Keep calm and carry on!

February 19, 2024

Hi, everyone! My Managing Editor and I have begun our road trip driving down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis-St. Paul to New Orleans. We will be meeting with readers in Minneapolis, Dubuque, Davenport, St. Louis, Memphis, Jackson, and New Orleans. I will be writing on days when we are flying, driving, and meeting with readers, so the newsletters may be a bit shorter than normal. (You’re welcome!)

Also, I will be recording the audio using a portable sound mixer/amp, so the audio will sound slightly different. (I tested the new equipment on Friday’s newsletter, and no one noticed (except my wife).

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The next few weeks.

The next few weeks will be packed with significant developments. The Supreme Court will decide whether to delay Trump's federal election interference trial by granting a stay (or not) to consider his presidential immunity defense. The Court may also issue an opinion on Colorado’s decision to bar Trump from the ballot on the ground that he engaged in insurrection after having sworn to protect and defend the Constitution. South Carolina will hold its Republican presidential primary on February 24, 2024, and Super Tuesday is on March 5.

Segments of the federal government will run out of spending authority on March 1 and 8—unless the House and Senate can pass something in the 3 and 5 days (respectively) after returning from their current vacations. Ukraine has lost territory to the invading Russian army because Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene have threatened to say mean things about GOP members who dare to oppose Putin’s interests by providing aid to Ukraine.

Finally, Republicans and Russian trolls and bot farms will continue to spread disinformation about President Joe Biden to an eager American press and the surprisingly insecure American public. The report of special counsel Robert Hur has caused otherwise sober Democratic supporters and observers to consider a terrible proposal by Ezra Klein that Joe Biden drop out at the Democratic convention and anoint a different Democratic candidate who will begin campaigning for the presidency with three months to go and a ten-point deficit (at least). For my views on Klein’s proposal, read on!

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Ezra Klein creates a small panic in the Democratic Party.

I received a steady stream of emails over the weekend asking me to comment on Klein’s proposal—something I did at length in Friday’s newsletter. (Always a puzzler when that happens; I try not to take offense.) Most of the emails commented favorably on Ezra Klein’s proposal. Others who support Biden and recognize that it would be terribly risky to switch from Biden at the last moment want to have a “respectful conversation” about the idea of Biden dropping out.

Expletive deleted! (Rhymes with “bulls-eye” and “base-hit.”)

At root, Klein’s idea credits the falsehood being promoted by Robert Hur, Trump, Fox News, and Putin’s army of bots that Joe Biden is incompetent to hold the presidency. We cannot fall for the false narrative that Joe Biden is unfit merely because he is 80 and is not the same person he was at 70 or 60 or 40 or 30.

Worse, having a ‘respectful public conversation’ about the proposal allows Republicans to change the narrative from the fascist rhetoric that Trump is spewing each day to a made-up controversy that is the functional equivalent of the “But her emails . . . ” fake controversy that the press swallowed hook, line, and sinker in 2016.

Every second people spend talking about Ezra Klein’s ridiculous idea is a second that we are not discussing Trump's threat to abandon NATO, round up millions of immigrants, turn the FBI into a political hit squad, jail Joe Biden’s family, ban refugees from Gaza, begin “strong ideological screening of all immigrants, reboot his ban on travelers from Muslim-majority nations, and start his presidency as a “dictator for a day” (which, by the way, is the same thing as “a dictator,” because once you overthrow the Constitution to become a dictator, you cannot repair that wound.)

For example, at a rally over the weekend, Trump said the following:

I'm also going to indemnify all police officers and law enforcement officials throughout the US to protect them from being destroyed by the radical left . . . Once [criminals] see things happening that they never thought would happen to them, it'll all stop overnight.

Let’s unpack Trump's statement. He promises that he will protect and hold harmless (i.e., indemnify) police officers who “do things” to criminals “they never thought would happen to them,” a clear reference to police brutality. Trump is proposing a jack-booted police force that uses violence “with impunity” against “criminals” who have yet to be convicted of any crimes!

Every American citizen, media outlet, and political writer—including Ezra Klein—should spend every waking minute from now until November 5, 2024 telling anyone who will listen that Trump has proposed the creation of the equivalent of the Nazi Brown Shirts—a thuggish paramilitary that used violence and intimidation to fuel Hitler’s rise to power.

Trump's threat to “indemnify” law enforcement for doing “things criminals never thought would happen to them” is not in the same universe of concern about the fake controversy over Joe Biden’s age. Every minute wasted on Joe Biden’s age is a minute not talking about Trump's promise to unleash a violent police force on presumed-to-be-innocent-until-proven-guilty American citizens.

Many observers will say, “But Trump doesn’t really mean it. He can’t indemnify police officers from brutality.” Okay, I accept the argument: Trump is, therefore, spewing despotic fantasies that have no grounding in reality—a profound form of mental illness incompatible with being president of the U.S. And yet, sober Democrats who support Joe Biden want to waste our time asking to consider having a “respectful” conversation about Joe Biden’s age.

Those “sober Democrats” are doing Trump's (and Putin’s) work, even if their intentions are pure and patriotic.

The flaws in the plan are too numerous to catalog, but here are a few:

Every replacement candidate (except one) starts with a 10 to 12 percentage point deficit to Trump, whereas Joe Biden is polling (at least) even with Trump. As Simon Rosenberg wrote on Sunday,

This week's independent general election polling of registered voters finds a close, competitive race (Biden-Trump): Emerson 44-45 Economist/YouGov 44-44 Morning Consult 42-43 And a reminder that Biden led 47-45 (2 pts) in last NYTimes poll.

But in polling done in February, Gavin Newsom trails Trump by 10 points and Gretchen Whitmer trails by 12 points. (So far as I can tell, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro isn’t being polled nationally, only in Pennsylvania.)

But guess who is within striking distance of Trump (3 points)? Vice President Kamala Harris—who is never mentioned by readers who suggest that it is a good idea for Biden to step aside.

Why pass over the candidate in the strongest position (according to polls) to succeed Joe Biden in favor of candidates who sit at the bottom of a deep gravity well? I will let the readers suggesting the “Biden steps aside strategy” answer that question, but Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo describes what would happen if Biden steps aside and Kamala Harris is passed over:

I think if Biden stepped aside and then Harris was passed over, that would be like lighting a stick of dynamite at the center of the Democratic coalition. 

There are no easy or obvious answers, but plenty of bad ones. Ezra Klein’s proposal pretends that none of the bad answers exist.

Finally, there are no “party bosses” to manage the Democratic Party’s selection process if Biden were to step aside. With no primary election results to guide the process, the 72-hour race on the convention floor for the nomination would be “nasty, brutish, and short.”

So, please, can we stop talking about the Ezra Klein strategy? It is a horrible idea because Joe Biden is a strong candidate who is an incumbent president with a phenomenal track record of success. He has the wisdom and experience to guide the nation through a difficult time. And he beat Donald Trump in 2020. He can do so in 2024.

The last point (even though I said “finally” above), is that it is incredibly disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of Americans working their tails off to elect Joe Biden to suggest that their work is part of a big game of, “Just kidding, made you look!” They believe in Joe Biden and are willing to work hard for him because they believe in him. Let’s not abuse their well-placed trust in and admiration for Joe Biden.

Reader engagement.

I want to highlight a tool by Democracy Labs that is both useful in the short term and informative in the long term about using infographics to motivate voters. DemLabs created an interactive, clickable map of the US that illustrates key races and ballot initiatives across the nation. See Key 2024 Races. 

Click on your state to see what races and ballot measures will be on the ballot in 2024 or click on the “filter” buttons on the left to see which states across the nation have abortion access / restriction initiatives on the ballot.

DemLabs created the map based on data collected by DemCast, which cultivates, amplifies, and maximizes the impact of grassroots digital media. The webpage with the map includes a short video on how DemCast can help your grassroots group amplify its message. Check out the menu on DemCast’s homepage to learn how to amplify your message (for free!) on DemCast. (Go to menu, then select Get Involved / Contribute Content.)

Also, DemLabs can help your grassroots organization create infographics and maps (for free!) that will help promote your message and focus your canvassing / getting out the vote.

I urge leaders of grassroots organizations to check out the clickable map, DemLabs, and DemCast to learn how your message can be amplified or presented in infographic form.

Concluding Thoughts.

Here’s the takeaway from today’s edition: Over the weekend, Donald Trump suggested creating a police force that metes out punishments with impunity—a model used by Hitler and Mussolini. That story is the most important development over the weekend. It deserves to be headline news in every major media outlet. And the most important part of that story is that Democrats have a candidate who can beat Trump: Joe Biden.

Talk to you tomorrow!