Dean Phillips, the little-known House Democrat from suburban Minneapolis who’s officially challenging Joe Biden for the ’24 party nomination (he filed his New Hampshire primary paperwork last Friday), seems to believe that if he barnstorms the nation highlighting the president’s age, that somehow it will “strengthen” Joe’s candidacy. Phillips insists, “I won’t quit until I strengthen him.”
On the other hand, maybe Phillips is just a destructively naive fool who could wind up greasing a fascist criminal defendant’s return to power – and that, deep down, maybe he knows it. Hence these observations from reporter Tim Alberta of The Atlantic: “The more time I spent with (Phillips), the less energized Phillips seemed by the idea of dethroning Biden…He repeatedly drifted back to the notion that he might unwittingly assist Trump’s victory next fall.”
Duh. Ya think?
I bet you never heard of this guy until the other day, or right now. His decision to freelance in the Democratic race is enough to make me pine for the days of strong two-party discipline, back when a backbencher tempted to step out of line and challenge a president would shrink from the prospect, knowing that all future bills he’d seek to sponsor would land in the crapper.
Phillips, who routinely lauds Biden’s presidential achievements, basically has one issue: Biden is Too Old, the same issue that the MAGA movement is counting on to tee up Trump’s authoritarian restoration. Whereas my answer, for all bedwetting Democrats is simple: Get a grip. Biden is running again, he’s all that stands between us and the destruction of democracy, so it’s all hands on board. As the old saying goes, “Ya dance with the girl that brung ya.” Or as Andre Dickens, the mayor of Atlanta, said the other day, “The stakes are too high – especially for Black voters – to be focused on a sideshow vanity project.”
The choice in 2024 is binary, and it just so happens that Trump, who’s only three years younger, is not only unfit to ride Biden’s bicycle, he’s also cognitively addled – having publicly declared not long ago that he defeated Barack Obama in 2016 (wrong); that the leader of Hungary is the leader of Turkey (wrong); that Biden is taking us into World War II (which ended 78 years ago); that he was happy to be in South Dakota (he was in Iowa); that Hezbollah is “smart”; and that (what a discovery!) the acronym U.S. has the same letters as the word us. But let Trump explain it: “You know how you spell us, right? You spell us u-s. I just picked that up. Has anyone ever thought of that before? I just picked that up.”
Yes, grandpa, we’ve thought of that one before.
Anyway, Phillips wants to gin up the age factor against Biden, thus abetting the MAGAts he also claims to detest. Conservative media, which basically exists to amplify Trump’s bullhorn, will be thrilled to welcome a Democrat to their ranks, because he’s vowing to share their Too Old message with the young voters and swing independents that Biden badly needs. And losing a few primary contests probably won’t matter to Phillips, because, as a rich dude who has made millions from selling gelatos, he can self-finance his race to his heart’s content.
But he has apparently reached the age of 54 without once being schooled about contemporary political history – notably, the fact that challenging an incumbent president from within the president’s party weakens the incumbent, sows serious discord within the party, and tees up the incumbent for a November defeat. When Ted Kennedy challenged President Jimmy Carter from the left during the 1980 primary season, the beneficiary was the election winner, Republican Ronald Reagan. When Pat Buchanan challenged President George H. W. Bush from the right during the 1992 primary season, the beneficiary was the election winner, Democrat Bill Clinton.
Phillips’ stated goal is to force Biden to step down forthwith and open the primary season to “a new generation of leaders.” He seems not to understand the chaos that would ensue. (Nor, apparently, does his swami-for-hire, Steve Schmidt, the pundit/strategist whose anti-Trump online eloquence now has the value of a soiled tissue.) If Biden were to suddenly announce his retirement, Phillips would of course be trampled in the stampede of candidates who’d spill so much blood that the Red Cross would have to pitch a tent. The media narrative would be “Dems in Disarray” as Kamala Harris tries to fight off the various governors (starting with Gavin Newsom) who’d seek to ascend at her expense. And imagine how Black women would feel – Black women being the most loyal cohort in the Democratic coalition – if she were denied the nomination.
Democrats are indeed worried about Biden’s age – but they’re arguably more worried about the resultant bloodletting if he bowed out.
The current polls that show Biden in trouble are worthless. A year before Reagan’s re-election, he was weak in the polls; a year before Clinton’s re-election, he was weak in the polls; a year before Obama’s re-election, he was weak in the polls. They didn’t have polls back in 1863, but the historians have all written that Abraham Lincoln was in deep political trouble prior to his re-election a year later. And none of those guys ran against a 91-count criminal defendant who has the real prospect of facing the voters as a convicted felon.
In other words, Phillips should save his gelato money and chill out. Better that than being a useful idiot for the MAGA movement.