Robert Reich: The Pile-On – OpEd

Joe Biden is being treated far worse than Donald Trump by the two institutions critical for deciding the outcome of the 2024 election: the political parties and the media.

The RepublicanParty has closed ranks around Trump — despite the fact he’s a convicted felon, twice-impeached con man, sexual abuser, fraudulent businessman, self-described aspiring dictator for a day, pathological liar, and ringleader of an attempted coup against the United States.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is in a panic about Biden. Many party insiders are trying to force Biden out now, at the last minute, because he had a bad debate performance.

Democratic leaders in Congress aretellingtheir members they should “feel free to take whatever position about Biden’s candidacy is best for their district,” according to people involved in the conversations. For some, this means blasting Biden’s debate performance and calling on him to withdraw or suggesting he seriously consider it.

The media is just as bad. It has normalized Trump’s nonstop lies during the debate as “old news.” Rather than treat those lies as further evidence of his proven dishonesty and criminality — and emphasize that another term with him at the helm will ruin the country — the media has focused on Biden’s halting speech and vacant gaze as evidence he’s incapable of running the country.

Almost every member of the chattering class says Biden must go. None says Trump must go.

They say Biden has another — perhaps “last” — chance this evening when he’s interviewed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

But even if Biden is coherent tonight, I doubt it will stop the uproar because the uproar feeds on itself: Some of it may be responsible for Biden’s waning polls. If Biden decides to stay in the race, the tumult will hurt his chances even more.

All of this demonstrates the discipline of authoritarianism and the messiness of democracy. But that’s the nature of these two systems. Authoritarian fascism, such as Trump and his coterie are now peddling, is even more disciplined.

All over the world (except in the UK), voters are choosing discipline over messiness, authoritarianism over democracy.

To restate the obvious, we are living in dangerous times.

• This article was published at Robert Reich's Substack