would likely be somewhere between extremely difficult and utterly catastrophic.
They do this while ignoring something every scholar and critic of journalism knows well and every journalist should. As Nikole Hannah-Jones put it: “As media we consistently proclaim that we are just reporting the news when in fact we are driving it. What we cover, how we cover it, determines often what Americans think is important and how they perceive these issues yet we keep pretending it’s not so.” They are not reporting that he is a loser; they are making him one.
And so it goes with what appears to be a journalistic competition to outdo each other in the aggressiveness of the attacks and the unreality of the proposals. It’s a dogpile and a panic, and there is no one more unable to understand their own emotional life, biases and motives than people who are utterly convinced of their own ironclad rationality and objectivity, [also known as] pundits.
Here's my advice to everyone—regardless of what side of the issue you take regarding Joe Biden’s continued candidacy. The issue is Trump, not Biden. Whether Biden drops out is not something you or I have control over. (Readers frequently write to me and say, “Please tell Joe Biden . . . .” The only thing Joe Biden knows about me is my credit card number.)
Joe Biden has control over his choices; his close advisors and family have influence; some senior leaders in the Democratic Party have some influence. They are talking amongst themselves. Let them have a rational, private conversation not played out on the front pages of the NYTimes and WaPo minutes after the latest exchange of views.
However, the one institution that has demonstrated it cannot be trusted to deal with this question is the media. They have a perverse financial incentive: Chaos = profit. They are agents of chaos at this moment in pursuit of the mighty dollar.
I believe that Joe Biden is the best candidate to defeat Trump, that replacing him at this point poses unacknowledged and unknowable risks, and that those who advocate a different path have the burden of identifying and funding an alternative candidate.
Our task has not changed. It is our moral and patriotic duty to alert all Americans about the threat posed by Trump and his fascist plan to undermine democracy. We have plenty of work and precious little time left to accomplish our task.
Let us channel all our energy away from debating Joe Biden’s age and health into defeating Trump. In that task, we must speak with one voice.
This title is the question of the day, I think, with the most lucid comments I've seen to date. The frenzy to ditch Biden is most disturbing, especially I think because it seems to lead directly into electing Trump unless he is somehow (most likely not) disqualified.
Seemingly, the pundits are not too swift: how exactly do they propose to put the consequences of such an oust into operation in 4 months (or less if they wait until the August convention), choose a candidate (that would make an interesting bloodbath), drag the individuals out of their substantial responsibilities in the government, restructure the entire campaign structure, fund the candidate, foster confidence in the public that they know what they're doing, prep the candidate for both domestic & foreign issues sufficient to debate Trump and speak at rallies & town halls with adequate skills, details, and some bit of charm & charisma? (I know, I'm vying for the longest sentence to enter into the Guiness Book of World records (even though it's not a run-on) but desperate times call for intensive measures).
In my view, Biden is the man, the only individual who has the stature, experience, credibilty, and the ability to talk Trump under the table (admittedly he was off his game at the debate) to pull off the election. He has made his mistakes, like any other president, but he has accomplished a great deal and is being treated with so much disrespect while Trump gets a pass from most of the media. What's wrong with this picture??
The Times, the Atlantic, and numerous other publications and congresspeople are playing an insane game of "Name that Candidate" without considering the outcome, not even recognizing the enormous, perhaps impossible effect to pull off the success of another candidate. They're beginning to look like the Republicans ousting Kevin McCarthy. I think they need to stop playing this game of killer chess and figure out how they can report and discuss Biden's accomplishment and policies, his vast experience, his lack of criminal convictions and suits rather than trying to manipulate the choice without acknowledging the potential chaos that will ensue if we follow their blithe advice.
I know I don't usually write polemics, but I'm very distressed with this situation and the fact that our three areas of government seem to be crumbling before our eyes. We are in dangerous times, as you all are aware. So, with my apologies for ranting, please consider these ideas and do all that you are willing and able to do to see that Trump does not take our freedoms away.
All the best,
Martha
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