two new york times articles over the weekend caught my eye, nervous republicans see trump sinking, and taking senate with him, and a candidate in isolation: inside joe biden’s cloistered campaign, but it took me a minute to realize how closely linked they are. like many fervent sanders supporter who are reluctantly coming to grips with this putative, pretended, presumptive democratic nominee for president, i have been wondering where the heck the former vice president has been during the shutdown. i have been assuming that if we want to beat trump, we need him to speak up.
but then in reading these 2 articles back to back, it hit me. no we don’t need biden to speak up. donald trump is beating himself every single day in public and the republicans know it. the nervous republicans article details how they are now worried that they will not only lose the white house, they will lose control of the senate. their democratic opponents trounced them in fundraising in the first quarter, an indication of their weakness.
senate republicans running for re-election this year were counting on a strong economy and strong coattails of a president popular with his base. as this article shows us, both of those legs of the stool have been knocked out from under them in recent weeks. as this article also details, the third leg of the stool was mocking/campaigning against joe biden. with biden out of the public few for weeks and trump saying and doing (or not doing) things that are so stupid and dangerous even his base is noticing, that means the gop has nothing on which to base its campaign for re-election.
the vote blue no matter who crowd has been saying forever that they would vote for a ham sandwich against this president. and i completely understand that sentiment although as someone who eats vegan and grain free, i was hoping for healthier fare. well, congratulations are in order, it appears that the democratic party has successfully nominated a ham sandwich in the form of joe biden. fortunately that sandwich is tucked safely in the fridge for the duration of the shutdown.
[standard disclaimer on general election: when i stop throwing up in my mouth about joe biden being the nominee i will eventually detail why it actually should very much matter to anyone to elect this ham sandwich. living in california–which despite preferring bernie sanders as the nominee will happily hand its electoral votes to any democrat–i may choose to vote for a third party candidate in the fall who more closely aligned with my values. but i urge anyone who lives in any state that is even vaguely in play (maybe michigan, wisconsin, arizona, new mexico, colorado, virginia, north carolina, texas or florida) to vote for the ham sandwich. if you need to vote for a third party candidate, move somewhere else.]
spot on, Sara. and of all people, you deserve the right to vote for a 3rd party candidate in California. I’m pretty sure I don’t qualify … unless I get my activist butt in gear and do something meaningful to ensure political change. as always, Sara, thank you for your inspiration, and getting (at least) my mind out of my bubble.