Four More Years?

No matter how fast the editing and how urgent the pumping music, the President Joe Biden reelection video felt canned and lifeless, like American democracy these days. The average age of death in the U.S. is slightly over 77-years-old. Biden is 80, already the oldest man to ever occupy the White House. He will be 86 if he finishes his second term. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman pointed out, this understandably puts even more pressure on the woman he highlighted in his video but has seemed to shrink as his vice president. Writes Friedman: "It's no secret that Vice President Kamala Harris has not elevated her stature in the last two-plus years. I don't know what the problem is -- whether she was dealt an impossible set of issues to deal with, or is in over her head, or is contending with a mix of sexism and racism as the first woman of color to serve as vice president."

I would vote for all of the above factors and add one, as someone who has observed Kamala Harris throughout her political career -- which started here in San Francisco -- and once shared a speaking event with her at a house party for Barack Obama's first presidential run. With Harris, I'm afraid there is no there there, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein. She lacks core values and passion and the ability to inspire voters. Joe Biden's approval rating languishes around 42 percent. There's a reason that Harris's rating is even lower. She built her career on being a tough, law and order Democrat as SF district attorney, then California attorney general. Then George Floyd's killing changed all that -- for awhile. Now I guess she's somewhere in the mushy middle on police and justice reform.

So, let's just say that Kamala Harris has done nothing to elevate or energize Joe Biden's creaky reelection bid.

The liberal media have enthused that Biden is not facing any serious opposition from within his own party. Is that really a good thing? The primary season is supposed to be full of contention. That's when the serious issues generally get debated. That's when candidates are supposed to wake up and engage voters. Instead, the left wing of the Democratic Party has fallen silently in line behind Old Joe.

"We need stability -- Biden provides that," says progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, who knocked off an older, more establishment Democrat to win his Congressional seat. And yet, like most of his progressive colleagues in Congress, Bowman also quietly gripes, "I continue to be frustrated when I see (Biden) moving to the center, because I don't see a real need to do that. It's almost like a pandering to a Republican talking point."

Biden recently dismayed many young climate activists who voted for him in 2020 by approving the big Willow oil drilling project on federal land in Alaska.

Over in the Republican Party, meanwhile, Trump is going noisily at his main challenger, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The voters are riled up, the billionaire GOP donors are confused. The Democratic establishment and media are delighted by all of this rancor. But that's the way primary seasons are SUPPOSED to be in a healthy democracy. Is it really good that the Democratic constituency is lulled to sleep behind Biden? That we not debate our financing of the Ukraine war? Or the taxpayers' bailout of banks and wealthy investors? That the Biden administration not feel compelled to develop a more forceful national plan to counter the abortion and reproductive rights extremists?

That's why I'm supporting the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Compare his nearly two-hour speech to the manufactured reelection announcement of Joe Biden. RFK Jr. persuasively addresses all of the nation's central, most controversial issues. Biden just tries to arouse us with scripted rhetoric and slogans. Bobby delivers a long, detailed, compelling speech. Biden gave us a slick and empty commercial.

Will I vote for Joe Biden in November 2024 if he's the Democratic nominee -- and he lives that long? Of course!!! What choice will I and my fellow Americans have when the Republicans run Trump or the equally noxious DeSantis?

But I long for a rambunctious presidential primary season in BOTH parties. Allowing "Sleepy Joe" to sleepwalk for the next year or so is not good for the Democratic Party or the country.