After the nightmare of last night’s debate, late-night FaceTime calls and group chats with friends and family, reading a slew of op-eds calling for Biden to drop out, in one group chat with several old friends, I believe we may have found a solution, if not only on paper.
We have to start with the premise that any way you slice it, after last night, the country has leap-frogged toward four years (at least) of rule by an emboldened, ever more authoritarian-curious, sociopathic liar, rapist, convicted criminal…. And with many of the adults having left the room, I hazard to try to envision what unfettered MAGA-dom will look like, and if we would ever recover from it.
These are dire times.
The thread started with the agreement of the two other texters and myself that the best option might well be for Biden to step aside, given the looming possibility of a Tolkeinesque, Mordorish shadow sweeping our land of plenty. But who could step in?
It would need to be someone who already has a media presence, is a recognizable face, whose campaign has, in a sense, already begun. There is no time to pull some policy wonk from out of the back rooms of Democrat-land. Nor would some dynamic Dem governor who has remained largely active only in state arenas, no matter how good they would hypothetically be had they been a media presence in a more traditional, primary-based nomination, be a good choice.
Many names were floated, some half jokingly. At one point, I noted that I was “feeling the Bern,” and we all agreed that even at 82, and an avowed socialist, Bernie might stand a better chance than Biden after last night’s debacle.
The chat began with the suggestion that the Dems might consider nominating an old, former MAGA-madness Republican, that they needed to do something big and radical, demonstrating a willingness even to back a more traditional Republican who is, at least, not a MAGAmaniac. Mitt Romney’s name was floated as well as the deceased Joe Lieberman (who might do as well posthumously as Biden after the debate).
Of course, Gavin Newsome was discussed. He’s been running a kind of shadow campaign all year, debating Ron DeSantis, visiting world leaders, appearing on any and all networks who will have him. But is he too Cali-lefty to capture the ever-growing (exponentially so after last night) pool of crucial Independents who can’t stand either candidate?
After bemoaning that neither Liz Cheney nor Adam Kinzinger, several rare, old-school Republicans still with moral centers and functioning brains weren’t more centrist in their thinking, I suggested a Newsome/Cheney ticket. The initiator of the chat who had first suggested nominating a Republican wrote, “that’s what I’m talking about….glad we were able to save democracy on this thread.”
While I know it is likely pie in the sky silliness to think that the Democrats would reach this far across the aisle, I started thinking about how such a radical gesture might be about the only thing that would definitively prevent a new world order of “doublethink,” a descent into Oceania-like dystopia (see my last post), Mordorian darkness.
Think about it: two candidates with distinctly opposing views agreeing to run together—a ticket that truly represents genuine, democratic ideals, where differences are put aside and laws and policy are achieved only when considering the common ground and what is for the good of all as the starting point.
Cheney would leap at the chance to take the public stage and lash out at her nemesis. Newsome seems already to have been auditioning for the part. It would call on Newsome to move right, Cheney to move left. It would put two highly intelligent, articulate and morally decent human beings together, fervently agreeing on perhaps the single biggest issue facing our democracy—to quash Trump, to work to return the country to bipartisan functionality and start to awake from the stalemate and divisiveness that marks most of the bad dream we call American politics.
Earlier in the chat I had suggested Michelle run with Barrack as her VP, when I was reminded that the constitution allows a former president to be VP, but while this would certainly be a kind of utopian dream ticket for me, I think Newsome/Cheney may well fare better at defeating the forces gathering just on the other side of the black gate.
*Thanks to my friends John and Bryan for their help in rescuing democracy.
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