“Let Biden Prove Himself” Is a Fig Leaf for Inaction
He had a chance to prove himself and squandered it
The stereotype about liberal parents is that we’re overly permissive suckers who get railroaded by our kids. “Okay, time to clean up!” we’ll say, immediately before our toddler dumps a bowl of Cincinnati-style chili onto the carpet. Our rejoinder will be weak: “Spilling the chili made Daddy sad,” we’ll say, “but in five minutes it will be time to clean up!” I won’t go through the whole back-and-forth between this hypothetical toddler and his imaginary parent (me), but it involves pleading, bribery, a promised trip to SweetFrog, a puppet show in which Ollie the Owl gets a Skittle for every Lego he puts away, and, ultimately, the dad mumbling “fuck it” and cleaning up the mess.
I think of this dynamic when Democrats talk of a wait-and-see strategy with Biden. “Let’s see the campaign stops,” Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said earlier this week. “Let’s see all of this because all of it is going to be necessary.” Senator Patty Murray also wants Biden to prove his mettle: “I believe President Biden must do more to demonstrate he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump,” she said. Many Democratic lawmakers aren’t mad, they’re just disappointed, and they simply want to see Biden make better choices and use his words.
Meanwhile, Biden’s strategy — which was recently plastered on the front page of the New York Times — is to run out the clock. The debate was more than two weeks ago. The calls for Biden to engage with the press, speak at length off-prompter, and prove that he’s up for this campaign began immediately after the debate. Biden hasn’t proved that he’s up to the challenge in front of him, presumably because it’s impossible to prove something that’s false. In my mind, the “last chance to prove yourself” period has already lapsed, and any Democrat still calling for one last chance is just marinating in their own impotence.