When the Democrats change their presidential candidate, the deciding factor is not only the choice of the candidate itself, but also how the choice is made, writes Washington correspondent Iida Tikka.
Iida TikkaYhdysvaltain correspondent
WASHINGTON. The US presidential election is less than four months away, and the Democratic Party does not have a presidential candidate.
Why? The simple answer is, of course, because the president Joe Biden was too old to be president. After the failed election debate, it was no longer possible to hide it, and when political donors and party leaders turned against Biden, the road rose.
Biden announced on Sunday that he would suspend his election campaign.
A little more in-depth answer is this: fear. It has dominated the Democrats’ decision-making for years.
The party got a big scare in 2016, when Donald Trump surprisingly won the clear pre-favourite, the Democrats Hillary Clinton. Before the 2020 presidential election, the theme of the party’s primaries was the so-called eligibility – that is, the fact that the Democratic candidate should definitely be able to cover Trump.
Eligible practically meant a candidate who would not anger anyone or represent any ideology or identity that had not been tested in elections before.
That’s why female candidates Elizabeth Warren and Terrible Harris quickly fell to the rear, and the left wing Bernie Sanders was allowed to give way; as a result, Biden was chosen as the candidate, who would certainly not anger anyone.
The same idea of eligibility led to the fact that the Democratic elite did not challenge Biden in good time during the election season. After all, Biden had already defeated Trump – in other words, he proved his eligibility for election. The party elite must have known that Biden is not in good physical condition, but fear silenced criticism.
The end result is the Democrats are now in a situation where the party must make bold and bold choices. The party must not only choose a new candidate in a few months, but also have time to make this known all over the country.
For the past few weeks, as speculation about the future of Biden’s campaign has intensified, so has speculation about his successor. Democrats have been studying the decimals of opinion polls and trying to decide in advance who could overshadow Republican Donald Trump.
The Republican Party appears strong and united, and after the assassination attempt, Trump appears invincible.
Once again, a fear that doesn’t even seem very rational has come through in the speeches of Democrat commentators. A large number of Americans have expressed that they are extremely disappointed that the alternative was once again to be Biden and Trump. So just a new candidate – almost anyone – can turn to the party’s advantage.
Still, the Democrats may not even dare to give their voters real options.
Biden announced on Sunday that he would support his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the party’s nominee. Harris would be a logical choice, especially since then the campaign funding already collected by Biden’s team could go directly to Harris.
Democrats also believe that if Harris can be quickly nominated, the party will avoid what looks like a chaotic split at the Chicago caucus in late August. The campaign can be launched quickly, and Harris can go on a campaign tour.
There would be only one problem with the decision: once again, it would be done out of fear. If the party elite decides to bypass even the rank-and-file members of the party and the delegates participating in the party meeting, it paints a picture of a top-down party.
Even a chaotic caucus might be a better option. In 2016, the democratic elite chose the candidate preferred by the people Bernie Sanders in exchange for Hillary Clintonwho lost.
The grassroots knows better than the elite who the people really want to vote for.